Gold Card Will Not Get You Faster Visas: Why Did The Program Not Land Well?

On paper, the official website promised accelerated U.S. Residency in the Gold Card Visa Program. However, since its launch by President Trump, the program has faced many legal challenges and a sharp decline in demand. Moreover, legal opinion and the latest comment by the DHS suggests that Gold Card may be unable to provide the applicant a fast residency as promised at the outset of the program.

Here, our EB1A experts have taken a deep dive into the problems plaguing the gold card and why it may not be ideal even for the wealthies.

What was the Gold Card programme and what did it guarantee?

According to the prior announcement, the Gold Card Program promised permanent residency in the U.S. for applicants in exchange for a $1 million nonrefundable gift to the government. At first, the Gold Card was designed to act like a substitute for the EB-5 category (reserved for wealthy investors) which was already undergoing a skyrocketing demand. Yet, several sources have alleged that the gold card is reportedly using the existing visa categories like the EB-1 and EB-2.

Primarily, owing to the latter allegation, a lawsuit from the American Association of University Professors accused the program of eventually crowding out the EB-1 and EB-2 applicants, since there are yearly caps to both these categories. The lawsuit argued that the Gold Card Program will eventually “result in qualified, merits-based applicants not being awarded visas.”

However, the question generally arises if the program will be any helpful to the wealthy applicants/investors who are seeking a faster permanent residency.

Can the Gold Card offer you a quicker permanent residency than merit based paths?

So, can the Gold Card fulfill the demand of a quick permanent residency? It seems there too are a lot of fogs and confusions though it was the program’s primary selling point. Recently, the DHS has published a court filing in response to a lawsuit against Gold Card’s legality. One Craig Becker, the managing counsel for the Affirmative Litigation Democracy Defenders Fund, initiated this litigation against the programme, arguing: the Gold Card holds the potential to displace applicants for the merit-based pathways like EB-1A green card and EB-2.

To this litigation, the DHS officially responded that the Gold Card applicants won’t get priority or any speciality treatment even in speed or processing times. This statement further complicates the official promise of the Gold Card. Hence, there is no real guarantee that investing in a Gold Card will in any way assure a speedy processing for the U.S. permanent residency.

The state of the programme now

Many wealthy investors are now reluctant to risk the million until there is legal clarity on the programme and it is officially approved by the Congress. And, moreover, this additional confusion over the processing times did nothing better than to worsen the skepticism. According to the latest data of the Department of Homeland Security, only 338 people have submitted an application for a gold card so far. And, among them, only 165 people have managed to pay the $15,000 visa processing fee.

At GCEB1, our EB1A consultants regularly write about the U.S. immigration landscape to facilitate and encourage informed decisions among the applicants. For more personalised guidance, you can directly get in touch with us. We wish you a safe and stress free immigration journey.

Sources & further readings

• Associated Press. “Trump's ‘Gold Card’ Visa Starting at $1 Million Granted to Just 1 Person So Far, White House Says.” AP News, April 23, 2026. https://apnews.com/article/f05fe42f2f90708f2146613b82e072e9. (AP News)
• Frank, Robert. “Trump Gold Card Wealth Visa.” CNBC, May 8, 2026. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/08/trump-gold-card-wealth.html. (Instagram)
• “Gold Card vs EB-5 Visa: How Trump’s $1-Million Offer Fast Tracks US Residency for Ultra Wealthy.” Moneycontrol, December 11, 2025. https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/personal-finance/gold-card-vs-eb-5-visa-how-trump-s-1-million-offer-fast-tracks-us-residency-for-ultra-wealthy-13721140.html. (Moneycontrol)
• “Donald Trump’s $1mn Gold Card Visa Fails to Excite the World’s Wealthy.” Financial Times, April 29, 2026. https://www.ft.com/content/30f61f42-3024-4a02-bc13-0aa3823cf2f0. (Financial Times)