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What Does Trump’s Gold Card Executive Order Mean for US Immigration?

David Lesperance explains whether executive orders are "law," and analyzes the Gold Card and H-1B policy updates.

David Lesperance

Lesperance & Associates
• Gibraltar

On Friday, September 21, 2025, President Trump signed a series of executive orders that purported to make several substantial changes to US economic immigration relating to H-1B visas and green cards. He also announced that the Trump administration would release the previously announced $5M Trump Card with a few modifications and three new tiers.

Most notably, the new rules would limit holders of the rebranded Platinum Card to only 270 days of physical presence before full US taxation on a worldwide basis would apply to them.

Are Executive Orders “Law”?

Most legal scholars generally acknowledge that, like many of his prior executive orders, these particular executive orders and announcements are ultra vires (i.e., beyond the legal authority) of even the most expansive unitary presidential power interpretation. In some cases, these executive orders violate the Constitution, and in other cases, they would require Congressional approval to become actual law.

However, these executive orders do have an immediate de facto impact even if they do not constitute actual law when Trump signs them.

The executive order on birthright citizenship provides an excellent example. While it clearly contradicts the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the US Supreme Court will take a considerable amount of time before it eventually rules on the constitutionality of this January 20, 2025, executive order.

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In the meantime, along with appeasing his MAGA voting base, he has also altered the behaviour of those non-American future parents who had planned to give birth in the US. This group includes not only “birth tourists,” undocumented illegal immigrants, and those legally in the US on non-immigrant visas, but also those with green card status.

Donald Trump during the official launch of the Gold Card

Trump’s signing of this “birthright citizenship executive order” froze the bureaucracy in place and inserted a sliver of doubt in parental minds that the courts would not strike it down. In a practical sense, it created real bureaucratic difficulty for those soon-to-be parents on such important issues as the issuance of US passports to their newborns.

Given that those who had already become pregnant would certainly give birth before the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) would decide the issue, many chose not to give birth in the US.

Therefore, the administration achieved a real-world impact of curbing what they perceived as the “problem of birth tourism,” even though they likely lacked the legal authority to directly ban it.

So, leaving aside for the moment whether the various orders or announcements ever become law, let’s look at their tangible impact.

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What real-world impact does the proposed $100K H-1B fee have?

One immediate impact has resulted from employers and current H-1B holders lacking enough specificity from the executive order to know what the new proposed rules purported to establish.

The resulting confusion caused chaos as many H-1B holders either canceled travel plans or raced back to the US before the stated September 21st implementation date.

Howard Lutnick at the announcement of the Gold Card

In the medium and long term, human resource and other executives at employers of H-1B visa holders are now rethinking their employment plans. They recognize that, despite slim majorities in both houses of Congress, President Trump will probably manage to get the required legislation passed to make this proposed fee a reality in the future.

Their economic calculation now requires them to determine whether they should:

  • Spend the time and money to train a new US graduate to the point where they become a viable employee in the future; or
  • Hire a qualified and experienced foreigner to immediately hit the ground running.

This calculation will also need to account for whether this fee ultimately represents a one-time or an annual cost.

What impact does the new proposed $1M “Gold Card” have?

Like the H-1B fee, the changes this executive order proposes have injected a great deal of uncertainty into many areas of US economic immigration. Also, like the H-1B fee, one must assume that a pliable US Congress will pass future legislation that transforms these somewhat vague proposals into specific future law.

However, what will this proposal’s possible real-world immediate impact look like? I think that, like expectant parents, foreigners will freeze in place until Congress eventually addresses the actual implementing legislation. For example:

  1. EB-5 Visas: Will this effectively cannibalize the current EB-5 market by providing a faster option, which avoids long delays that country quotas and bureaucratic processes cause? In short, will those who had pursued a green card under the EB-5 visa route prefer the sunk cost of a donation for a Gold Card over a similar investment in an EB-5 project?
  2. E1, E2, L1, and O Non-Immigrant Visa holders pursuing green card status through EB3 Visa strategies: Will future legislation dictate minimum investment requirements for these non-immigrant visa categories generally, even if the individuals never intended to pursue green card status through an EB3 strategy?

Those represent the immediate impacts that spring to mind, but undoubtedly cleverer brains than mine can articulate others.

US Vice President and President of the Senate JD Vance

What impact will the proposed new Platinum Card (i.e., Trump Card 2.0) have?

As with the original Trump Card announcement, no executive order exists to examine the details. Rather, an announcement on the trumpcard.gov website states that for “a $5 million contribution, you will have the ability to spend up to 270 days in the United States without being subject to U.S. taxes on non-U.S. income.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick went further and verbally indicated that the newly named “Platinum Card” would not offer a pathway to citizenship and would need approval from Congress before it launches.

This seems to indicate that this would create a new non-immigrant category with the ability for an individual to spend more than the time the Internal Revenue Code regulations set out for substantial presence before triggering US global tax liability. It also exceeds the maximum 182 days of physical presence for someone claiming a closer connection to avoid becoming a US taxpayer.

It also bears noting that it provides fewer than the full 365 days that the original version of the Trump Card promoted.

The proposed Platinum Card’s main selling feature would allow a holder to spend up to 270 days in the US before triggering US global tax liability. To make such a feature legally possible, Congress would need to pass not only immigration legislation but also new tax legislation to change the existing triggering period.

This represents a heavier lift, given the slim Republican majorities in both houses and possible obstacles such as House Rule XXI clause 5(b).

Capitol, Washington, D.C.

Assuming that Congress introduces, passes, and the President signs the required immigration and tax legislation into law, as in a prior article on the Trump Card, let’s examine how attractive the proposed Platinum Card appears to the stated target market of ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) foreigners.

In short, I believe that few people will pay a sunk cost of $5M USD for the benefit of having an additional 91 days of physical presence in the US without becoming US taxpayers.

As I previously described, this target market can already use an integrated strategy of a non-immigrant visa, such as the L-1, E1, or E2, to acquire immigration permission, combined with a Closer Connection position. This will allow them to spend up to 182 days in the US without subjecting themselves to US worldwide taxation.

What does this all mean?

Obviously, these executive orders, while not yet law, have an immediate impact in a variety of areas of US economic immigration. From H-1B holders and employers, to EB-5 promoters, to wealthy foreigners who want to spend time in the US, current plans need to go on hold until Congress digs in to provide some clarity.

Whether all these reactions represent what the Trump administration hoped for, or even anticipated, only time will tell.

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