At present time our immigration Attorneys have received no confirmation of the launch date of the Trump Gold Card.

Furthermore, there has been significant pushback to the idea of the Gold Card replacing the existing EB5 program. The EB5 program is an extremely successful program that has brought in billions of dollars and millions of jobs throughout the United States. It appears unlikely that this successful program that is self-funded by the investors, will be terminated by Congress. However, it does seem plausible that there will be an addition to the current investment program to include the Gold Card  as an option.

Please note a summary of the existing EB5 program include requirements that are known compared to the projected Gold Card program requirements which are mere speculation at this time.

The EB-5 Program is an investment program. The core requirement is that the applicant must invest at a minimum $800,000 into a business or Regional Center project. This business or a project must then create at least 10 full time U.S jobs. The Direct EB5 program allows the applicant to invest into his or her own business that he or she can then run and operate. The Regional Center EB5 program is a passive program where the investor merely invests into the Regional Center project and has no active requirements. The regional center project also will have an exit strategy where it will look to repay the investor the investment after a certain period of time has passed.

-There are set limits in terms of the number of EB5 visas that are allocated per year and this limitation is divided by countries.

-Vetting. The entire EB5 investment must be carefully reviewed as to both the source of this investment and also the tracing of the investment to make sure that the investment is clean and has been derived from legitimate and legal sources.

-The EB5 investor must show that the investment is coming from his or her own source. A third party may not invest on the applicant’s behalf.

-The EB5 applicants will initially receive a conditional green card that will be valid for two years. Upon conclusion of this two year period, the applicant will then need to file another application to convert the conditional green card to a permanent green card.

-As with all green card holders, the applicant will be subject to both U.S based tax revenue and foreign tax revenue.

-Processing times can vary from two years to four years and depending on the country of birth can be much longer.

The Gold Card: (Speculation based on reports from the government)

-$5Million investment to the U.S Government. There will be no requirement of job creation. It does not appear that this investment will be returned to the investor at any time.

-Expedited Gold Card. There have been no reports on time frames.  However, it is anticipated that the Gold Card would be issued extremely quickly.

-Tax burden. Gold Card holders will not be subject to out of country tax earnings.

-Vetting: It is unclear if the investment into the Gold Card will require any type of vetting or review.

-Third Party investing: it appears that the Gold Card program will allow a third party or even an employer to invest the $5M on the behalf of the applicant.

-Visa allocations: it appears that there will be no limit in terms of the number of gold card allocations that the U.S government will issue nor will there be any country limitations.

Darren Silver & Associates, LLP has been on the forefront of investment immigration for over 25 years. The firm has specialized in visa and green card pathways via immigration as a cornerstone of the practice. The firm has processed well over 10,000 individual EB-5 green cards and E-2 investment visas over the years. Our firm intends to stay well informed regarding any new pathway to green card or citizenship via investment. Feel free to reach out anytime with questions or updates on any US based investment program. info@darrensilver.com