Trump Gold Card: Will US President’s $5 million visa replace green cards issued via EB-5 programme?

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (local time) announced that the United States is introducing a “gold card” for rich immigrants who want to move to the country. Priced at $5 million, the gold card will allow these immigrants the right to live and work in the country, with a pathway to American citizenship.

Donald Trump stated that sales of such gold cards would begin in about two weeks and suggested that millions could be sold.

Trump said the new visas would bring in job creators and could be used to reduce the US national deficit, reported AFP.

However, it was not clear how the process would unfold. Donald Trump said that details of the scheme will be revealed in two weeks. 

“We're going to be selling a gold card. You have a green card, this is a gold card. We're going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million,” the US President said in a press conference at the Oval Office.

The new gold card would be a pathway to highly prized US citizenship, he said.

“A lot of people are going to want to be in this country, and they'll be able to work and provide jobs and build companies,” Donald Trump said, adding, “It will be people with money.”

Will Gold Card replace Green Card?

According to the US President, the Gold Card will be a premium version of the traditional Green Card. The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa programme, also called the employment-based fifth preference category, under which green cards are issued, is administered by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This programme was created by Congress in 1990 through the Immigration Act of 1990 to “stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors,” as per the USCIS website. 

The CNN report, citing Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, stated that the gold card will replace the existing EB-5 immigrant investor visa program. 

“It's going to give you green card privileges plus it's going to be a route to (American) citizenship, and wealthy people would be coming into our country by buying this card,” Trump said, speaking about the gold card.

EB-5 visa ‘full of nonsense’

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick called the EB- program “full of nonsense”.

“The EB-5 program ... it was full of nonsense, make believe and fraud, and it was a way to get a green card that was low price. So the president said, rather than having this sort of ridiculous EB-5 program, we're going to end the EB-5 program. We're going to replace it with the Trump gold card,” he said.

The Homeland Security Department's latest Yearbook of Immigration Statistics data shows that around 8,000 people obtained investor visas in the 12-month period ending September 30, 2022. While the number of EB-5 visas issued is capped, Trump indicated that the federal government could sell 10 million “gold cards” to reduce the national deficit.