WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a new “Trump Gold Card” program designed to help U.S. companies retain top graduates from American universities — including thousands of students from India — ending what he called a “ridiculous” system that forces highly skilled talent to leave after completing their studies.
Speaking at a White House roundtable with leading technology CEOs, Trump said the initiative would give companies greater hiring certainty by allowing them to keep highly trained international students who currently face years-long immigration hurdles. “You graduate, number one from your college, and there’s no way of guaranteeing… there’s no way of guaranteeing that they’re able to stay in the country,” he said. “They have to go back to India, they have to go back to China, they have to go back to France.” Calling the status quo “a shame,” he argued that the Gold Card will eliminate a major barrier for U.S. companies competing for scientific and engineering expertise.
Trump added that CEO concerns — especially from Apple’s Tim Cook — accelerated the policy change. “Nobody talked to me more about it than Tim Cook. He said it’s a real — it’s a real problem.”
Introducing the details, Howard Lutnick said individuals would be able to obtain a Gold Card for $1 million, while corporations could purchase one for $2 million. The corporate version would allow a company to retain an employee following what he described as “full vetting, the best vetting the government has ever done.” The vetting process would cost $15,000 and ensure the candidate “absolutely qualify to be an American.”
Once approved, Lutnick said, an employee would gain a path to citizenship after five years. A company could then “put someone else on the card,” allowing firms to cycle foreign employees through a renewable, employment-linked residency pathway. He called the initiative “a gift to the United States of America… to help America be great again under Donald Trump.”
Trump said the program would also generate significant revenue for the federal government. “We think probably billions of dollars… many billions of dollars even,” he said, noting that uncertainty around existing visa categories has driven U.S. companies to shift staff to Canada and other countries. “The companies are going to be very happy,” he said. “As you know, they used to send people up to Canada… So we solved that.”
The roundtable convened top technology executives — including Michael Dell of Dell Technologies, Arvind Krishna of IBM, Cristiano Amon of Qualcomm, and leaders from HP and Hewlett Packard Enterprise — as the administration sought to underscore the link between immigration reform, workforce competitiveness and U.S. leadership in technology.
Trump repeatedly praised these companies for expanding manufacturing and AI capacity in the United States. He declared that the country was “leading artificial intelligence by a lot” and highlighted efforts to streamline regulation and reduce bureaucratic delays. “Our administration is committed to total dominance in technology,” he said. “We want to stay number one by a lot.”
While the CEOs did not directly comment on immigration policy, they stressed the importance of a stable workforce and affordable energy to support massive semiconductor and AI investments. Dell noted that AI and chip production “consume a great deal of power,” praising the administration’s work on lowering energy costs. Krishna emphasized the need to strengthen the full AI “stack,” including “semiconductors… software… systems… and the software applications on top.”
The Gold Card announcement marks one of the most consequential immigration policy shifts for Indian students and skilled workers in more than a decade. India is the second-largest source of foreign students in the United States and accounts for the majority of H-1B high-skilled visas, making the program of particular significance for the Indian tech workforce.
Successive U.S. administrations have struggled to reform employment-based immigration pathways due to congressional deadlock. Major technology companies have long argued that unpredictable visa lotteries and strict numerical caps undermine American competitiveness — concerns that the new Gold Card program aims to address. (Source: IANS)
