A ‘Trump Card Visa’ Is Already Showing Up in Immigration FormsNEWS | 13 May 2025Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has started rolling out digital infrastructure for a new golden visa immigration program, according to sources familiar with the matter, public records, and tests conducted by WIRED. The White House has yet to formally announce the initiative, but some US permanent residents and foreign visitors are already being asked if they have applied for a “Trump Card Visa.”
President Donald Trump first floated the idea of creating a $5 million golden visa in February, describing it as a way for wealthy individuals to buy residency in the United States and a pathway to becoming US citizens. How this would work is unclear: Federal law dictates how many permanent residency cards can be issued each year and who can get them, and experts say Congress would need to pass new legislation to raise the cap or change eligibility rules.
DOGE’s involvement in the visa project shows how quickly Musk and his team have expanded their purview. Trump’s initial executive order creating DOGE tasked the group with boosting government productivity by "modernizing federal technology and software.” Less than four months later, DOGE appears to be playing a central role in shaping the American immigration system.
Representatives from DOGE have spent the past several weeks coordinating on the golden visa program with officials from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the State Department, and other agencies, according to sources with knowledge of the meetings. On Musk’s side, the project is being overseen by two high-profile DOGE associates, Marko Elez and Edward Coristine.
One focus area for Musk’s team has been figuring out how to plug current US government systems for verifying travelers and processing immigration applications into what may eventually become a stand-alone website designed specifically for the Trump Card Visa. In late March, DOGE registered the domain trumpcard.gov, according to public records published by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Tests conducted by WIRED show the website has subdomains corresponding to a number of federal agencies and systems, including CBP, the State Department, and the USCIS Electronic Immigration System, the main portal for processing visa paperwork. The subdomains indicate that trumpcard.gov has been connected to digital infrastructure across multiple parts of the federal government.
A reference to the Trump Card Visa has also been added in the live application form for Global Entry, a program run by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that allows preapproved US citizens, green card holders, and travelers from certain countries to enter the US through a fast lane, saving them time at the airport. People who apply for Global Entry with a foreign passport are currently given the option to select if they have “submitted an application for a Trump Card Visa,” tests by WIRED show.
WIRED confirmed that citizens of China, Russia, Ukraine, South Korea, and many other countries are eligible to select the Trump Card Visa option in their Global Entry applications. It appears that only Canadian nationals are excluded; they are directed instead to the existing NEXUS program for prescreened travelers from the US and Canada to speed through customs processing.Author: Andy Greenberg. Louise Matsakis. Zoë Schiffer. Leah Feiger. Makena Kelly. Caroline Haskins. Matt Giles. Lauren Goode. Joel Khalili. Source
