One applicant has received approval under the Trump administration's $1 million Gold Card visa program, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Reuters, marking the first publicly confirmed issuance since the program launched.

Lutnick, the Cabinet official who oversees the program, said only one person has cleared the new pathway so far. The disclosure exposes a slow start for a residency-by-investment product the Commerce Department has pitched as a faster, simpler alternative to long-standing US investor categories.

Each principal applicant pays $1 million to the US Treasury in exchange for expedited residency rights. Lutnick, speaking to Reuters, did not name the approved applicant, disclose their nationality, or indicate when the approval was issued.

What is the Gold Card visa?

The Gold Card sits alongside — and competes with — the EB-5 immigrant investor visa, the United States' longest-running investor-immigration track. Under EB-5, foreign nationals must invest a minimum of $800,000 in a targeted employment area — or $1,050,000 outside one — and their capital must create at least ten full-time US jobs. EB-5 processing routinely stretches past two years for most nationalities and far longer for applicants born in China or India.

The Gold Card removes both the employment-creation requirement and the geographic price tiers. Applicants pay the flat $1 million fee to the Treasury and wait for Commerce Department vetting. Trump administration officials have also publicly discussed a higher-priced "executive" tier that would sit above the standard Gold Card, though the Commerce Department has not yet published final pricing or eligibility criteria for it.

Why does one approval matter?

Trump and Lutnick promoted the Gold Card as a money-raiser for the federal government and as a tool to attract foreign capital into the United States. The single approved applicant highlights the gap between the program's early marketing and its actual processing throughput, after a high-profile rollout that Trump and Commerce officials used to position the program as a premier investor pathway.

What remains unclear?

Three operational questions will shape whether the Gold Card scales into a meaningful revenue stream for the federal government:

• Pathway to permanent residence. Officials have not specified whether an approval converts first to conditional status before producing a green card, or whether the $1 million fee is refundable if a principal applicant's case is later refused.
• Processing time. Lutnick has publicly called the program fast but has not committed to a written service-level timeline or a cap on annual applications.
• Dependents. The Commerce Department has not published final rules on whether spouses and minor children travel under the principal applicant's status, apply separately, or face additional fees.

Prospective applicants should monitor the program's official government website and treat any procedural step Commerce has not formally published as provisional, immigration practitioners said. The approval process, eligibility thresholds and fee schedule remain subject to federal rulemaking that has not yet concluded.