The news is full of headlines about President Trump’s announcement yesterday (February 25, 2025), that in the next two weeks, he will propose a $5 million ‘Gold Card’ program to replace the EB-5 program. The new program would allow wealthy individuals to pay $5 million directly to the US government to obtain US citizenship.
EB-5 UPDATE: President Trump’s $5 million Gold Visa for foreign investors. An end to EB-5 or simply an additional avenue for wealthy foreign investors?
The news is full of headlines about President Trump’s announcement yesterday (February 25, 2025), that in the next two weeks, he will propose a $5 million “Gold Card” program to replace the EB-5 program. The new program would allow wealthy individuals to pay $5 million directly to the US government to obtain US citizenship.
Some see this announcement as the death sentence for the EB-5 program. Others want to argue about whether the President has the power to terminate the EB-5 program without Congressional approval. Some speculate how the administration could effectively stop USCIS processing of EB-5 visas. EB-5 investors are concerned what this means to their investment and pending application.
This announcement made a lot of headlines, but it may well be one of President’s signature moves to shake things up so he can negotiate to get other big changes. Perhaps he is signaling an intent to reshape investment-based immigration rather than eliminate it. It might make more sense to add a new program to the existing EB-5 program. He could leave the existing program alone without taking away anything from his new approach.
It may be that President Trump wanted to grab everyone’s attention—and he certainly succeeded. While this could be a very important shift in U.S. immigration policy, it’s too early to evaluate what this will mean for EB-5 investors or to suggest any strategies moving forward. There are many unknowns, and we cannot make any definitive calls until we know more details. We are on top of these developments and are actively monitoring them. We will post new information as soon as we have more to share.
Read the Wall Street Journal’s article on the subject here.
Read the New York Time’s article on the subject here.
This is Jim Butler, author of www.HotelLawBlog.com and hotel lawyer, signing off. Please contact us if you would like to discuss any issues or development that affect your hotel interests. We would like to see if our experience might help you create value or avoid unnecessary pitfalls. Who’s your hotel lawyer?
