Trump Gold Card: Cost, Process, and Risks (2026 Guide)

What the Trump Gold Card really is: the US$15,000 fee and US$1 million gift, the corporate US$2 million scheme with its transferable sponsorship, the coming Platinum Card, per-person family pricing, the tax consequences, and the honest risks of a program built on an executive order.

Last updated: August 2026

The Trump Gold Card is a United States government program under which a foreign national who pays a US$15,000 processing fee and, after vetting, makes a US$1 million gift to the U.S. government can receive permanent residence (a green card) through the existing EB-1 or EB-2 visa categories on an expedited basis. It is aimed at wealthy individuals and at companies willing to sponsor key employees, and it is administered through the official website trumpcard.gov with the Department of Commerce, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of State each playing a role.

Three structural features define it:

It is not a new visa category. The Gold Card operates inside the existing EB-1 and EB-2 employment-based green card categories. The gift is treated as evidence that you will substantially benefit the United States; the government still adjudicates your petition under those categories, and a visa number must be available to you.
The money is a gift, not an investment. Unlike the EB-5 investor program, nothing is invested in a business and nothing is returned. The US$1 million (individual) or US$2 million (corporate) payment is an unrestricted gift to the U.S. government, made only after you pass vetting. The US$15,000 processing fee is nonrefundable.
What you receive is a green card, with everything that entails. A successful applicant becomes a lawful permanent resident. That includes the right to live and work anywhere in the United States, a path to citizenship, and, the part marketing rarely mentions, U.S. tax on your worldwide income. The official site confirms this plainly.

The Gold Card at a glance (Executive Summary)

Key fact	Position as of August 2026
What it is	An expedited route to a green card through the existing EB-1/EB-2 categories, using a large gift to the U.S. government as evidence of eligibility
Who can use it	Foreign nationals who are eligible for permanent residence, admissible, and have a visa number available; corporate sponsors applying for employees
Legal basis	Executive Order 14351, The Gold Card, 90 Fed. Reg. 46031 (Sept. 24, 2025)
Petition needed?	Yes. Form I-140G, filed online through a my.USCIS.gov account after registering at trumpcard.gov
Where you apply	Online at trumpcard.gov, then USCIS vetting, then Department of State visa processing with an interview
Individual price	US$15,000 nonrefundable DHS processing fee, plus a US$1 million gift after successful vetting
Corporate price	US$15,000 fee per employee, plus a US$2 million gift per employee; 1% annual maintenance fee; 5% transfer fee to move the gift to a new employee
Family	Spouse and unmarried children under 21 can be included; each family member pays a further US$15,000 fee and a further US$1 million gift
Processing time	The official site says the process "should take weeks" once the fee and application are received; treat this as a target, not a guarantee
What you receive	Lawful permanent residence (a green card) as an EB-1 or EB-2 immigrant
Tax consequence	Permanent residents are subject to U.S. tax on worldwide income; the official site confirms this applies to Gold Card holders
Platinum Card	Not yet available. Waitlist open: US$15,000 fee plus US$5 million contribution for up to 270 days per year in the U.S. without U.S. tax on non-U.S. income, per the official site

Eligibility: the complete picture

The Gold Card does not replace the ordinary requirements for permanent residence. It changes the evidence, the speed, and the price. An applicant must satisfy all of the following.

1. You must be eligible for lawful permanent resident status under the existing law. The Gold Card routes your case through the EB-1 or EB-2 categories, as determined by the Department of Homeland Security. details

2. You must be admissible to the United States. The ordinary grounds of inadmissibility (criminal history, misrepresentation, security grounds, prior immigration violations, and the rest) apply in full, and the vetting stage is where they surface. details

3. A visa number must be available for your country of chargeability. The official site itself warns that "a small number of countries may have wait times of up to a year or more based on visa availability." details

4. You must pay the US$15,000 nonrefundable DHS processing fee with your application, and, after your vetting is completed successfully, make the US$1 million gift (US$2 million where a corporate sponsor applies for you). details

5. You must complete the Form I-140G petition and vetting process through USCIS, then the visa stage with the Department of State, including an interview and medical examination. details

6. Each family member included (spouse and unmarried children under 21) must be listed in the initial application and carries a further US$15,000 fee and a further US$1 million gift. details

Who is this for? An Asia-Pacific reality check

For most nationals of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, the employment-based first and second preference categories the Gold Card uses are generally current, meaning no material queue. For applicants chargeable to a heavily oversubscribed country, most notably India, and in some categories China, the promise of speed collides with the reality of visa availability: the Gold Card does not create new visa numbers and does not move you ahead of the queue for your country. The official site's own footnote about wait times "of up to a year or more" for "a small number of countries" is pointing at exactly this.

The honest framing for a family deciding between the Gold Card and the alternatives is this: the Gold Card is the fastest published route to a green card for someone whose main qualification is capital rather than an extraordinary-ability record, but it is also the most expensive per person, the money is an outright gift rather than a recoverable investment, and the green card it produces carries full U.S. worldwide taxation from day one. For a family of four, the arithmetic is US$4 million in gifts plus US$60,000 in fees. The EB-5 investor route reaches the same green card for a recoverable (though at-risk) investment of US$800,000 in a targeted employment area, at the cost of longer timelines and an active investment requirement.

The requirements in detail

1. Eligibility for permanent residence through EB-1 or EB-2

A successful Gold Card applicant receives lawful permanent resident status as an EB-1 or EB-2 immigrant, "as appropriately determined by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and subject to availability," in the words of the official site.

What this means in practice is that the Gold Card is an evidentiary shortcut, not a separate legal category. Executive Order 14351 directs the responsible agencies, consistent with applicable law, to treat a qualifying gift as evidence of extraordinary-ability eligibility under EB-1, of exceptional ability and substantial prospective national benefit under EB-2, and of eligibility for a national interest waiver of the ordinary job-offer and labor certification requirements. The statute itself is unchanged, and USCIS still adjudicates the petition.

One honest caution: because an executive order cannot amend the immigration statute, the program's legal architecture is being tested in court. A challenge under the Administrative Procedure Act was filed in the federal district court for the District of Columbia in February 2026 and remained pending without a merits ruling as of mid-2026. Anyone planning around the Gold Card should have their adviser check the current state of that litigation, and should understand the consequences if the program were modified or halted after the gift is made.

2. Admissibility and vetting

The Gold Card buys speed, not forgiveness; every ordinary ground of inadmissibility still applies.

USCIS conducts what the official site describes as "an in-depth background check and process to vet the potential card holder" before any gift is made. Expect the vetting to cover criminal history, source of funds, prior immigration conduct, and security screening. Reported supporting documents for the Form I-140G include bank statements, asset records, tax returns, business registrations, and transfer records tracing the lawful source and availability of the funds. An applicant with any criminal record, prior visa refusal, or complicated immigration history should have that history assessed before paying the nonrefundable fee.

The official site also states the revocation principle plainly: the Gold Card is a visa, and national security and significant criminal risks are a basis for revocation.

3. Visa availability

The Gold Card does not create additional green card numbers, so your country of chargeability still controls how fast the final step can happen.

Employment-based visa numbers are allocated per category and per country under the existing statute. For nationals of most Asia-Pacific countries the EB-1 and EB-2 categories are generally current. For an applicant chargeable to an oversubscribed country, the wait for a visa number is a legal fact the program cannot waive. Check the current Visa Bulletin before relying on any timeline.

4. The fee and the gift

US$15,000 per person up front and nonrefundable; US$1 million per person (US$2 million per employee for corporate sponsorship) only after vetting succeeds.

The sequencing matters and is a genuine consumer protection: the seven-figure gift is not requested until the applicant has passed vetting. The US$15,000 processing fee, however, is paid at the application stage and is not returned if vetting fails. Payment channels, per the official site as of August 2026: the processing fee by credit card, U.S. ACH debit, or international SWIFT wire; the gift by ACH debit or SWIFT wire on instructions received after vetting; and visa-stage fees separately to the Department of State.

One honest caution: the gift is exactly that, a gift. It is not an investment, it earns nothing, and no published rule provides for its return if the immigration process later fails at the visa stage, if the program is changed by a future administration, or if litigation alters its terms. The timing rule reduces this risk but does not eliminate it.

5. The petition and visa process

The application starts at trumpcard.gov, proceeds through a USCIS Form I-140G petition and vetting, and finishes with Department of State visa processing including an interview.

Form I-140G is the Gold Card variant of the immigrant petition, established through Paperwork Reduction Act notices published in March and May 2026. USCIS directs applicants by email to create a my.USCIS.gov account and complete the I-140G with supporting documents online. Consular processing on the reported Form DS-260G, with an in-person interview and medical examination, completes the process for applicants outside the United States.

6. Family members

The spouse and unmarried children under 21 can be included, and each one carries a further US$15,000 fee and a further US$1 million gift.

This per-person pricing is the Gold Card's sharpest difference from every ordinary employment-based category, where a spouse and children derive status from the principal's petition without a separate seven-figure payment. The official site instructs that family members should be included in the initial application so they receive the program's expedited processing. Children must remain unmarried and under 21; families with a child approaching 21 should raise timing with their adviser at the outset.

The Corporate Gold Card

The Corporate Gold Card lets a company sponsor one or more employees for the program. The published terms, as of August 2026:

The corporate sponsor pays the US$15,000 processing fee per employee and, after the employee's vetting, a US$2 million gift per employee. Sponsors may apply for multiple employees at once.
The distinctive feature is reusability: the official site states that a sponsor "may cease sponsoring one employee and use the gift contribution tied to the prior application as a basis for sponsoring a new employee, without a new $2 million gift."
The corporate card carries a 1% annual maintenance fee and a 5% transfer fee when the gift is redeployed to a new employee, the transfer fee covering a fresh DHS background check for the incoming employee.

For a company, the corporate card can function as a transferable seat: a way to hold permanent-residence sponsorship capacity that survives staff turnover. That is genuinely new in U.S. immigration practice.

One honest caution, and it is significant: the published materials describe what the transfer means for the company, not fully what it means for the replaced employee. Treatise commentary on the program indicates that redeploying the gift to a new employee involves the original cardholder giving up his or her status. An employee whose permanent residence is, in commercial substance, tied to a sponsorship the employer can redirect holds a very different asset from an ordinary green card holder. No regulation yet spells out the mechanics. An employee offered a Corporate Gold Card should take independent advice before treating it as equivalent to individually held permanent residence, and a sponsoring company should document its internal commitments to the employee with care.

The Trump Platinum Card: what is coming

The Platinum Card is announced but not yet available. The official site describes it as follows, as of August 2026:

Price: a US$15,000 DHS processing fee plus a US$5 million contribution, with the site expressly warning that "there is no assurance that the Platinum Card contribution will remain at $5 million."
Benefit: the ability to spend up to 270 days per year in the United States without being subject to U.S. tax on non-U.S. income. The site's tagline: "No more travel visas."
Eligibility exclusion: anyone who has ever been subject to U.S. tax on non-U.S. income, which principally means current and former U.S. citizens and resident aliens, is not eligible.
Status: waitlist only. Sign-up is open at trumpcard.gov; the program has not gone live.

Three things distinguish the Platinum Card from the Gold Card and deserve emphasis. First, it is not a green card: it is described as a long-stay entry privilege, not permanent residence, and it leads nowhere on its own. Second, its centerpiece is a tax outcome: under the ordinary substantial presence rules, spending up to 270 days a year in the United States would normally make a person a U.S. tax resident taxable on worldwide income, so the promised treatment is a substantial departure from current tax law, and the mechanism for delivering it has not been published. Third, the Platinum Card was not part of Executive Order 14351 at all; it exists so far only as an announcement on the official website. Until implementing rules appear, the Platinum Card is a waitlist, not a plan. Anyone for whom the 270-day tax treatment is the attraction should not restructure their affairs around it before the legal mechanism is published.

How long does it take?

The official site says the process "should take weeks" once the processing fee and application are received, with the applicant responsible for completing documents and attending the visa interview promptly. Two cautions frame that number. First, "weeks" is the government's own description of a new program's target, not a statutory entitlement, and the site does not say which segment of the process it measures. Second, for nationals of oversubscribed countries the visa-availability wait sits on top of any processing speed, and the site itself concedes waits of a year or more for some countries. There is no published Gold Card entry in the ordinary USCIS processing times tool yet.

Government fees and payments

Amounts as of August 2026, per the official program site:

Item	Amount	When paid
DHS processing fee, per person (principal and each family member)	US$15,000, nonrefundable	With the application
Individual gift, principal	US$1,000,000	After successful vetting
Gift, each included family member	US$1,000,000	After successful vetting
Corporate gift, per sponsored employee	US$2,000,000	After the employee's vetting
Corporate annual maintenance fee	1% per year	Ongoing
Corporate transfer fee (redeploying the gift to a new employee, including a new background check)	5%	On transfer
Department of State visa fees and medical examination	Standard visa-stage amounts, "small additional fees" per the site	At the visa stage
Platinum Card (not yet available)	US$15,000 fee plus US$5,000,000 contribution, subject to change	Waitlist only

Legal costs are a separate matter and are not discussed here.

What you actually receive: a green card, with a green card's obligations

A successful Gold Card applicant receives lawful permanent residence. In practical terms:

Duration. Permanent residence does not expire, although the physical card is renewed every ten years. There is no Gold Card renewal fee published beyond the corporate maintenance fee.
Residence obligations. A green card is for living in the United States. Extended absences can be treated as abandonment of residence, exactly as for any other permanent resident. A Gold Card holder who intends to keep living mainly abroad is buying the wrong product, and this is precisely the gap the Platinum Card is being designed to fill.
Tax. The official site answers this question directly: "As with all U.S. citizens and permanent residents, applicants will be subject to U.S. tax, including on non-U.S. income." Worldwide income, gift and estate tax exposure, and reporting obligations (FBAR, FATCA) all follow. Pre-immigration tax planning belongs before the application, not after approval.
Citizenship. A permanent resident may generally apply for naturalization after five years of residence (three if married to a U.S. citizen), on the ordinary requirements.
Revocation. National security and significant criminal risks are stated grounds for revocation, and permanent residence remains subject to the ordinary removal grounds that apply to every green card holder.

After approval: staying compliant

For the cardholder, the obligations are the ordinary green card obligations: live in the United States, file U.S. tax returns as a resident, carry the green card when traveling, and take advice before any absence approaching six months.

For a company holding a Corporate Gold Card, two obligations continue after approval. First, the 1% annual maintenance fee must be paid each year. Second, the transfer feature should be used with care. Moving the US$2 million gift from one employee to a replacement is not an ordinary staffing decision: the published materials indicate that the outgoing employee's permanent residence ends when the sponsorship moves, and the government has not yet issued rules explaining exactly how that works. Until it does, a company should take advice before any transfer and should put its commitments to each sponsored employee in writing.

For a family, keep a calendar of the two events that end a child's eligibility as a family member: turning 21, and getting married.

Finally, every participant should keep an eye on the pending court challenge and the possibility of program changes: what an executive order creates, a later executive order can modify.

Can my family come, and can my spouse work?

Yes. A spouse and unmarried children under 21 are included in the application (each with the additional fee and gift) and receive permanent residence alongside the principal. As green card holders they can live, work, and study in the United States without further authorization. There is no aging-out protection published specifically for the Gold Card, so a child close to 21 is a timing issue to raise immediately.

Pathways toward citizenship

The Gold Card ends where every green card ends: with the choice whether to naturalize. After five years as a permanent resident (with the required physical presence and continuous residence), a Gold Card holder may apply for U.S. citizenship on the same terms as anyone else. Nothing about the program accelerates or restricts naturalization.

If the Gold Card does not fit

EB-5 immigrant investor: a green card for a genuine at-risk investment of US$800,000 (targeted employment area) or US$1,050,000 creating ten jobs; slower and more demanding, but the capital is invested rather than gifted, and the family derives status without per-person seven-figure payments.
EB-1A extraordinary ability or EB-2 national interest waiver on the merits: for applicants with a genuinely strong record, the ordinary evidentiary route to the same categories remains open, at ordinary filing fees. The executive order does not close it.
E-2 treaty investor: a renewable nonimmigrant status for nationals of treaty countries who invest substantially in a U.S. business they will run; a fraction of the cost, but not a green card. See our E-2 Treaty Investor Visa guide.
L-1 to EB-1C: for business owners and executives with a real overseas company, the intracompany transfer route into the multinational-manager green card category remains the workhorse.

Recent changes to watch

September 19, 2025: Executive Order 14351 signed, published at 90 Fed. Reg. 46031 (Sept. 24, 2025), directing the Gold Card's creation, the corporate variant, and consideration of an EB-5 expansion.
December 2025: the program launched with the official website going live at trumpcard.gov.
February 3, 2026: an Administrative Procedure Act challenge to the program was filed in the D.C. federal district court; it remained pending, with no merits ruling, as of mid-2026. Status should be checked before relying on the program.
March 10 and May 29, 2026: USCIS published Paperwork Reduction Act notices for the Form I-140G petition, 91 Fed. Reg. 11559 and 91 Fed. Reg. 32074.
Platinum Card: waitlist open; program not launched; contribution amount expressly subject to change; implementing rules, including the tax mechanism, not yet published.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Trump Gold Card a new visa category?

No. It is an expedited route into the existing EB-1 and EB-2 green card categories. A US$1 million gift to the U.S. government, made after vetting, is treated as evidence of eligibility. The petition is still adjudicated by USCIS, and a visa number must be available.

How much does the Gold Card cost in total?

US$15,000 in nonrefundable processing fees plus a US$1 million gift for the principal applicant, and the same again (US$15,000 plus US$1 million) for each family member included. Small Department of State visa fees are additional. A couple with two children should budget US$4 million in gifts and US$60,000 in fees.

Is the US$1 million refundable?

No published rule provides for a refund. The gift is requested only after vetting succeeds, which protects against the most obvious failure point, but it is an unrestricted gift to the U.S. government, not an investment.

How is the Gold Card different from EB-5?

EB-5 requires an at-risk investment of US$800,000 or more in a business that creates ten U.S. jobs, and the capital can eventually be returned. The Gold Card requires a larger, outright gift with no return, but involves no business, no job creation, and a much faster published timeline. Family pricing also differs sharply: EB-5 derivatives pay no extra investment; Gold Card family members each carry a further US$1 million gift.

What is the Corporate Gold Card?

A company pays a US$15,000 fee and US$2 million gift per sponsored employee. If the sponsorship ends, the company can redeploy the same gift to a new employee for a 5% transfer fee rather than paying a fresh US$2 million. A 1% annual maintenance fee applies. What a transfer means for the outgoing employee's status is not yet spelled out in regulations, so employees should take independent advice.

Will I pay U.S. tax on my worldwide income?

Yes. The official site states that Gold Card holders, like all U.S. permanent residents, are subject to U.S. tax including on non-U.S. income. Pre-immigration tax planning should happen before you apply.

What is the Platinum Card and can I get it now?

Not yet. The announced Platinum Card (US$15,000 fee plus a US$5 million contribution) would allow up to 270 days per year in the United States without U.S. tax on non-U.S. income. Only a waitlist is open, the price is expressly subject to change, and the implementing rules have not been published.

Do I qualify if I have a criminal record or a past visa refusal?

Possibly not, and you should find out before paying the nonrefundable fee. All ordinary grounds of inadmissibility apply, and vetting is the stage where they surface. The program buys speed, not forgiveness.

How fast is it really?

The government says the process "should take weeks" after the fee and application are received. That is a target for a new program, not a guarantee, and applicants from a small number of oversubscribed countries face visa-availability waits the site itself puts at a year or more.

Can the program be changed or cancelled?

It was created by executive order, not statute, so a future administration could modify or end it, and a court challenge filed in February 2026 is pending. Published terms also reserve revocation for national security and significant criminal risks. These are real planning risks for anyone paying seven figures.

Does the Gold Card lead to citizenship?

Yes, on the ordinary schedule. A Gold Card holder is a permanent resident and may generally apply for naturalization after five years of residence, like any other green card holder.

Can I keep living mainly outside the United States with a Gold Card?

That is risky. A green card presumes U.S. residence, and long absences can be treated as abandonment. The announced Platinum Card is aimed at people who want extended U.S. presence without relocating their tax life, but it is not yet available.

Conclusion: fitting the Gold Card into a wider plan

The Gold Card is best understood as the top end of a menu, not a category of its own. For a family with liquid capital, no pressing U.S. business venture, and a genuine intention to relocate, it is the fastest published path to permanent residence, at a price and a tax consequence that deserve as much analysis as the immigration filing itself. For a founder or executive with a real record, the ordinary EB-1A and NIW routes reach the same green card for filing fees. For an investor who wants capital working rather than gifted, EB-5 remains the comparison to run. And for a company managing global talent, the Corporate Gold Card's transferable sponsorship is a genuinely new tool whose fine print is still being written. If it would help to have your situation mapped against the Gold Card's requirements and its alternatives, you can arrange a consultation.

This guide is general information about U.S. law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create a lawyer-client relationship. Immigration rules and fees change; confirm current requirements before acting.

The Trump Gold Card: A Guide for Investors, Executives, and Global Families