US President Donald Trump announced a new immigration initiative, a ‘gold card’ on Tuesday. The gold card is a path to US citizenship for the wealthy foreign investors at a fee of $5 million. It is set to replace the current EB-5 visa program granting investors all the privileges of a green card, making them citizens of US through financial investment.
The EB-5 visa program was established in 1990 allowing the foreign investors to gain US residency if they are able to create or preserve jobs via capital investments. The minimum investments for which are $1,050,000 and $8,00,000 for the economically distressed areas, or simply targeted areas. EB-5 is often criticized over fraud and abuse concerns with the business, even by Trump’s family members, said to fund property developments. The issue was raised during the first tenure of Trump with the demands of a reform as the program had deviated from its goals.
When asked about the gold card, Trump said that it will provide privileges of green card and serve as a route to American citizenship suggesting that wealthy people will come to US after purchasing the card. Further details about the gold card will be released within two weeks. Responding over the eligibility of Russian oligarchs, Trump said, “Yeah. Possibly. Hey. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.”
Donald Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick called the current EB-5 program ‘nonsense’ and ‘fraud’, just a way to get green card which is priced low. He said, “So, the President said, rather than having this sort of ridiculous EB-5 program, we are going to end the EB-5 program. We are going to replace it with the Trump gold card.”
The purpose of the EB-5 program was to grow American economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors. It was last renewed in 2022 during Joe Biden’s President term and the minimum requirements were raised to the present levels. In 2019, Trump also tried to raise the minimum investment requirement but it was struck down by a federal judge back in 2021.
It will be now interesting to see the ‘gold card’ privileges and how do the investors see if it comes to effect.