Trump unveils ‘Gold Card’ visa offering expedited residency

ISTANBUL

US President Donald Trump announced the launch of the “Trump Gold Card,” a new immigration pathway that offers expedited residency processing for applicants who pay government fees and make a $1 million contribution to the United States.

Trump unveiled the program Wednesday during a roundtable with technology executives at the White House, saying the new visa option would help US companies keep highly skilled graduates from top universities.

“Very excitingly for me and for the country, we’ve just launched the Trump Gold Card,” Trump said, noting the application portal would go live Wednesday.

He said the initiative could bring in “tremendous amounts of money” and solve what business leaders describe as uncertainty in retaining international talent.

Under the program, individuals must pay a nonrefundable $15,000 processing fee to the Department of Homeland Security and after background approval make a $1 million contribution to receive US residency on an expedited timeline, according to the official government website. Corporations can pay $2 million to sponsor an employee for the same benefit.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, explaining the details at the roundtable, said applicants will undergo “the best vetting the government has ever done” and that recipients would have a pathway to citizenship after five years. Companies, he added, can continue sponsoring new workers once earlier recipients are naturalized.

The administration is also planning a separate “Trump Platinum Card,” which would require a $5 million contribution and allow approved foreign nationals to spend up to 270 days a year in the United States without being subject to US taxes on foreign income.

Trump said the initiative would both benefit businesses and generate “billions of dollars” for the US Treasury. He argued that major firms — citing Apple CEO Tim Cook — often lose top international graduates because current visa processes cannot guarantee their long-term status.

“They graduate number one in their class and there’s no way of guaranteeing they can stay,” he said.

The move has drawn sharp criticism from immigration experts and legal scholars, who say the program effectively creates a new wealth-based immigration category without congressional authorization. Several have warned that it conflicts with the Constitution, which gives Congress the authority to regulate immigration, and circumvents the statutory limits of existing visa categories such as EB-1 and EB-2.