United States · Residency by investment
Trump Gold Card
Real but legally fragile. Created by Executive Order 14351 (19 September 2025), with applications opening at trumpcard.gov on 10 December 2025. It is NOT a new visa category created by Congress — Congress alone can do that. Instead it routes applicants into the existing statutory EB-1 and EB-2 immigrant categories on the theory that a USD 1,000,000 'gift' to the United States constitutes a substantial benefit to the US. Uptake has been negligible: per DHS figures reported in spring 2026, roughly 338 requests submitted, 165 people had paid the USD 15,000 processing fee, and the White House confirmed one card actually granted. Multiple suits are live, including an AAUP challenge arguing it crowds out merit-based EB-1/EB-2 applicants and a Democracy Defenders Fund FOIA suit over withheld records.
The immigration bar has been near-unanimous in advising wealthy clients not to pay the USD 15,000 yet: there is no congressional authorisation, litigation is unresolved, and the tax consequence is unambiguous and brutal — approval makes you a US lawful permanent resident and therefore a worldwide-income US taxpayer subject to §877A on the way out. Buying a Gold Card is buying into citizenship-based taxation, not around it.
Qualifying routes
Plus a non-refundable USD 15,000 DHS processing fee paid before vetting. The USD 1M 'gift' is requested only after successful vetting.
Paid by a corporate sponsor per employee, plus USD 15,000 per employee. Aimed at replacing H-1B dependence for senior hires.
The facts
- Minimum investment
- $1M
- Total landed cost
- USD 1,015,000 individual / USD 2,015,000 per sponsored employee, before counsel; the USD 15,000 fee is non-refundable whether or not you are ever vetted or approved
- Timeline
- 1–12 months — The government advertises 'weeks'; the single confirmed grant in the first six months makes any published timeline unverifiable
- Physical presence
- Green card maintenance rules apply — the Gold Card confers ordinary lawful permanent resident status via EB-1/EB-2, with all the residence and tax consequences that entails
- Family
- spouseunmarried children under 21 — treated as derivatives of the underlying EB-1/EB-2 petition
- Permanent residency
- Immediate on approval — this is a green card, not a temporary status
- Citizenship
- 5 years of permanent residence
- Language test
- English and civics test on naturalisation
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- USD 15,000 non-refundable DHS processing feeDHS security vettingUSD 1,000,000 (individual) or USD 2,000,000 (corporate, per employee) gift to the United States after vettingunderlying EB-1 or EB-2 eligibility and visa availability
- Executive action, not statute. An adverse appellate ruling, or the next administration, can end this without legislation — and there is no indication the USD 1M gift would be refunded.
- It draws on the statutory EB-1/EB-2 annual caps, which are themselves subject to per-country limits. An Indian- or Chinese-born Gold Card holder may find the visa number is not there regardless of the payment.
- The USD 15,000 processing fee is non-refundable and precedes any adjudication.
- The payment is structured as a 'gift' to the United States, not an investment: no return, no asset, no recourse.
- It confers permanent residence, hence worldwide US taxation, FBAR/FATCA reporting, and the 8-of-15-year long-term-resident exit tax trap.
- Reported uptake of roughly one approval in six months tells you what the market's own advisers concluded.