For years, restrictive student visa policies in the U.S. have limited college enrollment among international students. President Donald Trump's proposed gold card visa program, which he said would offer permanent residency for a price of $5 million, could change that for some wealthy college hopefuls.
While the details of the initiative remain unclear, experts say the program could offer these students from overseas a new path to citizenship.
"Over the past 24 hours, we received an unusual influx of inquiries from students in China, Korea and India because of Trump's gold card visa," Christopher Rim, president and CEO of college consulting firm Command Education, said Thursday, two days after Trump first floated the idea.
"Now these wealthy international students have a clear path of staying in the country after graduation," he said.
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There are more than 1.1 million international undergraduate and graduate students in the U.S., mostly from India and China, making up slightly less than 6% of the total U.S. higher education population, according to the latest Open Doors data, released by the U.S. Department of State and the Institute of International Education.
"It's a relatively small cohort, but these policies can have great value," said Robert Franek, editor-in-chief of The Princeton Review.
International enrollment is an important source of revenue for schools such as New York University and Columbia University, which is why colleges tend to rely on a contingent of foreign students, who typically pay full tuition, according to Franek.
"We know those students are incredibly attractive because they are not applying for financial aid," he said.
In fact, "more than 95% of four-year colleges in the U.S. are tuition driven," Franek said. "For schools dependent on students paying tuition, we know this [visa option] is going to be a benefit."
Altogether, international student enrollment contributed $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy during the 2023-24 academic year, according to a separate report by NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
A spotlight on college access
However, Trump's proposed gold card also comes at a time when college access is increasingly in the spotlight.
"Clearly those families that can afford it will take advantage of that, but I don't know what the net long-term effect on higher education will be," said James Lewis, co-founder of the National Society of High School Scholars, an academic honor society.
"We certainly want to make college accessible for everyone," he said.
The rising cost of college and ballooning student loan balances have in recent years played a big role in families' changing views about the higher education system, which many already think is rigged to benefit the wealthy, other studies show.
Even with decades-old legacy preferences now in question, and more schools ending that practice of giving preferential treatment to children of alumni, privilege is still evident in admissions.
Children from families in the top 1% are more than twice as likely to attend a top college as those from middle-class families with comparable SAT or ACT scores, according to a 2023 paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Higher education already costs more than most families can afford, and college costs are still rising.
Tuition and fees plus room and board for a four-year private college averaged $58,600 in the 2024-25 school year, up from $56,390 a year earlier, the College Board found. At four-year, in-state public colleges, it was $24,920, up from $24,080.
For most families, financial aid is crucial when it comes to covering the cost of college, and particularly for students from low-income, first-generation or minority backgrounds.