Gold, platinum card, H-1B visa rules: Trump overhauls US visa system | Details here
Donald Trump signed a proclamation requiring a $100,000 payment to accompany or supplement all H-1B visa petitions, in addition to existing filing fees.
President Donald Trump on Friday announced changes to the US visa policy, introducing the “Trump Gold Card” and “Platinum Card” schemes for applicants seeking US residency, and imposing a $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications.
Trump said the move would generate billions of dollars and reshape immigration pathways.
US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, who joined Trump at the announcement, said that the initiative would raise more than $100 billion for the government.
Trump first floated the idea in February, describing it as a way to attract investment, create jobs, and reduce the deficit.
Platinum, gold visas
Under the new scheme, applicants can pay $1 million for US residency through the “Trump Gold Card,” subject to vetting and processing fees.
The “Platinum Card,” priced at $5 million, allows holders to spend up to 270 days in the United States each year without paying US taxes on income earned abroad, according to the program’s website.
Lutnick said the platinum card requires congressional approval, which he predicted could come later this year. The executive order directs the commerce secretary to deposit revenue from the program into a separate treasury fund to support commerce and American industry.
Vetting for the gold card will cost $15,000, and applicants will undergo a more rigorous screening than ever before, Lutnick said.
The gold card will replace existing EB-1 and EB-2 visas for foreign nationals with extraordinary or exceptional abilities. After a brief implementation phase, Lutnick said other green card categories may be suspended in favour of this new model.
Businesses can participate through a “Trump Corporate Gold Card,” paying $2 million per employee to secure residency. Companies can transfer residency access between employees with DHS vetting, alongside transfer and annual maintenance fees.
“They’re going to spend a lot of money to come in,” Trump said as he signed the order in the Oval Office. “It’s going to raise billions of dollars, billions and billions of dollars, which is going to go to reduce taxes, pay off debt, and for other good things,” he added.
He said that the US immigration system has been broken and plans to benefit legal immigrants through the “Trump Gold Card”, which he expects will generate over $100 billion for tax cuts, growth projects, and debt reduction.
“For far too long, we have had millions of Illegal Aliens pouring into our Country, and our Immigration System was broken. It is beyond time that the American People, and American Taxpayers, are benefitting from our LEGAL Immigration System. We anticipate THE TRUMP GOLD CARD will generate well over $100 Billion Dollars very quickly. This money will be used for reducing Taxes, Pro Growth Projects, and paying down our Debt,” he wrote on Truth Social.
H-1B visa fee raised to $100,000
President Donald Trump signed a proclamation requiring a $100,000 payment to accompany or supplement all H-1B visa petitions, in addition to existing filing fees.
White House staff secretary Will Scharf described the H-1B programme as one of the “most abused visa” systems in the US, intended to allow highly skilled workers in specialised fields to enter the country.
The $100,000 fee is aimed at ensuring that applicants meet these criteria. The proclamation also allows exemptions in the national interest and directs the labour secretary to revise prevailing wage levels for H-1B positions.
Trump defended the move, saying, “I think they’re going to be very happy… We’re going to be able to keep people in our country that are going to be very productive. And in many cases, these companies are going to pay a lot of money for that, and they’re very happy about it.”
The policy could affect Indian professionals working in the US under H-1B visas. Lutnick said that historically, the employment-based Green Card programme admitted 281,000 people annually, with an average income of USD 66,000, many of whom relied on government assistance.
“So we were taking in the bottom quartile, below the average American. It was illogical—the only country in the world that was taking in the bottom quartile,” he said.
With agencies inputs
