Recently filed public court records provide the clearest picture yet of how the federal Gold Card immigration program functions.
The data comes from sworn declarations filed by Andrew Parker, Branch Chief of the Residence and Admissibility Branch at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Cara M. Selby, Associate Director of Service Center Operations, as part of an ongoing lawsuit against Trump’s new visa.
Filed by the American Association of University Professors in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in February, the claim challenges Executive Order 14351—which established the “Gold Card” program—as an unlawful attempt to monetize immigration benefits that Congress reserved exclusively for merit.
The suit argues that the Trump administration bypassed Congress to prioritize wealth over skill, unlawfully redirecting capped EB-1 and EB-2 visas to affluent individuals and transforming a merit-based system into a financial fast lane.
From 483 inquiries to 88 petitions
According to Selby, “Since the Gold Card program went live on December 10, 2025, USCIS has received 483 requests for Gold Cards.”
Of those inquiries, she reported that USCIS successfully processed 196 requests with the required filing fee, while 88 Gold Card requestors submitted Form I-140G petitions to USCIS for adjudication.
Of the 88 petitions received:
- 3 were fully approved;
- 38 were conditionally approved;
- 13 were denied, withdrawn, or administratively closed; and
- 34 remained pending.
An earlier declaration in the same case, reflecting data through late April, reported 338 requests, 165 fee payments, and 59 petitions—so volume is growing slowly.
Nearly $3 million in fees, but billions more remain conditional
Based on Selby’s figures, the program’s 196 successfully processed applications generated about $2.94 million in filing-fee revenue from the $15,000 application fee.
Separately, Parker stated that the three final approvals occurred only after “the required gift was made to the U.S. government,” indicating at least $3 million in completed gift contributions. The Gold Card requires a $1 million gift from an individual applicant, or $2 million from a corporate sponsor, on top of the $15,000 fee.
If all 38 ultimately satisfy program requirements, they could represent at least $38 million in additional gift contributions, although the filings do not establish that those funds have already been transferred.
Most petitions required more evidence before approval
Selby also reported that, as of August 20, 2026, only three Form I-140G petitions had been approved without a Request for Evidence (RFE), resulting in a current RFE rate of 97%.
She further said that, by then, China had 24 conditional approvals and India had none, and noted that the government provided no comprehensive country-by-country applicant breakdown.
The government’s argument against the lawsuit
The declarations supported the government’s argument that the Gold Card program is too small to affect traditional employment-based immigration backlogs meaningfully.
That argument underpins a motion to dismiss filed April 28, which challenges the plaintiffs’ standing to sue rather than the program’s legality. The merits remain unaddressed.
Parker also wrote that “USCIS and DOS are on track to give final approval for four Forms I-140G per fiscal year, issuing visas to four principal applicants and no derivatives, all in the EB-1 category.”
For context, Selby said USCIS received 51,371 EB-1 petitions and 116,193 EB-2 petitions in fiscal 2025 and assigned 268 adjudicators to the standard EB-1 and EB-2 workload.
Facts vs reality
Before launch, government officials cited demand in the tens of thousands.
President Trump said more than 15,000 individuals had joined a waiting list, while Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick later cited nearly 70,000 sign-ups and approximately $1.3 billion in commitments. Officials also projected that the program could eventually issue 80,000 to 200,000 Gold Cards and generate between $100 billion and $1 trillion in revenue.
Practitioners point to a third explanation the filings do not address: tax. A Gold Card holder becomes a U.S. permanent resident, with worldwide income subject to U.S. tax and foreign assets subject to FATCA and FBAR reporting—and unlike an EB-5 investment, the $1 million gift is never returned. Several immigration attorneys have declined to take Gold Card cases on legal-risk grounds. Which of these explains why the gap is likely to remain a central issue in the litigation.
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