United States: Gold Card Permanent Residence Program Opens to Applicants

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.

The agency has not provided guidance on how an individual or employer sponsor may determine whether the foreign national should be classified in the EB-1A or the EB-2 National Interest Waiver immigrant visa category. The Trump Card website seems to indicate that the Department of Homeland Security will apparently make that determination.

• $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.

It remains to be seen whether the Administration will seek to revise current regulations governing the EB-1 extraordinary ability and EB-2 exceptional ability NIW categories to align them more closely with the parameters of the Gold Card program. Each category has specific requirements that are not captured on the Gold Card application or the Form I-140G. However, the normal rulemaking timeline typically takes several months, unless the Administration were to seek to use an exception to the normal notice and comment requirement.

The program’s novel approach to establishing eligibility for EB-1 extraordinary ability or EB-2 exceptional ability NIW classification through making a substantial qualifying payment to the government may be challenged in court, which may in turn impact the Administration’s implementation of the program.

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.