United States President Donald Trump has announced the plan to introduce a $5 million visa to attract rich foreigners to America, something he referred to as a “Gold Card.”
Foreigners with $5 million can apply to become lawful permanent residents with the gold card.
Trump said the programme would be rolled out in two weeks, and would bring in “very high-level people” into the United States.
According to him, the proceeds from the programme could help pay down the national deficit.
“It’s going to be a route to citizenship, and wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card. They’ll be wealthy, and they’ll be successful, and they’ll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes,” Trump told reporters at an unrelated event in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick called it the “Trump Gold Card” and said it would effectively replace the current EB-5 immigrant investor visa.
The EB-5 immigrant investor visa programme offers US residency to foreigners who invest at least $1.05 million in a new business that creates jobs, or $800,000 if the business is in a rural area, high unemployment area or an infrastructure project.
Lutnick told reporters the EB-5 programme was “full of nonsense, make-believe and fraud.”
He emphasised that applicants for the “gold card” would be vetted.
Asked by a reporter whether Russian oligarchs could apply for “gold cards,” Trump said, “Yeah, possibly. Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.”
