Trump says he will offer ‘gold cards’ for $5 million path to citizenship, replacing investor visas
President Donald Trump wants to offer wealthy immigrants “gold cards,” offering to sell them the possibility of citizenship for $5 million.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he plans to offer a “gold card” visa with a path to citizenship for $5 million, replacing a 35-year-old visa for investors.
“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, and we think it’s going to be extremely successful,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the “Trump Gold Card” would replace EB-5 visas in two weeks. EB-5s were created by Congress in 1990 to generate foreign investment and are available to people who spend about $1 million on a company that employs at least 10 people.
Lutnick said the gold card — actually a green card, or permanent legal residency — would raise the price of admission for investors and do away with fraud and “nonsense” that he said characterize the EB-5 program. Like other green cards, it would include a path to citizenship.
About 8,000 people obtained investor visas in the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, 2022, according to the Homeland Security Department’s most recent Yearbook of Immigration Statistics. The Congressional Research Service reported in 2021 that EB-5 visas pose risks of fraud, including verification that funds were obtained legally.
Investors’ visas are common around the world. Henley & Partners, an advisory firm, says more than 100 countries around the world offer “golden visas” to wealthy individuals, including the United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Greece, Malta, Australia, Canada and Italy.
Trump made no mention of the requirements for job creation. And, while the number of EB-5 visas is capped, Trump mused that the federal government could sell 10 million “gold cards” to reduce the deficit. He said it “could be great, maybe it will be fantastic.”
“It’s somewhat like a green card, but at a higher level of sophistication, it’s a road to citizenship for people, and essentially people of wealth or people of great talent, where people of wealth pay for those people of talent to get in, meaning companies will pay for people to get in and to have long, long term status in the country,” he said.
Congress determines qualifications for citizenship, but Trump said “gold cards” would not require congressional approval.
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President Trump delivers in the Oval Office at the White House on Feb. 21. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
President Trump announced Tuesday the administration plans to offer $5 million “gold cards,” which grant individuals permanent U.S. residency.
The big picture: The new system would replace the existing EB-5 program, a system launched in the 1900s to offers green cards to individuals who invested in the U.S., and serve as a route to citizenship, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Driving the news: “We’re going to be selling a gold card” and that it would bolster the economy,” Trump said, adding that he believes it will bolster the economy.
Between the lines: By potentially eliminating the EB-5 program and replacing it with the so-called “gold card,” the new program would effectively let the wealthy buy their way into the U.S. without having to create jobs or build businesses.
Zoom in: The minimum investment needed under the U.S. plan would also be one of the most expensive such programs in the world, per firms that specialize in helping arrange visa deals for the rich.
Flashback: DHS reforming investor visa, despite last-minute Trump doubts
Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
President Trump signed an executive order Monday calling for the creation of a sovereign wealth fund, essentially a federally owned investment vehicle that takes stakes in different kinds of financial assets.
Why it matters: It’s unclear where the money would come from to start a fund, and it would require Congressional approval — a tough prospect, given the fund would potentially be a way to cut lawmakers out of a key funding stream.
Copyright Axios Media, 2024
What to know about Trump’s sovereign wealth fund proposal
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Trump to Offer ‘Gold Card’ Visas for $5 Million to the Rich
Trump’s Immigration Policy:
President Donald Trump said he is starting a program to offer residency and a path to citizenship to investors who pay $5 million, offering a new avenue for legal immigration even as he carries out a sweeping crackdown on undocumented migrants.
Trump said the program, dubbed the “gold card,” would launch in two weeks, adding that he did not believe his administration needed to secure approval from Congress. The full scope of the plan and how it would be implemented was not immediately clear.
