Donald Trump is rolling out a new ‘gold card’ visa — a program aimed at wealthy immigrants willing to pay big bucks for a shot at U.S. citizenship. This would replace the EB-5 visa and give those who can fork over $5 million a fast-track route to living and working in the U.S.Â
The White House is banking on this plan to bring in a ton of cash and attract high-net-worth individuals who, in theory, would boost the economy.
But, of course, the whole thing raises plenty of questions — who really benefits from this? Is it fair? And what does it mean for immigration policies moving forward?
Donald Trump announces the new ‘Gold Card’ visa
Trump has made it official: the U.S. will soon be selling $5 million ‘Gold Card’ visas to migrants.
Word is, he’s looking into launching this new visa option that would let wealthy foreigners work in the U.S. and, on top of that, speed up their path to citizenship.
How the Gold Card visa will differ from the Green Card
Talking to reporters from the Oval Office on Tuesday (February 25), Trump put it pretty simply: “We’re going to be selling a gold card. You have a green card. This is a gold card.”
He described it as “green card privileges plus” and said it would be ready to go in just two weeks.
Who qualifies for the Gold Card visa?
But this isn’t for just anyone — it comes with a hefty price tag. The cost? A cool $5 million per applicant.
Trump made it clear that this visa would completely replace the current EB-5 visa and would only be available to carefully vetted millionaire migrants.
The financial benefits of the Gold Card program
The White House expects this program to bring in an eye-watering $55 trillion and attract wealthy foreign investors to the U.S.
Trump sounded pretty confident about it: “You’re getting big taxpayers, big job producers, and we’ll be able to sell maybe a million of these cards, maybe more than that,” he said.
“It could be great, maybe it will be fantastic.”
Why the EB-5 visa is being replaced
Not everyone is a fan of the EB-5 visa, and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick didn’t hold back, calling it “full of nonsense and make-believe fraud.”
The EB-5 currently costs around $20,000 and requires foreign investors to put at least a million dollars into a U.S. company.
Lutnick made it clear: “We’re going to end the EB-5 program and we’re going to replace it with the Trump gold card.”
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A new route to U.S. citizenship
Trump, who’s 78 now, hinted that this visa would provide a unique “route to citizenship” that’s never been done before.
“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,” he said.
Congress approval may not be needed
One big detail? This plan might not need Congress to sign off on it.
“We don’t need Congress … It’s a path to citizenship, a very strong path to citizenship, but we’re not doing citizenship. For that, I’d have to get Congress,” Trump explained.
Who can apply for the Gold Card visa
This visa is open to foreign investors from anywhere in the world, including Russian businesspeople and oligarchs — as long as they can cough up that $5 million fee.
“I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people,” Trump added. “They’re not quite as wealthy as they used to be.”
Whether this takes off or stirs more debate, we’ll have to wait and see.
