Donald Trump announces $5 million ‘Gold Card’ visa for foreign investors: How it differs from EB-5

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a new investor visa program that would grant permanent residency — and a path to citizenship — to foreign nationals willing to pay $5 million. The programme which Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick described as the "Trump Gold Card" would replace the EB-5 visa program, which has been in place since 1990.

“They’ll be wealthy and they’ll be successful, and they’ll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “We think it’s going to be extremely successful.”

Lutnick said the Gold Card would become available in two weeks, claiming it would eliminate fraud and “nonsense” associated with the EB-5 program. Under current EB-5 rules, foreign investors can qualify for a green card by investing at least $1 million in a US business that creates at least 10 jobs.

Understanding the EB-5 Visa Program

The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program is administered by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and was created by Congress in 1990 to stimulate the US economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors. Investors can qualify by investing in a new commercial enterprise that was established after November 29, 1990, or in an older business that undergoes restructuring or expansion resulting in a 40% increase in net worth or employees. The investment must create at least 10 full-time jobs for qualifying employees.

The program has two investment pathways: direct investment, where investors create jobs within their own businesses, and regional centre investment, where indirect job creation can also count. Up to 90% of jobs for regional centre investors may be met through indirect employment, such as supply chain or economic impacts.

The program was first enacted as a pilot in 1992 and has been regularly reauthorised. On March 15, 2022, President Joe Biden signed the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022, introducing new requirements and extending the Regional Center Program through September 30, 2027.

Trump’s Gold Card proposal

Trump’s plan, however, does not specify job creation requirements. He suggested the federal government could issue as many as 10 million Gold Cards to help reduce the national deficit. “It could be great, maybe it will be fantastic,” he said.

“It’s somewhat like a green card, but at a higher level of sophistication, it’s a road to citizenship for people, and essentially people of wealth or people of great talent, where people of wealth pay for those people of talent to get in, meaning companies will pay for people to get in and to have long, long term status in the country,” he said.

The EB-5 visa program has long been a subject of scrutiny, with concerns over fraud and whether applicants’ investment funds are legally sourced. According to a 2021 report by the Congressional Research Service, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that some intermediaries have used aggressive tactics to recruit investors abroad and some misrepresent the Regional Center Program.

"[B]ecause of these tactics, some investors mistakenly believe that regional centers are government-run even though most are administered by limited liability companies," the report noted.

The EB-5 visa is also susceptible to the appearance of favouritism and special access, according to the report.

The Department of Homeland Security reported that approximately 8,000 EB-5 visas were granted in the 12 months ending September 2022.

Investor visa programs are common worldwide. More than 100 countries, including the United Kingdom, Spain, Greece, Malta, Australia, Canada and Italy, offer similar “golden visas” to attract foreign capital, according to Henley & Partners, a global advisory firm.

Critics argue that Trump’s proposal favours the ultra-wealthy while skilled workers remain stuck in backlogged visa programs.

Ajay Bhutoria, a Silicon Valley-based Democratic immigration advocate, called the plan a “step backward.”

“This isn’t reform; it’s a pay-to-play scheme that sidelines the very people who have been the backbone of our workforce,” Bhutoria posted on X.

He said that rolling out a red carpet for the ultra-wealthy while skilled engineers, doctors, and tech experts wait decades for green cards is “elitism dressed up as policy.”

While Trump said the program does not require congressional approval, US immigration law places limits on qualifications for permanent residency and citizenship, making the legal viability of the plan uncertain.