Policies & Analysis

This order purports to invent a new way of obtaining an EB-1 or EB-2 visa, which are reserved for people of "extraordinary ability" in their profession, by promising to give those visas instead to anyone willing to pay $1 million or whose employer is willing to pay $2 million. EB-1 visas are employment-based visas for individuals who show "extraordinary ability" in their field, which usually amounts to international recognition or significant recognition or prominence in their profession, and for managers and executives of multinational firms with a branch in the United States. EB-2 visas are employment-based visas for people with advanced degrees who receive either DOL permission to work in the United States or a national interest waiver, and also for people of extraordinary ability. The "Gold Card" order purports to determine that anyone who can pay $1 million, or whose employer can pay $2 million, automatically has qualifies for an EB-1 visa even if they do not have a job offer in the United States or "extensive documentation" of their "achievements" or "national or international acclaim." The order also purports to classify such individuals as having "extraordinary ability" in "business" and to classify their presence as "in the national interest," which waives the normal requirement that they have a job offer. The money for these "Gold Card" visas is to be paid to the Department of Commerce, placed in an account at the Treasury, and spent "to promote commerce and American industry." EB-1 and EB-2 visas are subject to an annual cap set by Congress, and thus any visas awarded via the "Gold Card" process will reduce the number of people of actual "extraordinary ability" who receive them.