What the Trump Gold Card Program Is
The Trump Gold Card program is an executive branch initiative that offers a fast track to permanent residence for applicants who make a very large, nonrefundable payment to the United States and clear enhanced security screening. The structure is simple on its face. A nonrefundable government processing fee, followed by detailed vetting, followed by a required multimillion dollar payment described as an “unrestricted gift” to the U.S. government.
The program is marketed in three main pieces. An individual Gold Card, under which an applicant pays a fixed processing fee and a one million dollar gift. A Corporate Gold Card, under which companies pay a higher, two million dollar gift per employee and control the “card” as a transferable corporate asset. And a proposed Platinum tier, framed as a tax and mobility product for high net worth individuals who spend extended periods in the United States. The Platinum concept is not fully implemented and depends on further authority and guidance.
Legally, the Gold Card does not create a new immigrant visa category. It is built on top of existing employment based categories. Gold Card cases must be classified under EB-1 or EB-2, usually EB-1A (extraordinary ability) or EB-2 with a national interest waiver (NIW). The program changes the way some EB-1 and EB-2 cases move through the system. It does not rewrite the statute that governs those categories.
Legal Architecture. Executive Order, EB-1, EB-2, NIW, and Form I-140G
The legal basis for the program is an executive order (Executive Order 14351), often referred to as “The Gold Card,” which directs the Departments of Commerce, Homeland Security, State, and Treasury to create a route to permanent residence funded by a large monetary gift. The order does not amend the Immigration and Nationality Act. Instead, it instructs agencies to treat the required payment as evidence within existing employment based categories.
The order specifically frames the one to two million dollar gift as evidence of three things under current law.
- Evidence of eligibility under 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(1)(A), the EB-1 extraordinary ability provision.
- Evidence of exceptional business ability and national benefit under 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(2)(A), the EB-2 exceptional ability provision.
- Evidence of eligibility for a national interest waiver under 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(2)(B), the NIW provision.
In other words, the gift is designated as important evidence for the “substantial benefit” or “national interest” elements already present in EB-1 and EB-2. The order does not say that the payment alone satisfies all EB-1A, EB-2, or NIW criteria. It does not remove the need to show extraordinary ability, exceptional ability, or that the applicant is well positioned to advance a qualifying endeavor.
USCIS has implemented the program through a new petition, Form I-140G. The I-140G instructions make two points clear. First, I-140G is only for Gold Card cases under the executive order. Second, it can only be used for two classifications. EB-1 extraordinary ability under section 203(b)(1)(A), and EB-2 exceptional ability with a national interest waiver under section 203(b)(2)(B). The instructions also require proof of sufficient, lawfully obtained funds to make the required gift.
The USCIS Policy Manual still governs the analysis. The burden of proof remains preponderance of the evidence. Adjudicators must still apply the existing EB-1A and NIW frameworks, including the final merits determination, and must still exercise discretion in deciding whether the total record warrants approval. The Gold Card rules tell them to treat the payment as highly probative evidence on benefit to the United States. They do not replace the rest of the case.
Core Features and Eligibility
The individual Gold Card is presented as a direct route to a green card. In practice, it has several distinct elements that have to be satisfied in sequence.
- Payments and fees. A nonrefundable government processing fee per person, followed by a one million dollar gift per principal applicant. In many descriptions, each derivative family member has its own fee and gift amount unless the case is structured under a corporate Gold Card.
- Classification inside the existing system. A successful case must be approved in EB-1 or EB-2. The program uses the existing numerical limits for those categories. It does not create a separate allocation of visas.
- Baseline immigration requirements. Applicants must be admissible to the United States and must qualify under an EB-1 or EB-2 framework. There must be a visa number available for their category and country of chargeability under the Visa Bulletin when the case reaches final adjudication.
- Tax and status consequences. Gold Card recipients treated as permanent residents are subject to the normal regime for green card holders. They are U.S. tax residents in most cases and must report worldwide income. They may also trigger exit tax issues if they later give up permanent residence.
The Gold Card is distinct from EB-5. EB-5 is tied to investment in a commercial enterprise and strict job creation or preservation requirements. The Gold Card is framed as an unrestricted gift to the government with no direct job creation requirement. It is not an investment visa in the traditional sense. It is a payment based fast lane layered onto EB-1 and EB-2.
Step by Step Process for Individual Gold Card Applicants
Operationally, an individual Gold Card case moves through several stages. Each stage introduces separate immigration, financial, and timing risks.
- Strategic pre screening. Before touching the TrumpCard portal, the applicant should be screened for three things. Whether the record can support EB-1A or EB-2 NIW classification. Whether the source of funds for the gift is clear, lawful, and well documented. And whether current visa number backlogs make EB-1 or EB-2 a rational choice for that nationality.
- Registration at TrumpCard.gov. The applicant enters biographic, security, and financial information through the online portal. That data is used across agencies for background and risk checks.
- Initial processing fee. The applicant pays the nonrefundable government processing fee for each person included. This payment does not guarantee progress. It opens the door to more extensive vetting.
- Inter agency vetting. Commerce, DHS, State, and Treasury conduct enhanced background checks, including financial crime and sanctions screening. The criteria are not fully transparent, and this step can block a case before USCIS ever reviews an immigrant petition.
- USCIS invitation and Form I-140G. If the applicant passes vetting, USCIS issues an invitation to file Form I-140G through a myUSCIS account. The petition must request classification in EB-1 extraordinary ability or EB-2 NIW, must include the usual supporting evidence for that classification, and must satisfy the Policy Manual standards. The Gold Card payment is treated as significant evidence on the “benefit to the United States” dimension. It does not remove the need to prove extraordinary or exceptional ability and a qualifying endeavor.
- One million dollar gift. Once USCIS confirms that the I-140G record is ready under the program rules, the applicant receives instructions to wire the one million dollar gift. The money is described as an unrestricted gift, not an escrowed amount. If the petition is later denied, the applicant has no automatic right to a refund.
- Immigrant visa or adjustment of status. If I-140G is approved and a visa number is available, the case proceeds through normal channels. Either consular immigrant visa processing abroad, or adjustment of status in the United States for those who qualify. The same forms, interviews, and admissibility standards apply as in other EB-1 and EB-2 cases, but officers may scrutinize Gold Card files more closely because of the program’s profile.
At each step, it is important to keep the structure in view. The Gold Card process sits inside the EB-1 and EB-2 frameworks. It adds layers of money and vetting. It does not suspend the statute or guarantee a particular outcome.
Corporate Gold Cards and the Platinum Concept
The Corporate Gold Card allows a company to sponsor employees through the same structure but with larger payments and a different ownership model. The employer pays the processing fees and a two million dollar gift per employee. In most descriptions, the card is treated as a corporate asset. The employer may later reassign it to another employee, subject to transfer fees and renewed vetting.
This design has clear implications. It strengthens employer control over long term immigration status, because the company, rather than the worker, holds the slot that leads to permanent residence. It also creates a potential internal market in “slots” within companies that have paid for multiple cards.
The proposed Platinum Card goes further and is framed as a tax planning tool for extended stays without U.S. tax on non U.S. income. For now, it remains a concept rather than a stable planning instrument. Without explicit statutory authority and detailed guidance from the tax side, it should not be treated as a settled route.
Impact on EB-1, EB-2, and NIW
The Gold Card affects EB-1 and EB-2 at three structural levels. Visa number usage, queue position, and evidentiary framing.
- Visa number usage. Gold Card approvals consume EB-1 and EB-2 immigrant visa numbers. There is no separate quota for Gold Card cases. For applicants from countries with existing backlogs, such as India and China, this does not relieve pressure. It may increase it if a meaningful number of Gold Card cases are approved.
- Queue position and processing focus. The program is designed as a priority lane. Agencies describe Gold Card cases as expedited. In practice, that means adjudicators and consular staff are directed toward these files first. Ordinary EB-1A and NIW cases, including those for artists and researchers, compete for whatever adjudicatory bandwidth and visa numbers remain.
- Evidentiary framing. The executive order explicitly instructs agencies to treat the gift as strong evidence of benefit to the United States and of national interest. That does not remove the existing criteria, but it does tilt the discretionary analysis inside EB-1A and NIW in favor of applicants who can pay. Over time, this can influence how officers think about “benefit” in non Gold Card cases as well.
For EB-2 NIW, the interaction is especially important. The governing test asks whether the work has substantial merit and national importance, whether the applicant is well positioned to advance the work, and whether, on balance, the United States benefits from waiving the usual job offer and labor certification. The Gold Card payment is now treated as strong evidence on the national benefit dimension. NIW applicants who do not use the Gold Card still have to meet the same test with traditional evidence and now share the category with a separate stream of wealth based cases.
Artists, Creatives, and Talent Based Categories
For most artists and creative professionals, the Gold Card is not a realistic option. The required payments sit well beyond the reach of even highly accomplished practitioners. For this group, the impact is indirect. It plays out through congestion, scrutiny, and resource allocation across the employment based system.
- More competition inside merit based routes. Talent based applicants in EB-1A and NIW now share those categories with Gold Card cases. The statutory language is the same, but the demand on limited visa numbers increases as wealth based cases are introduced.
- Potential shift in adjudicator behavior. High profile, politically sensitive programs tend to make officers more cautious. There is a real chance that adjudicators will become stricter about creative and interdisciplinary records, especially where recognition does not fit neatly into conventional measures like major awards or large commercial deals.
- Spillover into O-1B, P, and consular practice. Artists in O-1B or P status still rely on consular posts and USCIS offices that also have to process Gold Card immigrant visas. Time and attention devoted to these cases can slow down other nonimmigrant and immigrant processing, including stamping and consular interviews for artists.
The practical result is that artists and creatives must continue to build strong O-1B, P, EB-1A, and NIW cases grounded in real achievements and documented impact, while operating in an environment where a small number of wealth based cases move ahead of them in line. The Gold Card track exists next to, not instead of, the evidence based routes they rely on.
Risk Profile and Procedural Choke Points
The Gold Card concentrates legal, financial, and operational risk at a few decision points. Those choke points should be understood before any serious engagement with the program.
- Nonrefundable costs at the front end. Both the government processing fees and the large gift are nonrefundable as described. An adverse outcome at vetting, at the I-140G stage, or at the consular or adjustment stage can leave the applicant with no status and no right to reclaim funds.
- Executive order vulnerability. Because the program rests on an executive order, it can be modified, suspended, or rescinded by the current administration or by a future one. Litigation could also change how visa numbers may be prioritized based on payments, or could enjoin parts of the program.
- Opaque screening tools. Inter agency vetting, including financial crime screening and any use of artificial intelligence risk models, is not transparent to applicants. Negative decisions at this stage can be difficult to challenge because the underlying logic is not fully disclosed.
- Tax and long term reporting exposure. Gold Card recipients treated as permanent residents are pulled into the U.S. tax net and worldwide reporting obligations. Exiting that status later may trigger additional tax consequences. Any Platinum style exception would need clear statutory support to be reliable.
These risks sit on top of standard immigration issues such as findings of fraud or misrepresentation, inadmissibility bars, and negative discretionary factors. For clients who already have O-1B, P, or other strategies in play, the Gold Card must be weighed against more conventional, evidence based options that do not require irrevocable payments on this scale.
How Abachi Law Approaches Gold Card, EB-1, and NIW Strategy
Abachi Law is an immigration and entertainment law practice focused on artists, creatives, and talent based workers. The firm’s core work already spans O-1B and P visas, EB-1A and EB-2 NIW petitions, and both consular processing and adjustment of status for employment based and family based cases. The Gold Card program does not replace this work. It adds a wealth based overlay to the same EB-1 and EB-2 frameworks.
- Eligibility and category mapping. Before any TrumpCard registration, the firm conducts a full EB-1A or NIW style merits assessment. The first question is whether the client already qualifies, or can realistically qualify, under the evidence based pathways without relying on the Gold Card overlay.
- Process design across agencies. For clients who are serious candidates for the program, Abachi Law maps the entire process. Online registration and vetting, I-140G strategy, evidentiary development for EB-1A or NIW, consular or adjustment steps, and coordination with any existing O-1B, P, or other nonimmigrant status.
- Evidence development under existing standards. The firm builds EB-1A and NIW caliber records. Achievements, recognition, and future work plans are documented under the frameworks that the Policy Manual and case law require. The Gold Card payment is treated as one piece of evidence on benefit to the United States, not as a substitute for the rest of the record.
- Risk and downside analysis. Abachi Law analyzes visa bulletin dynamics, country specific backlogs, potential changes to the program, and tax exposure. Where appropriate, the firm may design parallel EB-1A or NIW filings outside the Gold Card channel so clients are not tied to a single, fragile structure.
Abachi Law is prepared to handle Gold Card matters for high net worth clients who wish to explore that track, while continuing to prioritize strong, evidence driven EB-1A and NIW strategies for artists and creatives who will never use it. The focus remains on matching real work and real contributions to the way agencies actually decide cases, under standards that exist in law and policy, not only in political messaging.
Looking Ahead
The Gold Card program is now framed in executive and agency materials, but its real impact will emerge through implementation. It does not create new immigrant visa numbers. It reprioritizes access to existing EB-1 and EB-2 numbers, including NIW, for those who can meet the payment and vetting requirements, and it draws agency attention into a wealth based fast lane.
For artists, creatives, and other talent based immigrants, the structural reality remains that EB-1A and NIW are the central merit based routes. The Gold Card is an additional, expensive overlay that allows a narrow population to move faster through the same narrow gates. The key distinction is between written policy and real world adjudication. As agencies apply these rules, the practical gap between the text and day to day decision making will determine how much room is left for evidence based cases that do not run on money.
