The US Gold Card: the figure in the order is one million, not five

Almost every family that asks us about the US Gold Card opens with the same number: five million dollars. That figure appears in no document currently in force. Executive Order 14351, signed on 19 September 2025 and published in the Federal Register on 24 September 2025 at 90 FR 46031, sets the amount at one million.

What the order actually says

The order's own wording is that the requisite gift is USD 1 million for an individual donating on his or her own behalf, and USD 2 million where a corporation or similar entity donates on behalf of an individual. On top of that sits a Department of Homeland Security processing fee of USD 15,000 per person, non-refundable, charged for a spouse and for each child as well.

So where does five million come from? From something else entirely: a Platinum Card that has not launched. The programme's official page states that this card has not yet been released, and makes no promise that the five million figure will survive to launch. Attaching an unsettled price for an unreleased product to the Gold Card gets both halves wrong.

It is not a new visa category

This matters more than the number. The order creates no new visa category, because a president cannot create one. That is Congress's job.

What it does is narrower. It treats the donation as evidence that an applicant satisfies the criteria of two categories that have existed for years: EB-1A, for people of extraordinary ability, and the EB-2 national interest waiver. The petition still runs through those categories, and it remains subject to the same annual visa caps. Money does not buy a place outside the quota.

The practical consequence is plain. If EB-1A or EB-2 NIW retrogresses for Vietnamese applicants, a Gold Card file sits in that same queue. None of the four established routes to a US green card has been displaced by this order.

Which also disposes of the marketing line that EB-5 is being wound down in the Gold Card's favour. EB-5 was created by an act of Congress, and an executive order cannot repeal it. The two differ in kind: EB-5 requires capital genuinely at risk and ten jobs created, while the Gold Card asks for a gift that does not come back.

How far the machinery has actually got

• Real filings go through trumpcard.gov, on Form I-140G.
• The Federal Register still carries no proposed rule and no final rule for the programme. What exists are two procedural notices about the form itself, at 91 FR 11559 and 91 FR 32074.
• The programme is being litigated. AAUP v. DHS, no. 1:26-cv-00300, was filed in the District Court for the District of Columbia on 3 February 2026. There is no ruling yet and no injunction, so the programme runs while the case does.
• On throughput, Commerce Secretary Lutnick told a hearing on 23 April 2026 that one person had recently been approved and that hundreds were in the queue. Roughly four and a half months in, the count was one.

The part Vietnamese families should weigh hardest

It is not the money. It is the tax.

The programme's official page states that applicants will be subject to US tax, including on non-US income. For a family that still holds a company, rental property or shareholdings in Vietnam, that sentence means all of that Vietnamese income comes inside the US filing net. It is a conversation to have with a tax adviser before signing anything, not afterwards.

What to do with all this

• Ask any adviser which document their figure comes from, and for its citation. It is an ordinary question in this trade.
• If you hear five million, ask whether they mean the Gold Card or the Platinum Card, and whether the Platinum Card has been released.
• Do not pay on a schedule the adviser invented, in a programme that has approved one applicant.

Set it against routes with published data and a working track record on our US immigration page, and against the other open programmes on the immigration overview. If you are holding a specific proposal and want it read line by line, send it over.

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The information in this article is for reference at the time of writing. It is not legal advice and no outcome is promised — immigration policy, tax rules and market conditions can change. For an assessment based on your family's specific circumstances, please request a consultation with the VNIS Investment team.