By Mona Shah, Esq.
On April 23, 2026, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appeared before a House subcommittee and shared an update on the Trump Gold Card Visa Program. One person has been approved. Just one. “They have approved, recently, one person, and there are hundreds in the queue,” Lutnick told lawmakers, adding that the vetting process was “the most serious … in the history of government.” (CBS News, April 23, 2026)
Hold that number up against the rollout. On the All-In podcast in March 2025, Lutnick said he had “sold a thousand” Gold Cards in a single day. On December 19, 2025, President Trump publicly stated that more than $1 billion worth of Gold Cards had been “sold.” By the time of Secretary Lutnick’s congressional appearance four months later, the confirmed approval count had reached one. The math, as they say, is doing some work.
What the Gold Card Actually Is
President Trump issued Executive Order 14351 on September 19, 2025, directing the Secretary of Commerce, in coordination with the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security, to create and implement a Gold Card Visa Program. Under the framework, an individual who pays $1 million to the Department of Commerce, or a corporation that pays $2 million on an individual’s behalf, is treated as eligible for EB-1A and EB-2 classification and a National Interest Waiver under 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(2)(B). Applications are filed on Form I-140G with a $15,000 processing fee . The program went live on December 10, 2025 at trumpcard.gov. A “Trump Platinum Card” at $5 million, with up to 270 days of U.S. residency without U.S. tax on non-U.S. income, remains on the waitlist.
At launch, Secretary Lutnick said roughly 10,000 people had pre-registered. The administration predicted sales in the thousands and revenue in the billions. The current tally of one approved applicant is not yet on that trajectory.
Why EB-5 Is Alive, Well, and Still the Better Route!
When the Gold Card was first announced, the EB-5 world braced. Early headlines questioned whether the existing program would be paused, replaced, or quietly shelved. That concern proved short-lived, and for sound structural reasons.
Foremost, EB-5 is an investment that must remain at risk in a new commercial enterprise and generate ten full-time U.S. jobs. The Gold Card is a donation to the U.S. Government. There is no project, no job creation or economic impact and no return on capital.
Next, the price per family plays a role: EB-5 requires $800,000 in a Targeted Employment Area (rural, high-unemployment, or qualifying infrastructure) or $1,050,000 outside a TEA, with spouses and unmarried children under 21 included as derivatives. The Gold Card is $1 million per person. A family of four contemplating the Gold Card is looking at $4 million in donations plus $60,000 in filing fees. For most investor families, the EB-5 math is not anywhere close.
Backlogs & Numbers That Keep Growing
The Gold Card channels applicants into EB-1A and EB-2 with National Interest Waivers. Those categories have long wait times for India and China. The Gold Card fee does not create new visa numbers, and Congress sets the annual caps. For investors chargeable to backlogged countries, paying $1 million to enter a queue is not an obvious upgrade over EB-5, which has reserved set-aside numbers for rural, high-unemployment, and infrastructure projects currently listed as “current” on the Visa Bulletin.
The numbers back this up! USCIS data obtained through FOIA litigation by the American Immigrant Investor Alliance shows 13,520 I-526 and I-526E petitions filed between April 2022 and July 2025, with I-526E processing times averaging approximately 13.5 months and denial rates around 3% when the underlying project has an approved I-956F. (AIIA FOIA Series, July 2025 data; WR Immigration, January 2026.) The September 30, 2026 filing deadline for grandfathering under the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act is concentrating the market, not ending it.
A Volatile Year Is a Busy Year for Residency by Investment
The early 2026 US-Israel war with Iran has shifted the global residency and citizenship by investment (RCBI) landscape. Wealthy families in affected regions are diversifying across jurisdictions rather than committing to a single passport or permit. (Passportivity, Citizenship by investment: market trends and outlook for 2026-2030.) The United States, even during the largest deportation operation in its history, still shows up in global portfolios. EB-5 filings through 2025 continued at pace. That is not the behavior of a market that believes the United States has stopped being worth the investment.
Why Gold Card Filings Keep Coming
Notwithstanding the structural arguments for EB-5, there are investors for whom the Gold Card makes sense. We ensured that pending Gold Card clients have been fully advised that the pending litigation (discussed below) could end the program, that the next administration could rescind Executive Order 14351, and that there is no statutory foundation for the program independent of the Executive Order. Our investor proceeded anyway. The first reason was speed.
The Gold Card is designed to be adjudicated in months. EB-5, even for strong files in well-structured rural projects, currently takes approximately 13.5 months for the I-526E alone, before consular processing or adjustment of status. For an investor with immediate business or family needs in the United States, and resources sufficient to absorb the $1 million donation without waiting for a return, the time value of the visa can justify the cost.
For a family that wants to close the immigration chapter cleanly and stop refreshing USCIS case status pages, skipping the conditional-to-permanent stage has real value.
The second reason is the type of green card issued. An approved Gold Card applicant receives lawful permanent resident status directly, without conditions. EB-5 investors receive a conditional green card valid for two years. To convert that conditional status into permanent status, the investor must file Form I-829 within the 90-day window before the second anniversary and prove that the capital was sustained and that the ten required jobs were created. Form I-829 has its own processing times, its own evidentiary burden, and its own risk of denial tied to project performance rather than to anything the investor personally did or did not do. For a family that wants to close the immigration chapter cleanly and stop refreshing USCIS case status pages, skipping the conditional-to-permanent stage has real value. It is the closest thing the Gold Card has to a genuine structural advantage over EB-5.
One further point worth emphasizing for any investor considering the Gold Card: the source of funds vetting is every bit as rigorous as EB-5. The Form I-140G instructions require the applicant to “establish that you have sufficient funds to make the required unrestricted gift to the Department of Commerce” and that those funds were “obtained through lawful means.” Secretary Lutnick has described the vetting as “the most serious … in the history of government.” Whether one finds that reassuring or suspicious, the practical implication is the same. A Gold Card file is not a short paper trail. Gifts, inheritances, business proceeds, and loan sources all have to be documented to USCIS standards.
Two Lawsuits and a Political Calendar
The Gold Card carries a risk profile that no EB-5 investor faces
Set against those advantages, the Gold Card carries a risk profile that no EB-5 investor faces. Two lawsuits are pending. In February 2026, Democracy Defenders Fund and Colombo & Hurd PL filed suit on behalf of the American Association of University Professors and a group of immigrant professionals, challenging the Gold Card as an unlawful pay-to-play scheme that pushes qualified EB-1 and EB-2 applicants out of the queue in favor of donors. On April 13, 2026, the same coalition, joined by Free Information Group, filed a Freedom of Information Act action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to force release of the administrative record. Democracy Defenders Fund et al. v. DHS et al., No. 1:26-cv-01230 (D.D.C. filed Apr. 13, 2026). The FOIA case will almost certainly produce documents. The substantive case asks a harder question.
The core argument is structural. Congress wrote the Immigration and Nationality Act. Congress defined EB-1A “extraordinary ability,” EB-2 “exceptional ability,” and the National Interest Waiver. An Executive Order cannot create a new immigrant visa category, cannot redefine statutory eligibility, and cannot convert a $1 million donation into evidence of extraordinary ability. The Department of Commerce does not set immigration policy. Counsel for the plaintiffs put the point more plainly:
Immigrant visas are not million-dollar Mar-a-Lago memberships.
— Kevin Bell, Free Information Group (DDF Press Release, April 13, 2026)
The critique does not stop with plaintiffs’ counsel.
Critics in Congress spent years labelling EB-5 a pay-to-play visa. Next to the Gold Card, EB-5 looks like the grown-up in the room.
For years, members of Congress from both parties called EB-5 a pay-to-play visa. The label never quite fit. EB-5 requires at-risk capital, ten full-time U.S. jobs per investor, and rigorous source-of-funds review, all under a statute Congress built, debated, and reauthorized most recently in the 2022 Reform and Integrity Act. The Gold Card has none of it. No job creation. No investment at risk. No congressional fingerprint. Just a $1 million gift, a $15,000 fee, and an Executive Order. If EB-5 was pay-to-play, the Gold Card is pay-to-play with the guardrails sawn off, and that critique is available to every future administration, every future Congress, and every federal judge who reads EO 14351 against the plain text of 8 U.S.C. § 1153.
The practical consequence is a second risk that exists independent of the courts. A future administration can rescind Executive Order 14351 with a signature. Investors filing today are paying $1 million for a status whose continuing validity depends on the political calendar. Every Gold Card applicant should be counseled on that risk in writing, and every retainer agreement should reflect it.
How the Gold Card Compares Globally
At $1 million per person, with no asset appreciation, no return of capital, and no independent statutory foundation, the U.S. Gold Card sits at the expensive end of the global market. Its primary selling point against competitors is the underlying country, not the product design.
Residency and citizenship by investment is not a U.S. invention. What is new is the price point and the statutory improvisation. A non-exhaustive snapshot of comparable programs in 2026:
Caribbean Citizenship by Investment. St. Kitts and Nevis from approximately $250,000. Antigua and Barbuda from $230,000. Dominica from $100,000. Grenada from $150,000. St. Lucia from $100,000. These are full citizenships with passports, typically processed in six months or less. (Get Golden Visa, 2026 country listings.)
European Residency by Investment. Greece Golden Visa from €250,000 in real estate. Italy Investor Visa starting at €250,000. Portugal’s Golden Visa continues through fund and business routes. Hungary Golden Visa from €250,000 in fund investment. Malta Permanent Residence Programme remains available. No EU member state currently offers citizenship purely by investment. (Global Citizen Solutions; Passportivity, 2026.)
Gulf and Asia-Pacific. The UAE Golden Residency is linked to real estate valued at $5 million and $10 million tiers. Bahrain and Oman offer long-term Golden Residency. New Zealand’s investor visa requires NZD 5 million (Growth category) or NZD 10 million (Balanced category). Turkey offers citizenship at $400,000 in real estate.
Lowest published thresholds. Sao Tome and Principe at approximately $90,000. Vanuatu from approximately $130,000.
At $1 million per person, with no asset appreciation, no return of capital, and no independent statutory foundation, the U.S. Gold Card sits at the expensive end of the global market. Its primary selling point against competitors is the underlying country, not the product design.
The Bottom Line
Four months after launch, the Gold Card has one confirmed approval, hundreds of applications in process, two active lawsuits, a program structure that rests entirely on an Executive Order, and a price tag that keeps it out of reach for most EB-5 investor families. EB-5 continues to attract filings because the statute is stable, the capital is investment rather than gift, and the TEA thresholds are dramatically lower.
For a small group of investors with speed and direct permanent-resident status as driving priorities, the Gold Card is a rational choice. For that group, the filing should proceed eyes-open: with documented source of funds, written acknowledgment of the litigation and political risks, and an understanding that the first approval, while newsworthy, confirms only that the machinery can produce a card. It does not confirm that the program will outlive its creator’s administration.
Mona Shah & Partners Global is a U.S. and U.K. global immigration law firm specializing in EB-5 and the residency and citizenship by investment programs. Nothing in this article constitutes legal advice. Readers considering any investor visa option should consult qualified counsel on their specific circumstances.
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