Washington, D.C., February 25, 2025: Today, President Trump put the future of the EB-5 Program in doubt, while simultaneously teasing a new visa program for investors, to be called the ‘Gold Card’ visa. EB-5 investors all over the world are taking note.
A. What Did President Trump Say Today?
President Trump stated today that he will replace the 35-year old EB-5 immigrant investor visa program with a new “Trump gold card” program that will grant permanent residency in exchange for investments of US$5,000,000. According to the President’s statements: “We’re going to be selling a gold card. You have a green card. This is a gold card. We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million, and that’s going to give you green card privileges, plus it’s going to be a route to citizenship.” The President further stated: “And wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card. They’ll be wealthy, and they’ll be successful, and they’ll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people, and we think it’s going to be extremely successful.”
The President was accompanied by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who also made statements highly critical about the future of the EB-5 Program: “The EB-5 program . . . it was full of nonsense, make believe and fraud, and it was a way to get a green card that was low price.… we’re going to end the EB-5 program. We’re going to replace it with the Trump gold card.”
Secretary Lutnick also stated that the new Gold Card program would skew towards potential investors with truly deep pockets: “We’re going to make sure they’re wonderful world-class global citizens,” Mr. Lutnick said. Mr. Trump added, “It will be people with money and people that create jobs.”
Finally, the President stated that additional details will be provided to the public in two weeks.
B. What are the Key Takeaways from the President’s Statements?
There are 5 key takeaways from the President’s statements today:
- The President will not support renewal of the EB-5 Program. The President’s statements are so broad that they appear to refer to all of the EB-5 Program – including both Regional Center EB-5 petitions and Standalone EB-5 petitions.
- The Regional Center EB-5 Program was set to expire on September 30, 2027. The Standalone EB-5 program does not have a termination date.
- The Reform and Integrity Act includes a provision stating that I-526E visa petitions filed before September 30, 2026, are to be grandfathered and processed until completion – even if the EB-5 Program is not renewed.
- Costing US$5,000,000, the proposed new Gold Card program will be 6.25 times more expensive than the current EB-5 Program, which requires investors to invest US$800,000. The new Gold Card program is structured as a payment to the U.S. government.
- The new Gold Card program will continue to involve vetting of investors and their sources of funds. It will also include job creation component to the new Gold Card program. No further details are available at present.
C. Can the White House Make These Policy Changes by Executive Action?
The EB-5 Program was created by legislation, which remains in effect today. This legislation can only be amended or terminated through new legislative action. Legislative action requires approval by the House of Representatives (lower chamber of Congress), the Senate (upper chamber of Congress) and the President. Legislation on immigration policy requires a 60-vote majority in the U.S. Senate to pass. Presently, the President’s political party controls the U.S. House of Representatives by 1 vote, and has a 3-vote majority in the Senate. Thus, the President’s political party is 7 votes short of the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.
Generally, immigration legislation cannot be passed through the 50-vote majority available to ‘reconciliation’ budget measures (that strategy was unsuccessful when attempted by the Democrats in 2021).
It may be theoretically possible that Congress could attempt to pass the Gold Card legislation through 50-vote reconciliation if the only change to the EB-5 program would be to increase investments to $5,000,000 – leaving the remainder of the EB-5 Program unchanged. Yet, for practical purposes, even this aggressive approach would face an uphill battle to pass the Senate (or, for that matter, to pass the House). Assuming the potential success of such a strategy, the critical issues – as yet undetermined – would turn on the potential effective date of such a change and its impact on visa petitions filed before the date of such legislation.
The President, for his part, cannot end the EB-5 Program by executive action. It is nevertheless highly likely that the President could suspend an immigration program based on national security grounds (this was effectively achieved during the COVID pandemic). It is likely that an initiative by the President to suspend the EB-5 Program will be immediately countered with federal court lawsuits by Regional Centers and investors who are awaiting adjudication of their visa petitions.
Similarly, the President cannot create an entirely new Trump Gold Card program by executive action – it requires legislative action – which, as indicated above, requires a 60-vote majority in the U.S. Senate to pass (which the President does not have).
D. Conclusion & Action Items
In the best case scenario, the President will allow the Regional Center EB-5 Program to end on its existing termination date of September 30, 2027. Since grandfathering of I-526E petitions is only available for petitions filed before September 30, 2026, the practical impact of this decision would be to end the EB-5 Regional Center Program as of September 30, 2026.
In the worst case scenario, the President will end the EB-5 Program (both Regional Center and Standalone EB-5 Program) sometime in 2025, when legislative action can be taken by Congress and enacted by the President’s signature.
In both cases, any investors wishing to pursue the EB-5 Program will need to act quickly to file their visa petitions as soon as practicable, in order to have any chance of qualifying under the existing EB-5 Programs’ $800,000 investment rules.
Take Action Now: Contact Donoso & Partners to set up your EB-5 visa consultation.