President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the US was creating a “gold card” that would enable wealthy foreigners to live and work in the US in exchange for a fee of about $5 million.
“You have a green card, this is a gold card,” he told reporters in the Oval Office, calling it a route to citizenship with green card privileges.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik, speaking alongside Trump, said the card would replace the EB-5 immigrant investor visa program, which he described as “full of nonsense, make-believe, and fraud.”
Lutnik contrasted the new program with the EB-5, which he said was a “low-price” way to get a green card.
The EB-5 program grants foreign investors the chance to obtain a green card if they create jobs and make a minimum investment in US commercial enterprises of $1.05 million — or $800,000 in rural and high-unemployment areas.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, the US issues about 10,000 EB-5 visas each year.
Lutnick said money raised by the new program could be used to reduce the US deficit.
The newly proposed “gold card” program would require a significantly higher investment.
“Wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card,” Trump said, adding: “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.”
Trump also didn’t rule out selling the cards to Russian oligarchs, saying he knew “some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.”
But Lutnick said that foreigners would be vetted to ensure that they are “wonderful, world-class global citizens.”
Trump and Lutnick said additional details would be available within two weeks.
Trump’s latest proposal is not without precedent, as similar programs exist in the United Arab Emirates, the Caribbean, and, more recently, New Zealand.
Immigration has been a central focus for Trump since he returned to the White House, including efforts to implement mass deportations of migrants living in the US unlawfully and to end birthright citizenship — a move facing legal challenges.
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