On September 19, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order (EO) establishing the “Gold Card” program, designed to facilitate and expedite the immigrant visa (“green card”) process for individuals who make a $1 million donation (or $2 million if made by a corporation on behalf of the individual) to the United States. Unlike the traditional EB-5 immigrant investor program, which requires active investment in U.S. job-creating enterprises, the Gold Card is structured around unrestricted “gifts” to the U.S. Department of Commerce. The “gift” will serve as evidence of eligibility under existing employment-based immigrant visa categories. The Executive Order instructs the Department of Commerce, Department of State (DOS) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to take necessary steps, within 90 days, to implement the Gold Card program. Additional information and guidance are posted to this website. 

Implementation and Scope

The EO instructs the DOS and DHS, consistent with applicable law, to “treat [the $1 million or $2 million dollar] gift . . . as evidence of eligibility under” the employment-based immigrant visa categories for Extraordinary Ability, (EB-1A) in sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, and Exceptional Ability, (EB-2) in sciences, arts or business, based on “exceptional business ability and national benefit” and for exceptional ability based on a national interest waiver. Furthermore, the EO directs the agencies to:

• Establish a process to expedite the adjudication of Gold Card petitions, adjustment of status applications and immigrant visa issuance;
• Specify the date when applicants (or corporate sponsors) may begin to submit their gifts;
• Establish a process to permit a Gold Card corporate sponsor to transfer its gift from one sponsored individual (who presumably abandons their application or status) to another individual;
• Establish administrative and transfer fees to implement the above; and
• “Consider expanding the Gold Card program to visa applicants under” the EB-5 investor visa program.

Legal and Practical Considerations

The Immigration and National Act (INA) does not explicitly authorize or establish immigrant visa eligibility based solely on monetary gifts. Furthermore, the EO appears to instruct the agencies to exercise their discretion in treating the $1 million (or $2 million) dollar gift as evidence of eligibility of extraordinary or exceptional ability. But it’s not clear if this means the gift would be sufficient, in and of itself, to establish eligibility for EB-1A or EB-2 immigrant visa categories or the gift would be taken into consideration in conjunction with the other evidentiary criteria. The EB-1A and EB-2 categories currently require applicants to establish eligibility through multiple criteria including evidence of one-time achievement (major internationally-recognized award) or other criteria such as lesser nationally or internationally recognized prizes or awards, membership in professional associations requiring outstanding achievement, demonstration of commanding a high salary or other significant remuneration, published material about the applicant in professional, trade publications or major media, applicant’s authorship of scholarly articles in professional or major trade publications, and/or evidence of original scientific, scholarly, artistic, athletic, or business-related contributions of major significance. 

While the EB-1A and EB-2 categories permit applicants to establish eligibility in the fields of science, arts, education, athletics or business, the EO only refers to “business.” It’s not clear if applicants in the other fields of endeavor are also eligible for the Gold Card. It’s also not clear if the traditional routes to EB-1A (extraordinary ability) and EB-2 (exceptional ability) will remain viable or if existing and future traditional applicants in these categories will be processed behind Gold Card applicants. 

By way of comparison, the EB-5 program requires a minimum investment ($800,000 or 1,050,000), at-risk capital, and job creation, while the Gold Card requires an unrestricted gift with no job creation or investment obligations. Given the Gold Card’s lack of directly related authorizing legislation and the potential for ill effects on other green card categories, the anticipated guidance from DOS and DHS will need to fill in legal and factual gaps in order to minimize the impact of potential lawsuits by interested parties.