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Trump’s Gold Card May Need to Lift Immigrant Visa Quotas to Succeed

Sep 25, 2025 12:34:00 -0400 by Abby Schultz | #Regulation

A poster of the “Trump Gold Card” is seen as President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office at the White House on Sept. 19. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

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President Donald Trump’s plan to create a fast-track immigrant visa in return for a $1 million donation will attract affluent foreigners who want a quick, minimal-hassle path to living in the U.S.

But the government may need to open the doors to more visa applicants to make the new Gold Card lucrative for the government.

That’s because the Gold Card is being added to the existing framework of employment-based visa categories, specifically employment-based first preference and second preference visas (EB-1 and EB-2) awarded to individuals with exceptional or desirable skills.

The executive order establishing the Gold Card, also instructs the secretaries of commerce, state, and homeland security to consider expanding the program to EB-5, a 35-year-old employment-based option that provides a path to a green card with an investment of either $800,000 or $1.05 million in an economic development project designed to create jobs.

The government gives out fewer than 200,000 employment-based visas each year (160,790 in 2024), allocating no more than 7% to applicants from a single country. There are multiyear backlogs for applicants from India and China.

The Gold Card could become popular if the government expands the program to EB-5 and “visa set-asides or some other solution is put into place so that clients from countries where there has historically been high demand for green-card status (i.e., India and China) can apply,” says George Ganey, an immigration lawyer.

That’s because the new visa offers “simplicity relative to other green-card categories,” Ganey says—a $1 million donation with no job-creation requirements. It’s also attractive for its “potential certainty and speed in processing, and because it communicates status or prestige,” he says.

Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick initially proposed a $5 million Gold Card in late February, promising at various times that the program would be ready to go within weeks.

With a $5 million donation to the U.S. Treasury, the original plan was to create an immigrant category with a fast track to permanent residency that would exempt the applicant from paying tax on their non-U.S. income. Critics said such a plan would require Congress to change immigration law and the U.S. tax code.

That program never materialized, but this past Friday, Trump signed an executive order to create a Gold Card visa that expedites the path to permanent residency with a $1 million gift to the U.S. Department of Commerce. The order, which directs the commerce, state and homeland security departments to develop the program within 90 days, also allows a company to donate $2 million on behalf of an individual.

As proposed, the Gold Card has some drawbacks. One problem is that recipients of the new visa will have to pay taxes on their non-U.S. income. The original proposal would have exempted recipients from paying those taxes.

“Without a tax benefit, I don’t foresee a flood of money coming into the U.S.,” says Theda Fisher, a partner in the immigration practice at Withers.

Another reason is that foreigners already have a known path to permanent residency through EB-5. Instead of a donation, EB-5 applicants who successfully complete the program—proving their investment generated at least 10 jobs—are issued a green card and get their money back.

“The foreign national will have more than one choice—investment with possibility of return of capital [in an EB-5 project] or a nonrefundable donation to the U.S. government,” Fisher says.

If limits on the number of annual visas aren’t lifted, the Gold Card also faces potential litigation. Adding a new, expedited visa category to the existing programs is likely to irk applicants who believe the president overstepped his authority in creating the program and is “letting people cut the line ahead of them,” Fisher says.

“I don’t think he has the authority to create a separate category of immigrants and to stick it into a framework that has been established by Congress—that’s where he will be challenged,” she says.

This latest iteration of the Gold Card won’t replace EB-5, as Trump and Lutnick originally intended. But Trump’s executive order raises questions about the program’s future by stating that the Gold Card could be expanded to EB-5 applicants.

Currently, EB-5 is authorized by Congress through 2027. For now, it may be a more attractive option, Ganey says.

To address the tax issue—which is particularly vexing for the super wealthy—Trump also announced he would create a $5 million Platinum Card. Unlike the original Gold Card, the Platinum program won’t lead to permanent residency, but holders could be in the U.S. for up to 270 days a year without being subject to taxes on their non-U.S. income.

Details of this option have yet to be rolled out beyond a brief explanation at trumpcard.gov. That’s likely because the creation of a Platinum Card would require Congress to amend immigration law and tax law to allow for the extended tax-free stay, which could be difficult to do with slim Republican majorities in Congress.

Immigration attorney David Lesperance doesn’t expect many people will be interested. “Wealthy foreigners can already spend almost six months physically in the U.S. without becoming subject to U.S. global taxation,” he said in an email.

But Ganey says his clients would be attracted to a long-term visa that would make it easier to come and go, adding that it “would come with significant perceived benefits vis-à-vis doing business in the U.S.”

Corrections & Amplications

Theda Fisher is a partner in the immigration practice at Withers. An earlier version of this article misspelled the firm’s name as Wither.

Write to Abby Schultz at abby.schultz@barrons.com.