Washington: US President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order ushering in sweeping changes to the nation’s immigration policy, including the launch of a high-cost ‘Gold Card’ visa programme and a hefty new fee on H-1B visa applications.

The reforms, hailed by the administration as a move to protect American jobs and revenue, were strongly endorsed by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.

‘Gold Card’ visa

The newly established ‘Gold Card’ visa offers a fast-track to U.S. residency and citizenship for individuals and businesses able to pay substantial entry fees — $1 million for individuals and $2 million for businesses. Trump said the programme would generate significant revenue for the government.

"We think it's going to be very successful... It's going to raise billions of dollars, which will reduce taxes, pay off debt, and do other good things," President Trump said at the signing ceremony.

Reversing the course

In a post on X shortly after the announcement, Secretary Lutnick praised the Trump administration for breaking from what he described as the previous Democratic administration’s failed immigration policies.

"For the past four years, open-border Democrats endlessly flooded the country with illegal aliens at the expense of hard-working Americans. The Trump administration is completely reversing course on that disastrous agenda," Lutnick wrote.

"These programmes guarantee that recipients who come to work in America must provide significant benefit to our great country. We are ending workers taking jobs away from hard-working Americans and taking advantage of our economy and providing nothing in return. The Trump Card begins to restore our immigration system to its intended purpose: significantly benefitting America," he added.

H-1B visa

Alongside the Gold Card programme, Trump also issued a presidential proclamation imposing a $100,000 annual fee on all H-1B visa applications, to be paid by employers. The move is designed to curb what the administration sees as widespread misuse of the skilled-worker visa system and to ensure only highly qualified foreign professionals are allowed entry.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant programme that permits U.S. companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations requiring theoretical or technical expertise — commonly in STEM and IT sectors.

Lutnick sharply criticised the current employment-based green card scheme, claiming it disproportionately favours low-wage earners and does little to benefit the U.S. economy.

"We are going to stop doing that. We're going to only take extraordinary people at the very top, instead of those trying to take jobs from Americans," he said.

"They're going to create businesses and create jobs for Americans. And this programme will raise more than $100 billion for the Treasury of the United States of America," Lutnick added.

He further argued that the current system welcomed people from the "bottom quartile", referencing the average earnings of green card recipients at $66,000 per year, which he labelled as unsustainable.

"Through the Gold Card plan, we will only allow 'extraordinary people at the very top' to come to the U.S., who can create business and jobs for Americans," Lutnick said.

The Trump administration claims the dual-pronged immigration overhaul will serve three key goals: ensuring economic contribution from foreign entrants, safeguarding employment for American citizens, and generating billions in government revenue.