On September 19, 2025, the Trump Administration announced further details of how the much-vaunted Trump Gold Card program will work. In fact, there will be not only a Trump Gold Card, but also a Trump Platinum Card.

Trump Gold Card

If an individual clears vetting by the Department of Homeland Security and then makes an irrevocable gift of $1 million to the U.S. Department of Commerce, then the person can obtain permanent residence in the U.S. Presumably, the vetting will be focused on determining whether the person is not otherwise disqualified on any grounds of inadmissibility such as for having a criminal record, being suspected of involvement in trafficking in drugs, arms, or humans, being on a security threat watch list, previous U.S. immigration violations, health or mental health grounds, or deriving the funds from criminal activity, among other things.

More details were revealed of the legal basis for immigration under the program. One important point upfront: the Trump Gold Card and Trump Platinum Card are not replacing the EB-5 program. The applicant will be eligible to obtain the Trump Gold Card in either the EB-1A category for aliens with extraordinary ability in business or in the EB-2 category for aliens with exceptional ability in business together with a national interest waiver, presumably in whichever category has more green cards available, based on the person’s country of birth. For instance, Indians would have a three-year backlog waiting time in the EB-1A category, whereas they would have a 9.5-year quota backlog in the EB-2 category with national interest waiver. The announcement indicates that the process will be expedited, though probably subject, nevertheless, to quota backlog waiting times.

It is also possible for a business to gift $2 million to enable an individual, subject to that individual clearing the vetting process, to obtain permanent residence. It will also be possible for the individual, who obtains the green card based on the contribution of a business, later to renounce the green card for the benefit of another individual, who would then go through the vetting process to obtain the green card based on the same $2 million gift.

This Trump Gold Card is not yet available for application, but the Trump Administration has given USCIS the assignment to devise the application procedures and requirements and go through the rulemaking process to implement the procedures and requirements. I would anticipate that implementation will probably take at least a year.

Trump Platinum Card

If an individual clears vetting by the Department of Homeland Security and then makes an irrevocable gift of $5 million to the U.S. Department of Commerce, then the person can live in the U.S. for up to 9 months out of the year without becoming a U.S. tax resident, which means that the person would not become subject to taxation in the U.S. on his or her worldwide income. This program will probably likewise require vetting by the Department of Homeland Security, as explained above. However, before this program can be implemented, a new law will have to be passed by Congress, which creates this new type of immigration status allowing the person to live up to 9 months of the year in the U.S., but not be subject to taxation on his or her worldwide income. This will also require changes to the tax code, since an exception would have to be carved out from the substantial presence test for determining whether a person becomes subject to taxation in the U.S. on worldwide income and from the requirement to disclose all bank accounts and asset ownership abroad. It will probably take well in excess of 1 year for this option to become available, since new legislation must be passed in Congress before USCIS can even begin the implementation process.

Questions still remain as to whether the legal bases for the Trump Gold Card in the EB-1A and the EB-2 exceptional ability with national interest waiver will withstand litigation in the federal courts. Objectively speaking, the Congressional intent, when the EB-1A extraordinary ability and EB-2 exceptional ability categories were created, was to attract aliens of extraordinary or exceptional ability who could prove that they are among the top few percent in their field based on evidence of specific accomplishments. Inheriting a fortune, from which the person can gift $1 million to qualify for the Trump Gold Card does not prove extraordinary or exceptional ability in business. This would be one basis for challenging the legal validity of drawing upon green cards in the EB-1A and EB-2 categories for this program. Therefore, it might become necessary to pass legislation in Congress to create a new category of green card for the Trump Gold Card program, as well. Liberal groups might be motivated to challenge the legality of the program due to concerns that the program is selling green cards to wealthy individuals without any benefit to average Americans through job creation, in contrast to the existing EB-5 program. Conservative groups might be motivated to challenge the program for bringing individuals to the U.S., who do not assimilate culturally because they are not interested in ever becoming a citizen of the U.S. and their finances are not being reviewed each year by the IRS through tax returns, which would leave the person free to get away with engaging in money laundering and other financial crimes while avoiding detection by U.S. financial authorities.

An article in the Wall Street Journal revealed just how chaotic and slapdash the formulation of policy for legal immigration has been in the Trump Administration. Please click here to view the article.

To view the website created by the Trump Administration to explain and solicit interest in these programs, please click here.