always_delayed -- Here's from the horse's mouth (HHonors Terms and Conditions):

"For new Members, credit will be accepted for any qualifying HHonors stay occurring within 30 days prior to enrollment in the Program. Written requests must also include the Member's name, HHonors account number, address and daytime telephone number."

If you sign up your associate for the EWRDC promotion, he/she will become Gold VIP instantly and will earn 50,000 bonus HHonors points after 4 stays within 3 months.

As you will provide the referral, make sure that his account is linked to yours, and you will receive 1,000 bonus points when he stays at HHonors properties (there are conflicting reports on what the yearly limit is - my older brochure says up to 5,000 bonus points per individual and 25,000 bonus points total per year, and someone else reported that there is just 25,000 points limit per year and all those bonuses may come from a single individual).