Their complete history of entries, exits and admission periods, any record of a refused entry, withdrawn application or overstay, and details of anything that touches admissibility, assessed before the fee is paid.
Assess admissibility before the cheque, not after
The processing fee described on the official page is not returned, and vetting is a background review conducted against a history the applicants may not remember accurately. Seasonal visitors accumulate decades of crossings, and the details that matter are the ones people forget: a trip where entry was refused or an application withdrawn at the border, a stay that ran past the period granted, a caution or charge from years ago whether or not it led to a conviction, a prior application in any category, and any use of a different name or spelling on older documents. Electronic arrival and departure records are available from the border agency and are worth pulling for both spouses rather than reconstructing from memory. Where anything in that history is uncertain, the assessment belongs to counsel before payment, since admissibility is a statutory question that no programme fee sets aside.
Hypothetical example: a retired insurance broker has used two married names and had a decades-old border refusal. A first review produces a name-history table, passports, civil certificates, arrival records and a written account of the prior event. The original documents settle identity and history more reliably than memory. If an old refusal or charge cannot be explained from the record, the applicant should obtain advice before paying a nonrefundable fee. A Gold Card application is not a conventional visa purchase; the applicant must meet the applicable immigration and vetting requirements, and an unaddressed history item can delay or defeat the case.