Brazil Teams Up With Canada and Others as New US Residency Route Expands Long Stay Travel Opportunities for Nearby Countries

Image generated with Ai

Brazil, Canada, India, China, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and other major wealth markets could see rising interest in the United States Gold Card programme as wealthy investors reassess where they live, invest and build long-term business ties. The programme, created by the Trump administration on 19 September 2025, provides an expedited immigrant-visa pathway for qualifying foreign nationals who make substantial financial contributions to the United States. An individual contribution is set at US$1 million, while a corporation or similar entity may contribute US$2 million on behalf of an individual.

The policy is significant because it enters a global market in which wealthy individuals are becoming increasingly mobile. New World Wealth data published by Henley & Partners estimates that 134,000 millionaires changed country in 2024, rising to a provisional 142,000 in 2025, while 165,000 are forecast to relocate internationally in 2026.

For the United States, the Gold Card adds another residence option alongside existing investor and employment-based immigration routes. However, it is not a long-stay tourist visa, does not automatically grant citizenship and has not abolished the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Programme.

Gold Card enters a rapidly expanding global wealth migration market

The broader context is important. Wealthy families increasingly use multiple residence and citizenship options rather than relying on a single country. Henley & Partners describes this as a growing strategy of jurisdictional diversification, with internationally mobile families seeking access to different markets, education systems, business environments and long-term residence options.

The scale of millionaire migration has risen sharply over the past decade.

The projected 165,000 millionaire moves in 2026 would be more than three times the 51,000 recorded in 2013. That broader shift creates a potentially large international market for any residency route aimed specifically at affluent individuals.

India could generate strong demand because of visa backlogs

India is one of the clearest markets where the Gold Card could attract attention.

The US State Department confirmed that India exhausted all available unreserved EB-5 immigrant visas allocated to Indian applicants for fiscal year 2026 by 5 June 2026. Consulates were unable to issue further visas in that category until annual limits reset on 1 October 2026.

India also reached its fiscal year 2026 limit in the EB-2 employment-based category.

The October 2026 Visa Bulletin shows how significant the queues remain:

This does not mean the Gold Card automatically eliminates those waiting periods. Its legal structure and adjudication remain separate. However, for wealthy Indian applicants who can meet the financial threshold, a separate immigration mechanism may become an important alternative to conventional employment-based pathways.

India also has a strong wealth-mobility profile. Henley & Partners says Indian nationals have ranked among its Top 5 source markets for residence and citizenship applications since 2021, while India is its leading nationality for enquiries in 2026.

That combination of increasing wealth, strong international mobility demand and long US employment-based queues makes India one of the most important countries to watch.

China faces an even longer EB-5 queue

China represents another major potential source market.

The October 2026 Visa Bulletin lists the EB-5 unreserved final-action date for mainland China as 1 December 2016, compared with 1 December 2023 for India.

China’s employment-based backlogs are also visible elsewhere:

• EB-1: 1 July 2023
• EB-2: 1 October 2021
• EB-3: 8 January 2022
• EB-5 unreserved: 1 December 2016

By comparison, most countries outside the specially listed high-demand markets remain current in the EB-5 unreserved category.

China is also one of the world’s largest sources of newly created wealth. Henley & Partners notes that Chinese nationals remain among the major source nationalities for investment-migration applications, even though China itself does not operate a conventional investment-migration programme.

This creates a different but equally important Gold Card market: investors with substantial assets who already have experience considering overseas residence programmes.

Brazil represents a different type of opportunity

Brazil does not face the same EB-5 backlog as India or China. In the October 2026 Visa Bulletin, countries outside the specifically listed oversubscribed markets are current in the EB-5 unreserved category.

Brazil’s potential interest is instead connected to international wealth mobility.

Henley & Partners gives Brazil a Wealth Mobility Competitiveness Score of 64.2 out of 100 in its 2026 framework and identifies it among markets facing structural pressure in retaining internationally mobile wealth.

For wealthy Brazilian families, the attraction of the US Gold Card would therefore be less about escaping a visa backlog and more about adding another residence option connected with:

• business expansion;
• investment diversification;
• education;
• family residence planning;
• access to US markets;
• long-term international mobility.

That distinction is important. Brazil could be a relevant market for the Gold Card, but not for exactly the same reasons as India or China.

Canada already attracts wealthy migrants but could still generate outbound interest

Canada occupies a different position again.

Henley data for 2025 projected a net inflow of about 1,000 millionaires to Canada, carrying an estimated US$5.7 billion in investable wealth.

Canada is therefore itself a destination for wealthy migrants rather than primarily a source of wealth outflow.

However, wealthy Canadian entrepreneurs or families with strong US business interests could still view the Gold Card as an additional residence option. The attraction would not necessarily be migration away from Canada, but the ability to establish deeper economic and residential ties with the United States.

That is especially relevant because global high-net-worth families increasingly maintain connections with multiple jurisdictions rather than making a single permanent relocation.

UAE remains the worlds leading millionaire migration hub

The United Arab Emirates could become another important Gold Card source market, although for very different reasons.

Henley data projected the UAE to attract a net 9,800 millionaires in 2025, carrying an estimated US$63 billion in investable wealth. That was the largest projected millionaire inflow globally.

The UAE also recorded millionaire population growth of 98% between 2014 and 2024.

This means the UAE is not primarily a market characterised by residents trying to leave. Instead, it functions as a global concentration point for internationally mobile wealth.

For US Gold Card demand, that could matter greatly because many UAE residents are multinational entrepreneurs, investors and family-office clients whose wealth and business interests span several countries.

Potential applicants could include:

• entrepreneurs based in Dubai or Abu Dhabi;
• internationally mobile family offices;
• investors with US business interests;
• wealthy expatriate residents;
• corporate founders seeking US residence options.

Saudi Arabia is also becoming a major wealth magnet

Saudi Arabia has also emerged as a significant destination for mobile wealth.

Henley projected a net inflow of 2,400 millionaires in 2025, carrying around US$18.4 billion in investable wealth.

Its millionaire population grew by 55% between 2014 and 2024.

Saudi Arabia’s potential Gold Card market would therefore likely come from wealthy residents seeking diversification rather than from a large US visa backlog.

The same logic applies across much of the Gulf. High levels of internationally mobile capital mean that the United States would be competing with established residence and investment destinations rather than simply offering an escape route from domestic constraints.

Singapore combines wealth concentration with strong international mobility

Singapore is another relevant market.

The country was projected to attract 1,600 millionaires in 2025, carrying around US$8.9 billion in investable assets.

Its millionaire population expanded by 62% between 2014 and 2024.

Henley gives Singapore a 79.5 out of 100 Wealth Mobility Competitiveness Score in 2026, placing it among the jurisdictions it describes as structurally well positioned for internationally mobile wealth.

The significance for the Gold Card is clear: Singapore already hosts a concentrated population of investors who routinely operate across multiple jurisdictions.

South Korea and Vietnam could form a growing Asian market

South Korea and Vietnam may also be important.

Henley identifies South Korea as a market where founder families and wealthy business owners are increasingly considering international diversification, including because of inheritance taxation and succession-planning considerations.

Vietnam’s relevance comes from rapid private-wealth growth and expanding international investment activity.

Neither country faces the same US immigration pressure as India or China, but both have significant populations of internationally active entrepreneurs.

That creates a potential market for a US residency route based on wealth rather than employer sponsorship.

Gold Card differs fundamentally from EB-5

The Gold Card and EB-5 should not be treated as interchangeable programmes.

The Gold Card operates around a direct contribution to the US government:

EB-5, by contrast, is a statutory employment-creation immigrant category.

For fiscal year 2027, EB-5 visa allocation is divided as follows:

• 20% reserved for qualifying rural investments;
• 10% reserved for high-unemployment-area investments;
• 2% reserved for infrastructure projects;
• 68% allocated to the unreserved category.

The distinction matters because Gold Card contributions do not simply function as conventional EB-5 investments.

Per country limits help explain pressure on India

US immigration law also creates numerical constraints that help explain why demand produces much longer queues for some nationalities.

For fiscal year 2026, the worldwide family-sponsored preference limit was 226,000, while the employment-based preference limit was 186,317.

The standard per-country ceiling is 7% of the combined family and employment preference total.

That translated into a fiscal year 2026 per-country limit of 28,862, or 29,136 when relevant EB-5 carryover numbers were included.

This is why population size matters. A country with very high demand can encounter substantial queues even when applicants are individually qualified.

India’s exhaustion of its EB-5 unreserved allocation during fiscal year 2026 provides a direct example of that pressure.

Which markets have the clearest Gold Card demand drivers

Different countries bring different reasons for potential Gold Card interest.

These figures do not establish an official ranking of Gold Card beneficiaries. No nationality receives an automatic preference merely because it appears in a high-demand or high-wealth market.

Gold Card price creates a very narrow target market

The US$1 million individual contribution immediately limits the programme to a small share of international travellers.

Henley’s definition of a millionaire or high-net-worth individual is someone with at least US$1 million in liquid investable wealth.

That means an applicant at the lower boundary of that definition would theoretically have to contribute the equivalent of their entire liquid investable wealth merely to meet the Gold Card gift requirement.

In practice, the programme is therefore more likely to appeal to considerably wealthier individuals for whom US$1 million represents only part of their investable assets.

The US$2 million corporate contribution option could create another route for multinational employers or organisations willing to sponsor high-value executives or entrepreneurs, although applicants would still need to satisfy applicable immigration requirements.

America is entering an increasingly competitive residency market

The Gold Card also places the United States more directly into a competitive international market for wealthy residents.

In 2025, projected millionaire inflows included:

• UAE: +9,800
• United States: +7,500
• Italy: +3,600
• Switzerland: +3,000
• Saudi Arabia: +2,400
• Singapore: +1,600
• Portugal: +1,400
• Greece: +1,200
• Canada: +1,000

The United States was therefore already one of the world’s largest destinations for millionaire migration before the Gold Card was introduced.

That means the programme is not attempting to create wealthy immigration demand from nothing. It adds another route into a country already attracting substantial private wealth.

What this means for travel and international mobility

The most important travel implication is that the Gold Card should be understood as a residence and immigration pathway, not as an enhanced tourist visa.

For successful applicants, US residence could support:

• more frequent travel between the United States and their home markets;
• longer periods of residence in the US;
• expanded business travel;
• education-related family mobility;
• stronger cross-border investment activity;
• increased demand for premium aviation and long-haul travel;
• greater use of international financial and professional services.

However, these are potential downstream effects rather than guaranteed outcomes.

Actual travel patterns will depend on how many applications are approved, where applicants come from and how Gold Card holders ultimately use their US residence rights.

Latest position

The US Gold Card programme enters the market at a time when an estimated 165,000 millionaires are forecast to relocate internationally during 2026, compared with 51,000 in 2013.

India and China stand out because existing US visa backlogs create a strong structural reason for wealthy applicants to consider alternatives. Brazil and Canada offer different dynamics centred on cross-border investment and residence diversification, while the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Singapore represent major concentrations of internationally mobile capital.

Brazil teams up with Canada and others as new US residency route expands long stay travel opportunities for nearby countries, driven by the Gold Card programme offering wealthy investors a faster pathway to US residence.

The programme does not guarantee residence solely because an applicant can pay US$1 million or US$2 million, and it does not replace EB-5. Its significance lies in creating another US immigration channel at a time when global competition for wealthy residents, entrepreneurs and investment capital is intensifying.