Trump Wants to Give "High-Level People" "Gold Cards" as an Alternative to Green Cards

President Donald Trump said on February 25, 2025, that his administration planned to create a new immigration program for wealthy foreign nationals, describing a proposed $5 million "gold card" that would provide privileges similar to permanent residency and a route toward U.S. citizenship.

At the time, the proposal was still an announced plan rather than an implemented immigration program. Trump described the card as "somewhat like a green card," while Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the administration intended it to attract wealthy and economically successful applicants.

What Trump proposed in February 2025

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said the planned card would cost about $5 million and provide a pathway to citizenship for applicants the administration considered desirable. He argued that companies could also be willing to pay the price to help bring highly qualified workers to the United States.

Trump suggested that the government could potentially sell large numbers of the cards and generate substantial federal revenue. Those figures were projections, however, and no evidence was presented at the February announcement establishing how many applicants would ultimately participate.

Lutnick said the administration intended the gold-card concept to replace the EB-5 immigrant investor program. That was an administration proposal at the time, not an immediate termination of EB-5. The existing EB-5 program administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services allows qualifying foreign investors, along with eligible family members, to seek lawful permanent residence after making required investments and meeting job-creation requirements.

The comments about Russian oligarchs

During the same exchange, Trump was asked whether Russian oligarchs could qualify for the proposed program. He replied that it was possible and said he knew some Russian oligarchs he regarded favorably.

That exchange did not establish that any particular Russian national would qualify. Immigration eligibility, sanctions restrictions, background checks and other U.S. legal requirements would still be relevant to individual applicants.

The proposal later changed substantially

The program that eventually emerged was materially different from the $5 million concept Trump described in February 2025.

On September 19, 2025, Trump signed Executive Order 14351 establishing the Gold Card program. The order set the required contribution at $1 million for an individual applicant or $2 million when a corporation or similar entity contributes on behalf of an applicant.

The executive order directed the Commerce, State and Homeland Security departments to establish an expedited process consistent with existing immigration law, public-safety requirements, national-security screening and statutory visa limits. It instructed immigration authorities to treat the required contribution as evidence relevant to certain employment-based immigrant visa categories rather than simply creating citizenship automatically in exchange for payment.

The order also did not simply abolish EB-5. Instead, it instructed officials to consider whether the Gold Card framework could be expanded to applicants under the EB-5 category.

How the Gold Card operates

The administration formally opened the Gold Card application process in December 2025. According to the official Trump Gold Card website, an individual applicant pays a nonrefundable $15,000 Department of Homeland Security processing fee and undergoes government vetting. After approval, the applicant must make a $1 million contribution to the United States. Corporate applicants can sponsor individuals under a separate $2 million contribution structure.

The program provides a route to U.S. permanent residence rather than immediate citizenship. Like other permanent residents, a Gold Card holder would have to satisfy applicable legal requirements before becoming eligible to naturalize as a U.S. citizen.

By April 2026, Commerce Secretary Lutnick told Congress that one applicant had been approved while hundreds of additional applications were undergoing vetting, illustrating that the eventual program developed far more gradually than the large sales projections discussed when the idea was first announced.

What happened to the original $5 million idea?

The $5 million figure from Trump's February 2025 announcement ultimately became associated with a separate proposed "Platinum Card." The official program website says that product has not yet launched and is intended to allow qualifying foreign nationals who contribute $5 million to spend up to 270 days per year in the United States under a different tax arrangement.

The history of the proposal therefore matters: in February 2025, Trump was describing an early $5 million immigration concept. By late 2025, the administration had established a different Gold Card structure with a $1 million individual contribution, a $2 million corporate contribution and formal federal vetting requirements.