Buying a US passport? The Gold Card, EB-5 and the realistic route to US citizenship

Few passports are as sought after as the American one, and hardly any country is so often linked with money as the United States. Investor visa, Gold Card, Platinum Card: search for how to buy US citizenship and you'll run into a lot of terms and even more misunderstandings. Yet the legal position is clear, and for your second passport it holds a real opportunity. For the big picture of where naturalisation through residence works well, read naturalisation abroad. How the countries that genuinely grant citizenship for investment build their programmes is explained in buying citizenship.

Can you buy US citizenship?

The short answer is no. The US has no citizenship by investment programme, and there is no amount for which Washington will make you a citizen. What does exist are routes to a Green Card, meaning lawful permanent resident status. Citizenship only follows later, through naturalisation.

According to the immigration authority USCIS, the most common route to a US passport runs through permanent resident status. For adults, it looks like this:

At first glance that sounds sobering. But it has one clear consequence for your planning: the bottleneck isn't naturalisation, it's the Green Card. Get the Green Card quickly and securely, and while the longer stretch of the road still lies ahead, the clock is running. This is exactly where the Gold Card and EB-5 come in.

The Gold Card: a Green Card for a million dollars

The Gold Card goes back to Executive Order 14351 of 19 September 2025. The programme sits with the US Department of Commerce, which runs it together with the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security. The idea is simple: under the order, anyone who makes a gift of a set amount to the government thereby meets the requirements of two existing Green Card categories, EB-1 and EB-2. The gift counts as evidence of exceptional business ability and of a benefit to the United States.

You apply through the official website trumpcard.gov, where you pay the processing fee. Once it has arrived, USCIS gets in touch and asks you to file Form I-140G, the Immigrant Petition for the Gold Card Program, in your online account with the agency. There is no paper application.

What the Gold Card costs

You pay the $15,000 processing fee up front, and it isn't refunded. The $1 million gift only follows once the security check is complete. Smaller State Department fees may come on top. For a family with a spouse and two children under 21, the gift therefore adds up to $4 million.

What the Gold Card gives you, and what it doesn't

With the Gold Card you become a lawful permanent resident in the EB-1 or EB-2 category. That's a full Green Card: you may live, work and run a business in the US. The government says the process should take weeks once the fees and application are in, with a visa interview as part of it. At the same time, it points out that for a handful of countries of origin there may be waiting times of a year or more, because visas in these categories are capped.

Three points you should know before you do the maths:

1. The Gold Card is not a passport. It's a Green Card. The programme provides no route of its own to citizenship; the normal path through naturalisation applies.
2. The Gold Card can be revoked. The government says so itself: in cases of national security risks or serious crimes, the status can be withdrawn. A right of residence remains a permission, even one that cost a million.
3. The Gold Card makes you taxable in the US. Holders are taxable in the US on their entire income, including income from abroad. According to the tax authority, the IRS, this applies to all resident aliens and to US citizens, even when they live abroad.

If you want to understand the programme in full detail, you'll find a thorough account in the Gold Card: a Green Card for $1 million.

And the Platinum Card?

Alongside the Gold Card, a Platinum Card has been announced. On trumpcard.gov it is listed as not yet released, and there is only a waiting list. The plan is a $15,000 fee and a contribution of $5 million, which the government says may still change. The card is meant to allow up to 270 days a year in the US without income from abroad being taxed there. US citizens and resident aliens are excluded. So the Platinum Card, too, is a residence model and not a route to a passport.

The EB-5 visa: a Green Card through investment

Long before the Gold Card, there was already an investor route into the US set down in law: the EB-5 programme. Unlike the Gold Card, you don't give the government anything. You invest in a US business, and that business has to create jobs.

Since the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 15 March 2022, these minimum amounts apply:

• $1,050,000 as the standard amount
• $800,000 for an investment in a Targeted Employment Area, meaning a rural area or one with high unemployment, or in an infrastructure project

According to the USCIS Policy Manual, both amounts rise automatically on 1 January 2027 and every five years after that. The business must create at least ten full-time jobs for workers in the US, with full time meaning at least 35 hours a week.

The second big difference from the Gold Card: what you get first is not a permanent Green Card but a conditional one. It's valid for two years. In the 90 days before it expires, you file Form I-829 to have the conditions removed. To do so, you show that your investment was sustained during those two years and that the ten jobs have been created or will be within a reasonable time. This matters for naturalisation: under the USCIS Policy Manual, conditional permanent residents can generally only naturalise once the conditions have been removed.

How regional centers, direct investment, project due diligence and fees work in detail is set out in the guide to the EB-5 investor visa.

Gold Card or EB-5: the comparison

Both routes lead to a Green Card, and both cost around a million. Even so, they appeal to completely different people:

The Gold Card is the fast and simple route for anyone who doesn't need the money back and has no appetite for project vetting and proof of jobs. The EB-5 visa suits investors who want to see their capital again in the end and are prepared to carry the risk of a project and a longer review in return. For both, the US passport is still at least five years away.

What other routes lead to a Green Card?

A million isn't the only key. The Green Card has many doors: marriage to a US citizen, an employer who sponsors you, extraordinary ability in your field, or a venture in the US national interest. The Gold Card executive order itself, incidentally, rests on exactly these categories: EB-1, and EB-2 with the National Interest Waiver. That's why entrepreneurs and professionals often have a route that costs far less than a million dollars.

Which visas and Green Cards fit your profile is a subject in its own right, covered in depth in our network's guides to US visas. For your second passport, something else counts: every one of these routes starts the same clock, the naturalisation clock.

From Green Card holder to US citizen: the realistic timeline

Once you're a permanent resident, the requirements for a US passport are clearly set out. For the standard case, USCIS requires:

• at least 18 years old when you apply
• five years as a lawful permanent resident
• five years of continuous residence in the US immediately before applying
• at least 30 months of physical presence within those five years
• at least three months of residence in the state or district where you apply
• good moral character
• basic English and a test on US history and government (civics)
• attachment to the Constitution and the Oath of Allegiance

If you're married to a US citizen, three years as a permanent resident living in marital union are enough, with at least 18 months of them physically in the US.

Application, fee and deadlines

The application runs through Form N-400. It costs $710 online and $760 on paper. You may file up to 90 calendar days before you reach the five years or the three years. Then come the interview, the English and civics test, and finally the ceremony with the Oath of Allegiance. With the certificate in hand, you apply for your US passport.

How the process works step by step, from N-400 to the ceremony, is described in the guide to US citizenship and Form N-400. What naturalisation means for you as a German with your second passport in mind is covered in USA: from Green Card holder to US citizen.

What the timeline looks like in practice

So the honest sum is this: even with a million on the table, you won't hold a US passport before five years are up, and even then only if you've genuinely lived in the US during that time. If you keep living in Germany, Switzerland or anywhere else and only enter now and then, you won't meet the presence requirement.

Dual citizenship: become American, stay German

For Germans, the starting position has improved fundamentally. The German Federal Foreign Office puts it in a nutshell: since 27 June 2024, acquiring a foreign nationality on application no longer leads to losing German citizenship. So you can become American and stay German without having to get permission first.

One point belongs in your planning from day one: the US taxes its people on the basis of citizenship. According to the IRS, US citizens are taxable on their worldwide income wherever they live, and the same applies to Green Card holders. That's no reason to turn down the US passport, but it is a reason to prepare for it properly. How tax filing in both countries fits together is explained in the guide to US taxes for dual citizens. What the Oath of Allegiance means legally and which duties dual citizens have is shown in the article on German and US dual citizenship.

Why you don't have to wait five years without a second passport

Here lies the real flaw in the question of a bought US passport. Spend a million on the Gold Card and what you buy is a right of residence and a waiting period. Five years in which your status hangs on conditions, in which you count your days of presence, and in which, outside the US, you still travel on a single passport.

A passport is a right, not a permission. A Green Card can be revoked; citizenship belongs to you. And that's exactly why the smartest plan is rarely either/or:

1. Naturalisation is the route without a seven-figure sum, and often ends in the stronger passport. The US is an excellent destination for it, if you want to live there.
2. A citizenship by investment passport buys you time. While the naturalisation clock is ticking, you already hold a second nationality today, for a fraction of the Gold Card. In Grenada, for example, the contribution to the National Transformation Fund starts at $235,000 for the main applicant with up to three dependants, and you don't need to visit the island. All the details are on the Grenada page.
3. You keep both passports. When the US passport arrives, you don't hand back your second passport, and you don't give up your German one either.

Why this dual route is the best strategy for most people is explained in CBI and naturalisation. Why the Grenada passport comes up so often when people talk about the US is shown in the Grenada passport and the E-2 visa. How the programmes differ on amount, timing and family is set out in the comparison, and what a second passport costs overall in costs.

In the end you hold not one passport but three: the German one, the American one, and the one that kept you covered through the years in between.

Frequently asked questions