Midas Touch?: Trump’s Gold Card Visa Initiative is An Affront to Skill and Merit Based Immigration

On February 25, 2025, President Trump talked about a plan to end the EB-5 program and instead introduced a new “Gold Card” visa. This initiative is set to replace the EB-5 investor visa, a longstanding program that awarded green cards to foreigners who invested in U.S. businesses and created jobs. Trump has characterized the EB-5 system as “full of nonsense, make-believe, and fraud,” arguing that its roughly $1 million investment threshold was too low. This announcement has understandably confused existing and prospective EB-5 investors, with limited and often contradictory details swirling around.

While many countries, like the United Kingdom and Spain, offer “golden visa” programs trading residency for investment, the U.S. move is unprecedented in scale and marks a significant shift in immigration policy. Business leaders and HR professionals are now parsing what this $5 million visa means for hiring international talent. 

A Shift From Job Creation to Wealth-Based Immigration

The Gold Card initiative marks a shift in U.S. employment-based immigration – from prioritizing investment tied to job creation (as under EB-5) to prioritizing upfront wealth. Under the EB-5 program, a foreign investor had to deploy at least $800,000–$1 million into a U.S. enterprise and create 10 American jobs to earn a green card. The new scheme removes any direct job-creation requirement; instead, candidates simply contribute $5 million to government coffers (after security vetting) for the privilege of residency.

This change raises concerns that fewer entrepreneurial immigrants will come in specifically to build businesses. While EB-5 investors had to demonstrate their capital would generate U.S. jobs, the “golden visa” is more like a concierge service for the ultra-wealthy, with no guaranteed local employment benefits.

Limited Relevance for Filling Skilled Talent Gaps

For employers facing talent shortages in areas like tech, engineering, or healthcare, the Gold Card offers little direct relief. It’s important to note that this program targets investors, not skilled workers. The typical international hire — say a software developer from India or an engineer from Europe — is not the target of a $5 million pay-to-immigrate scheme.

Additionally, the phasing out of EB-5 removes an alternative pathway that some professionals previously used to bypass the backlog of employment-based visas. Unless they happen to be ultra-wealthy, most skilled foreign professionals will remain dependent on employer sponsorship.

Global Talent Pool and Competitiveness

This policy shift could also influence how the U.S. is perceived in the global talent marketplace. Countries like Canada, Australia, and the U.K. actively court skilled workers through efficient immigration policies, while the U.S. remains focused on wealth-based entry. If the U.S. prioritizes investor visas over employment visas, it could lose out on highly educated professionals who seek faster, less expensive alternatives elsewhere.

President Trump initially stated that he would replace the EB-5 immigrant investor visa program with a new “gold card” program that will grant permanent residency in exchange for investments of $5 million. Subsequently, the administration suggested that the gold card program would somehow be interconnected, via the Department of Commerce, with the existing EB-5 Program but provided few details regarding eligibility criteria or the application process. 

The President noted that additional information would be provided in approximately two weeks from the date of the announcement. As of the date of this post, it is unclear if the administration will seek to repeal or alter the existing EB-5 Program authorized pursuant to the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA), nor is it clear what the legal and procedural contours of this proposed Gold Card investment program will be.

Representatives from DOGE have spent the past several weeks coordinating on the golden visa program with officials from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the State Department, and other agencies, according to sources with knowledge of the meetings.

Restrictions on the President’s Unilateral Power

As a matter of law, it is important to remember that the President cannot unilaterally end or change the EB-5 program. The EB-5 program was created by Congress in 1990 and was recently codified in the Immigration and Nationality Act via the RIA. The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act (RIA) of 2022 is a law that significantly reformed the EB-5 immigrant investor program, including the Regional Center Program, which allows foreign nationals to invest in U.S. businesses to obtain a green card for themselves and their families. 

The RIA, signed into law in March 2022, took effect on May 14, 2022, and is authorized until September 30, 2027. Key changes include the establishment of the EB-5 Integrity Fund, enhanced oversight of regional centers, and the introduction of concurrent filing for I-526 and I-485 petitions. Any attempt to eliminate or replace it requires legislative action. Repeal of an existing statute like the RIA would require a typically lengthy legislative process, including introduction of legislation into both chambers of Congress, referral to appropriate committees of jurisdiction for debate, reconciliation of any differences between the House and Senate versions, floor debate and passage of the bill by both the House and Senate. Repeal of the existing RIA would likely take months, if not significantly longer, to achieve.

Additionally, the RIA reauthorized the Regional Center (RC) program through September 30, 2027 which means that, unless Congress repeals it, or passes a new or amended law, we expect that the current RC Program will remain in place until then. However, it is possible, given the President’s announcement, that the RC Program will not be renewed in its current form beyond September 30, 2027. A new program with a minimum threshold investment of $5 million could potentially take its place, but only after Congressional action and only after the legal and procedural details of this program have been fully disclosed and debated.

What Happens to Pending Applications if EB-5 Program is Not Reauthorized

Investors who file their Form I-526/I-526E petitions while the current program is authorized, until September 30, 2026, are currently protected under the RIA’s grandfathering clause. This means petitions and applications filed before that date should be processed to final adjudication even if future legislative changes occur. To be safe, filing earlier than September 30, 2026, would be strongly recommended.

Investment immigration is not going away. If anything, the press conference reaffirms that it is critical and important to the U.S. economy and fits squarely within an “America First” agenda.

Based on data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), between the effective date of the RIA and the summer of 2024, the RC Program brought $6.1 billion of investment into various rural and urban communities in the United States.  That figure will only increase once the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been invested under the EB-5 Program in the last eight months are added.

Representatives from DOGE have spent the past several weeks coordinating on the golden visa program with officials from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the State Department, and other agencies, according to sources with knowledge of the meetings. On Musk’s side, the project is being overseen by two high-profile DOGE associates, Marko Elez and Edward Coristine.

One focus area for Musk’s team has been figuring out how to plug current U.S. government systems for verifying travelers and processing immigration applications into what may eventually become a stand-alone website designed specifically for the Trump Card Visa. In late March, DOGE registered the domain trumpcard.gov, according to public records published by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

While the President’s announcement took the EB-5 community by surprise, we should welcome discussions to extend the current RC Program and potentially add a new visa category with new visa numbers that allows for a “Gold Card” program for directed investments.

Top image, courtesy of Master X.

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Amy Ghosh is a Los Angeles-based Attorney at Law, specializing in Immigration Law, Family Law, and Employment Law, among others. She can be reached at: amygesq@gmail.com