The transfer alone gives no work permission. A spouse who already has an independent authorization must follow its terms; otherwise plan around the actual grant of a status that permits work. Lawful permanent residence generally authorizes employment, while a pending application or payment does not. The spouse’s program charges remain US$15,000 plus a US$1,000,000 gift.
Your spouse's eligibility is assessed on your spouse
Review marriage documentation, individual admissibility and applicable visa availability, including any relevant chargeability rules. Initial family inclusion is officially recommended for program benefits. A later step requires its own current procedural and eligibility review; do not promise its timing or assume the spouse must already hold US status if applying from abroad.
Keep the payment question and the permission question in separate columns, because they run on different tracks and only one of them is purchased. Money transferred on a spouse's behalf advances that spouse's application; it authorizes nothing by itself, and no arrival date should be planned around it. Set initial inclusion against adding that person later as well.
Including the family at the outset is officially recommended for program benefits, whereas a later step is examined under whatever procedure and eligibility rules apply at that time, which nobody can state today. Where the spouse already holds an independent authorization, its own terms continue to govern in the meantime and should be read rather than assumed to bridge the gap.