Local time on February 25th, President Donald Trump announced that he planned to sell “gold card” visas at a price of $5 million each. These visas would grant wealthy applicants permanent residency in the US and a path to citizenship.
Trump said at the first cabinet meeting of his current term that these visas would function similarly to green cards, which allow immigrants of different income levels to live and work permanently in the US, but the gold cards would be for “high – level people”. “Those who can pay $5 million will create jobs. This will sell like crazy. It’s a great deal,” Trump said.
Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary present at the meeting, said the gold visa program would replace the existing visa program for foreign investors, but provided few details.
Around the world, dozens of countries offer some form of citizenship – by – investment program. For example, in Europe, Portugal offers “golden visas” to foreigners who invest €500,000 ($524,000) in a qualifying fund, granting them permanent residency.
Trump said companies could use the gold visa program to hire non – citizens to work in the US. “We need to bring in people who are productive,” he added.
Typically, green card holders in the US can apply for citizenship after five years. Trump suggested that the revenue from the high – priced visas could be used to pay off the US debt.
Lutnick said the initiative would replace the EB – 5 visa, which gives permanent residency to foreigners who invest around $1 million and create at least 10 full – time jobs in the US. He criticized the EB – 5 program as “poorly overseen and poorly executed” and said the gold visas would be an improvement. He also said that applicants for the gold cards would be vetted to ensure they were “wonderful world – class global citizens”.
It was unclear how the government would select recipients, if there would be any exclusions, or if there would be a cap on the number of visas issued. In the fiscal year 2024, the State Department issued over 12,000 EB – 5 visas, a record high for the program
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