Trump unveils $5 million ‘gold card’ for gaining US citizenship

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.

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Aims to do away with ‘fraud’

• Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the ‘gold card’ would raise the price of admission for investors and do away with fraud and ‘nonsense’ that he said characterise the EB-5 scheme. Like other green cards, it would include a path to citizenship
• EB-5s were created in 1990 to generate foreign investment and are available to people who spend about

  $1 million on a company that employs at least 10 persons

“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 characterise 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.