Experts have warned that those hoping to fast-track their U.S. visa application via Donald Trump’s gold card scheme could end up losing a fortune due to potential legal obstacles, Axios reported.
The president’s program allows wealthy foreigners who have passed a background check to apply for EB-1 or EB-2 visas—usually reserved for those with “extraordinary ability”—once they have paid $1 million on top of a $15,000 processing fee to the Department of Homeland Security.
However, legal experts have said courts could still decide that using Trump’s Gold Card route to citizenship is illegal because Congress has not approved it. If that were to happen, applicants risk not having their $1 million fee returned.
“At the very minimum, they’d have to sue the U.S. government to get it back,” Shev Dalal-Dheini, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told Axios.
Dalal-Dheini also warned that any successful legal challenge to Trump’s financial-loophole visa scheme could result in recipients having their citizenship revoked. Those who apply for EB-1 or EB-2 visas through the traditional route could also miss out on having their applications approved.
“They are supposed to go to Nobel Prize winners, people who have done groundbreaking research—doctors, athletes, [people] providing services,” she said. “This gold card has no requirement. It’s just, ‘give us a million dollars and feel free to do whatever you want in the United States,’ instead of ‘individuals of exceptional ability.’”
Shira Levine, deputy legal director at the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area, also warned that people who apply for Trump’s gold card scheme could end up becoming victims of fraud because the program bypasses the usual legal process.
“There are not steps made to make sure people receive accurate information and have access to legitimate counsel,” Levine told Axios. “We’ve created a system where people don’t know what the law is, and everyone has to guess what the Trump admin and his appointees say the rule is, rather than what it actually is.”
Trump’s gold card program was launched on Wednesday. The administration is also proposing a $5 million “platinum card” scheme that would allow holders to spend up to 270 days in the U.S. without being subject to U.S. taxes on non-U.S. income.
“President Trump has been clear: our immigration system should benefit the United States of America, which deserves the best and brightest who can contribute to our country,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai told Axios in a statement.
“Unfortunately for liberals and Democrats, neither the Trump administration nor the American people are interested in flooding our country with people who cannot contribute to our country or follow our laws.”
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