Trump Gold Card: $15,000 application fee to buy US residency for $1 million, draft petition ready ahead of December 18 deadline

In a major update of Donald Trump's Gold Card visa program, which is to be implemented by December 18, the Department of Homeland Security and the US Citizenship and Immigration Services prepared the draft of the petition that an applicant has to submit. Form I-140G, also known as Immigration Petition for the Gold Card Program, have been submitted for clearance with the Office of Management and Budget. Bloomberg reported that the department has already got an emergency approval from White House.

An individual would be eligible for permanent residence under this visa program after a donation of $1 million and for corporate petitioners, the amount is $2 million. The application fee would be $15,000 per applicant. After creating a ripple when the president launched the program and the administration officials claimed that they would be selling 1,000 Gold Cards a day, the program took a backseat amid the administration's hard approach to immigrants. But now things have started rolling ahead of the December 18 deadline, announced by Trump earlier.




The donation would make the foreign nationals eligible for permanent residence under the EB-1 preference category for individuals of extraordinary ability or the EB-2 National Interest Waiver category.

New details on Gold Card visa program

• The application is to be filed with the Department of Commerce
• The $15,000 fee per application is non-refundable
• The petition is to be filed with USCIS, following which USCIS would assess the applicant's eligibility for the new visa category.
• The vetting process also includes a check on whether the fund originated from a lawful source.

• Once the petition is approved and when an immigrant visa number is available, then the applicant has to complete the consular processing at the embassy.
• The applicant would then get an immigrant visa to travel to the US and be admitted as a lawful permanent resident.

What is the $5 million visa program?

The $5 million visa program is Trump's Platinum Card though initially Gold Card was said to be priced at $5 million. The price which is being called a donation to the US government was revised and now the $5 million card is Trump's Platinum Card. This will give applicants the ability to spend up to 270 days in the US without being subject to US taxes on non-US income. No further details of this program have been released yeat and there is an option to join the waitlist for this card.