When President Donald Trump launched the Gold Card visa program last December, the official website promised residency in the United States in “record time.” A new court filing, however, suggests that applicants who pay $1 million for a Gold Card won’t get visas any faster.
The Gold Card, billed as a new type of investment visa that could generate income and attract tens of thousands of foreign millionaires and billionaires to the United States, has been hampered by delays and legal questions. In December, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick predicted the government would issue 80,000 Gold cards and generate more than $100 billion in revenue.
Yet the Department of Homeland Security revealed last week that only 338 people had submitted Gold card applications so far. Only 165 people paid the $15,000 visa processing fee.
The court filing also contradicts previous government statements about processing time. One of the biggest selling points of the Gold Card is the fast approval. The website promised visas in “record time” and “within weeks”. The court filing indicates that Gold card applicants will not receive special treatment or faster approval times than traditional visa applicants.
“Gold Card applicants will not necessarily have their petitions reviewed more quickly than non-Gold-Card applicants,” DHS said in the filing.
Craig Becker, legal counsel for the Affirmative Litigation Democracy Defenders Fund, which is suing the legality of the Gold Card, said the contradiction stems from the program’s precarious legal situation. To generate interest, the White House had to promise an expedited process. Yet in opposing the lawsuit, which claims the Gold Card displaces applicants for existing government EB-1 and EB-2 programs, DHS argued that Gold Card applicants were not given priority or special treatment.
“We just don’t know what the real answer is because there’s no transparency,” Becker said.
The Commerce Department and DHS declined to comment. Immigration attorneys have said the program is still in its early stages and could eventually succeed if it is approved by Congress and establishes a track record of approvals.
Yet the court ruling represents the latest challenge to a program that promised to profit from the fast-growing market for investment visas for the world’s wealthy. More and more millionaires and billionaires are on the move like never before. The number of millionaires expected to move to another country in 2026 has reached 165,000, according to Henley & Partners. Geopolitical unrest, tax hikes on the rich and political discord have pushed the richest to seek relief plans and reside in other countries.
America remains a sought-after destination for the global elite. Its existing investment visa program, the EB-5, often experiences long waitlists and backlogs. Trump sought to raise money on demand by creating a new program offering residency in exchange for a $1 million non-refundable gift to the government.
Because only Congress can set immigration law, Trump created the Gold Card by executive order. It uses existing visa categories, EB-1 and EB-2, which are reserved for individuals with extraordinary abilities or national interest. Under the Gold Card, the million dollars automatically qualifies an applicant as having a special or extraordinary ability.
The American Association of University Professors’ lawsuit claimed that because Congress limits the number of EB-1 and EB-2 visas each year, the Gold Card program would crowd out EB-1 and EB-2 applicants and “result in qualified, merit-based applicants not being granted visas.”
“The program is clearly illegal,” Becker said.
In its response, DHS said the Gold Card program has no impact on EB-1 and EB-2 applicants because there are more than enough visas and the Gold Card has its own dedicated processing staff.
The legal battle is one reason why wealthy foreigners remain wary of the program. Immigration lawyers who specialize in investment visas said their wealthy clients don’t want to risk $1 million until the Gold Card is tested in courts or approved by Congress. Confusion around wait times will only add to their skepticism, they said.
“Without expedited processing, the Gold Card is unlikely to be attractive to nationals of countries with backlogs,” said Reaz Jafri, CEO of Dasein Advisors, a New York-based immigration consultancy. “With accelerated processing, it would have been very attractive to everyone and would have been a game-changer.”
Lawyers said the troubled Gold Card program has only increased interest in the existing investment visa program, the EB-5, which has seen a surge in applications. The program offers residency in the United States in exchange for an investment of $800,000 to $1 million that creates at least 10 full-time jobs.
“International businesspeople can already access the United States through nonimmigrant visas that do not automatically expose their global wealth to U.S. taxes,” said David Lesperance of Lesperance & Associates. “Those interested in becoming taxpayers can already obtain green card status through the EB-5 program, which requires an investment rather than a donation.”