President Trump said he wants to sell a “gold card” visa for $5 million to noncitizens, including both individuals and companies. The visa would include permanent residence with work authorization and a path to U.S. citizenship. A new visa program would require passage by Congress, but Mr. Trump said he wouldn’t need congressional approval “because we’re not doing citizenship, we’re doing the card.” He said that gold card holders would “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.”
According to reports, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said that the new program would replace the EB-5 visa program in two weeks. He also claimed that 250,000 people were “waiting in line” for it, although an application process hasn’t been established yet. The current EB-5 immigrant investor program includes investment and job-creation requirements. Mr. Lutnick said the EB-5 program was “full of nonsense” and “low priced.” It was unclear whether existing EB-5 visa holders would be affected if the program were to be shut down and whether the Trump administration would seek congressional approval for either the new “gold card” program or shutting down the EB-5 program. In 2022, Congress extended the EB-5 program until 2027.
The “gold card” idea is similar to “golden visa” programs in many other countries, although some have ended such programs due to issues including money laundering, security concerns, and driving up housing prices. The European Union has recommended against such programs. When asked if gold card applicants would be vetted, Mr. Lutnick said, “Of course. Deeply vetted. And we said that from the first minute.… These are vetted people.” Mr. Lutnick also said the new program would bring “huge money for America.” Mr. Trump was asked whether Russian oligarchs would qualify, and he replied, “Yeah, possibly.”