WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that his long-promised “gold card” was officially on sale, which will offer legal status and an eventual path to U.S. citizenship for individuals who pay $1 million and for corporations that pay twice as much for each foreign-born employee.
A website accepting applications went live as Trump unveiled the start of the program surrounded by business leaders in the White House’s Roosevelt Room.
It is intended to replace EB-5 visas, which Congress created in 1990 to generate foreign investment and which were available to people who invested about $1 million in a company that employed at least ten people.
Trump sees the new version as a way for the United States to attract and retain high-level talent, all while generating revenue for federal coffers. He had been promoting the gold card for months and once suggested that each card would cost $5 million.
The president said all funds raised as part of the program “will go to the federal government” and predicted billions will flow into an account managed by the Treasury Department “where we can do positive things for the country.”
The new program is in practice a green card, which offers permanent legal residence with the possibility of obtaining citizenship.
“It’s basically a green card but much better,” Trump said. “Much more powerful, a much stronger path.”
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The president did not mention job creation requirements for applicant corporations or overall limits on the program, which exist under the current EB-5 program. Instead, he said he had heard complaints from business leaders that they had not been able to recruit top graduates from American universities because they were from other countries and did not have permission to stay.
“You can’t hire people from top universities because you don’t know if you can keep the person,” Trump said.
The Republican president has built his political career around tightening the border between the United States and Mexico and defending strict immigration policies. Since the beginning of his second administration, he has launched mass deportation campaigns and immigration raids that have targeted cities such as Los Angeles and Charlotte.
But he has also drawn criticism from leading voices in his “MAGA” movement for saying that skilled immigrants should be allowed in the United States, something the gold card program could facilitate.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the program will include $15,000 for screening applicants and that the thorough background screening process “will ensure that these individuals absolutely qualify to be in the United States.” Businesses will be able to receive multiple cards, but will be limited to one individual per card, he added.
Lutnick also said that current green card holders make less money than the average American, and that Trump wanted to change that.
“So, same visas, but now filled with the best people,” Lutnick noted.
Investor visas are common around the world and there are dozens of countries that offer them to wealthy individuals, including the United Kingdom, Spain, Greece, Malta, Australia, Canada and Italy.
Trump said the program means the United States is “getting someone great coming to our country because we think these are going to be some tremendous people” and singled out top graduates from American universities in China, India and France as some of those likely to receive gold cards.
“The companies are going to be very happy,” he said.
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