Faith Nyasuguta
U.S. President Donald Trump has opened the waitlist for a controversial $5 million immigration programme dubbed the “Gold Card,” claiming over 15,000 people around the world have already shown interest. In a post on his Truth Social platform on June 12, Trump announced that signups were live, directing users to TrumpCard.gov.
The site offers a simple form to register interest in the programme, asking for basic details like name, region, and whether the applicant is a business or individual. Though it promises notifications when access officially opens, it does not provide a launch date or eligibility requirements.
The Gold Card programme, first teased by Trump earlier this year, proposes to offer wealthy foreigners a fast-tracked pathway to U.S. citizenship in exchange for a $5 million investment. Trump has positioned the scheme as a “premium” alternative to the existing EB-5 investor visa programme, which currently grants green cards to those investing $800,000 to $1.05 million in U.S. businesses that create at least 10 full-time jobs.
Unlike the EB-5, the Gold Card reportedly would not require a specific job creation quota. Trump argues that the programme is a way to attract affluent individuals who would “spend a lot of money, pay a lot of taxes, and employ a lot of people.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a key backer of the initiative, said that if all 15,000 interested individuals followed through with applications, the U.S. could receive $75 billion in investment. He went further to suggest that if the programme attracts 200,000 applicants, it could inject $1 trillion into the economy, potentially helping balance the national budget. Lutnick assured that applicants would be thoroughly vetted and that the initiative is aimed at attracting quality individuals capable of boosting the U.S. economy.
Despite the excitement in Trump’s circle, the programme faces major legal hurdles. Under current U.S. immigration law, new visa categories must be approved by Congress. Trump has claimed that he does not need congressional backing because the Gold Card would merely accelerate existing paths to citizenship rather than introduce an entirely new immigration status. However, legal experts argue that any visa offering permanent residence or citizenship benefits would likely require formal legislative approval.
There are also signs the administration may be testing some aspects of the programme behind the scenes. In April, Elon Musk, who at the time was serving in Trump’s administration as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, said the programme was undergoing a “quiet trial” to ensure its systems work properly before a full public launch. A report by Wired also revealed that some foreign nationals applying for U.S. travel and residency programmes such as Global Entry had begun seeing questions about whether they had applied for the Trump Card Visa.
Still, there are no official documents or government releases that fully outline how the programme will work, who qualifies, or when it might launch. As it stands, the Trump Card remains a flashy website with bold promises but no legal foundation.
While Trump’s team paints it as a revolutionary economic strategy to reimagine immigration through wealth-based access, critics warn that without proper legal authority and transparency, it could amount to little more than a political publicity stunt.
Nonetheless, the 15,000 expressions of interest in just a short time underscore a global appetite for premium U.S. migration routes. Whether Trump can convert that demand into a legitimate and functioning immigration channel remains to be seen.
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