Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told a House panel Thursday that only one applicant has been fully approved under President Donald Trump's "Gold Card" visa program.
The program is a $1 million pathway to U.S. residency, which the administration launched in December, with hundreds of other applicants still being vetted.
The disclosure, delivered at a budget hearing, marked the first public accounting of approvals under a program the administration has pitched as a revenue generator. It now faces a pending federal lawsuit challenging its legality.
"They have approved recently one person, and there are hundreds in the queue," Lutnick said of the Department of Homeland Security, which conducts vetting in coordination with the Commerce and State departments. "They wanted to make sure they did it perfectly."
He did not identify the approved applicant and described the background review as rigorous.
Lutnick spoke before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, where he appeared to defend Trump's fiscal 2027 budget request for the Department of Commerce.
Applicants pay a $15,000 processing fee in addition to the $1 million contribution required for approval.
Under the program, DHS vets applicants, Commerce manages the $1 million contributions, and the State Department issues the visas.
Pressed by Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., on how the administration plans to spend the contributions, Lutnick said, "That would be determined by the administration, and its terms are for the betterment of the United States of America."
The Gold Card was created by an executive order Trump signed last September and began accepting applications through TrumpCard.gov in December.
According to the program's website, successful applicants receive lawful permanent resident status under the EB-1 or EB-2 employment-based visa categories, with the $1 million "gift" to the U.S. government treated as evidence that the applicant will substantially benefit the country.
A Corporate Gold Card sets the contribution at $2 million per employee.
The single-approval figure is far below what the administration has publicly suggested the program could produce.
Trump has said millions of cards could be sold, and Lutnick has projected billions in revenue.
Immigration attorneys have cautioned that because the Gold Card draws from the EB-1 and EB-2 categories, which are subject to annual numerical caps and per-country limits, approvals are likely to remain constrained regardless of demand.
The program is also under legal challenge.
On Feb. 3, the American Association of University Professors and several immigrant researchers sued in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, arguing that the executive branch cannot convert merit-based EB-1 and EB-2 categories into a payment-based path without congressional action.
The complaint, citing the Administrative Procedure Act and the Immigration and Nationality Act, names Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as defendants and asks the court to declare the program unlawful and to halt its operation.
Plaintiffs argue that Congress already created a statutory investor visa, the EB-5 program, which requires job-creating investments, and that the Gold Card bypasses those guardrails.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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