President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday the introduction of a “gold card” visa program, allowing wealthy foreigners to obtain permanent U.S. residency and a pathway to citizenship in exchange for a $5 million fee.
“You have a green card, this is a gold card,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, calling it a route to citizenship with green card privileges.
“Wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card.”
Trump added, “They’ll be wealthy, and they’ll be successful, and they’ll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, speaking alongside Donald Trump, said the proposed “gold card” program would replace the EB-5 immigrant investor visa, which he criticized as “full of nonsense, make-believe, and fraud.”
Lutnik contrasted the proposed “gold card” program with the EB-5 visa, calling the latter a “low-price” way to obtain a green card.
Under the EB-5 program, foreign investors can secure a green card by investing at least $1.05 million in U.S. businesses—or $800,000 in rural or high-unemployment areas—while also meeting job creation requirements.
The Department of Homeland Security reports that the U.S. issues about 10,000 EB-5 visas annually.
Lutnick stated that the money raised from the “gold card” program could help reduce the U.S. deficit.