United States: Gold Card Permanent Residence Program Opens to Applicants
December 10, 2025
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At a glance
- The Trump Administration’s Gold Card program – under which a foreign national may apply or be sponsored for U.S. permanent residence after a $15,000 processing fee and a separate donation of $1 million (for individual petitioners) or $2 million (for corporate petitioners) – is now live.
- According to new information released on the Trump Card website, each dependent family member of a principal applicant will also be subject to an additional $15,000 processing fee and $1 million donation.
The issue
The U.S. government has begun implementation of President Trump’s Gold Card program, a path to permanent residence based on large donations to the U.S. Treasury. The program was created by presidential executive order in September.
Under the Gold Card program, interested individual petitioners and corporate sponsors may make a donation to the U.S. Treasury that would render a foreign national eligible for permanent residence under the EB-1 preference category for individuals of extraordinary ability or the EB-2 National Interest Waiver category. A donation of $1 million would be required of individual petitioners, while a donation of $2 million would be required where an employer is petitioning for a foreign beneficiary. A Department of Homeland (DHS) processing fee of $15,000 will also be collected.
The newly updated Trump Card website says that each dependent of the principal Gold Card applicant (meaning spouses and children under 21) seeking derivative green cards will also be subject to a $1 million donation and the $15,000 DHS processing fee. This appears to be the government’s first indication that family members will also be subject to the donation and processing fees.
Details on the Gold Card process
According to the information provided by the government, the Gold Card process will involve the following steps:
- Gold Card application. The foreign national or corporate sponsor submits a Gold Card application through the TrumpCard.gov website, providing basic information about the foreign national and family members, including name, contact information, date and place of birth, country of citizenship, and address.
- $15,000 DHS processing fee for principal and each family member. Once the Gold Card application is submitted, the foreign national or corporate sponsor will be directed to the Department of Treasury pay.gov website to pay the nonrefundable $15,000 DHS fee per applicant. Payment can be made via credit card (U.S. and international) or ACH debit (U.S. bank accounts only).
- Online completion and submission of Form I-140G. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will notify the foreign national or corporate sponsor to create an account on www.uscis.gov (if they do not already have an existing account) in order to submit Form I-140G, Immigrant Petition for the Gold Card Program, through the USCIS online filing portal. Form I-140G cannot be filed as a paper form.
USCIS uses Form I-140G to vet the donated funds on which the Gold Card application is based to ensure that those funds originate from a lawful source.
- $1 million or $2 million donation. If this initial vetting is successfully completed, the foreign national or corporate sponsor will be notified to submit their $1 million or $2 million donation to the Department of Treasury using ACH debit or Swift Wire Transfer, according to the instructions provided by the government. Once the donation is received, the Form I-140G can be approved.
- Submission of DS-260G to the State Department for immigrant visa consular processing. Once the I-140G petition is approved and when an immigrant visa number is available in the foreign national’s requested classification (EB-1 or EB-2) and country of birth, they must complete consular processing with the U.S. Department of State at an embassy or consulate. Applicants will submit the Form DS-260G immigrant visa application, along with applicable filing fees and detailed personal information and documentation to the State Department. The U.S. consulate will assess the foreign national’s admissibility to the United States.
It is anticipated that Gold Card applicants will be required to appear at a U.S. consular post in their home country for an in-person interview before their immigrant visa can be approved. Once approved, the individual can enter the United States as a lawful permanent resident.
The government has not yet indicated whether foreign nationals already in the United States will be permitted to use the USCIS adjustment of status process to apply for their green cards under the Gold Card program.
The Trump Card website says that once a Gold Card application and DHS processing fee are received by the government, processing “should take weeks.” However, the site does not specify which application is being referred to – the Gold Card application or the Form I-140G. Further, in general, immigrant visa consular processing – the last step in the process, which results in the grant of permanent residence status – can take several months, depending on the consular post.
What’s next
Interested applicants can begin preparing and submitting Gold Card applications and moving through the various steps above in order to apply for a Gold Card-based green card.
The government has not yet provided any details on a related Platinum Card program, which was not announced in President Trump’s September executive order but appears as an option on the Administration’s Trump Card website. According to the website, the Platinum Card program would allow a foreign national who makes a $5 million payment to the U.S. government (plus processing fee) to live in the United States for up to 270 days each year without being subject to U.S. taxes on non-US income.
Foreign nationals interested in exploring the Trump Card program should contact their designated Fragomen professional.
This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen.
