Trump’s Gold Card finds no takers? $1 mn visa scheme sees muted interest

US President Donald Trump has launched his $1 cardinal Gold Card, but Indians it seems are not excessively keen to ammunition retired the amount, particularly fixed the deficiency of clarity connected imperishable residency.

Almost a week aft the Trump medication launched its Gold Card visa program, it seems to person garnered small interest. Instead, the EB-5 class of visas seems to beryllium the go-to way for the American dream.The US issues 10,000 EB-5 visas each year, with a bounds of 7% oregon 700 visas per country, including dependents. The EB-5 capitalist visa programme remains successful precocious demand, particularly among applicants from India and China, who marque up the bulk of those seeking this visa. Trump sees the Gold Card arsenic a instrumentality to pull and clasp outstanding endowment portion besides creating income for the US government. This caller inaugural is simply a imperishable residency program, akin to a greenish card, offering a way to citizenship."Basically, it's a greenish paper but overmuch better," Trump said astatine the launch. "Much much powerful, a overmuch stronger path." But are determination immoderate takers?

Why Trump’s Gold Card Is Not Getting Traction

Immigration experts told ET that the Gold Card’s exertion guidelines are vague.

It besides lacks ineligible clarity, and does not connection a wide way to imperishable residency oregon citizenship - a operation of issues that makes it unappealing adjacent to affluent Indians! These experts are advising applicants to see the EB-5 class instead."The instructions for the Gold Card are loosely worded, and determination is nary intelligibly defined pathway to imperishable residency oregon citizenship," Keshav Singhania, Head of Private Client astatine Singhania & Co was quoted arsenic saying.

To suffice for an EB-5 visa, investors indispensable put $800,000 successful a targeted employment country oregon $1.05 cardinal elsewhere, and this concern indispensable make astatine slightest 10 full-time jobs. This concern covers the full family, dissimilar the Gold Card, wherever each household subordinate indispensable wage $1 cardinal positive a $15,000 processing fee, resulting successful a minimum outgo of $4 cardinal for a household of four, not including ineligible fees.Poorvi Chothani, a salient migration lawyer, notes that not a azygous query connected the Gold Card has been received till now.

"You volition get stuck successful the EB-1 and EB-2 queues anyway. At this point, I don’t spot this (Gold Card) arsenic an charismatic enactment fixed the ineligible and applicable uncertainties.""We person seen important inbound curiosity, peculiarly from high-net-worth individuals and planetary founders. However, this has translated into precise constricted factual follow-through," said Shilpa Malik, Managing Attorney astatine US-based VisaLaw Nation.

"We person not yet started processing immoderate ceremonial applications nether the program.""The astir apt imaginable takers, astatine slightest successful theory, would beryllium ultra-high-net-worth individuals who worth semipermanent US access, optionality, and marque relation much than contiguous migration outcomes. That said, this is simply a precise constrictive audience," she explained.There is besides skepticism astir the Gold Card successful US prediction markets.

On Polymarket, astir 91% of participants foretell that the Trump medication volition not merchantability immoderate Gold Cards successful 2025, with implicit $7 cardinal stake connected this outcome.Experts person noted that the Gold Card is not a abstracted migration category. "It does not person its ain visa allocation," Rajneesh Pathak, laminitis & CEO of Global North Residency & Citizenship told ET. "The enforcement bid places it wrong the EB-1 and EB-2 categories, some of which already person important backlogs.

Even if a Gold Card exertion were submitted today, it would look delays owed to the constricted availability of visas successful these categories, which could discourage imaginable applicants."Pathak is of the presumption that dissimilar the EB-5 program, which is safeguarded by US law, the Gold Card would request Congressional support to beryllium enacted. "Currently, it has been bypassed by Congress. In contrast, EB-5 has explicit grandfathering provisions and is not anticipated to look disruptions," helium said.Meanwhile, owed to stricter H1B visa regulations and different immigration-related changes, determination has been a important summation successful request for EB-5 visas. From January to November 2025, Global North Residency processed implicit 100 EB-5 applications. Additionally, much than 60 petitions are being filed successful conscionable the 2 months of December 2025 and January 2026.Arindam Sengupta, co-founder of Edufund, emphasized that terms sensitivity and certainty are crucial. "EB-5 has been astir for astir 3 decades and has a proven way record. The Gold Card lacks some clarity and impervious of concept," helium remarked. "At a million-dollar terms point, radical privation thing tried and tested."