Trump rolls out $1 million ‘Gold Card’: 5 things to know about visa plan & why it is better than Green Card policy

US President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order for a 'Gold Card' visa programme that he said would fast-track visas for certain immigrants in exchange for a hefty fee.

As per the orders, foreigners can fast-track their visas by paying $1 million, while companies can speed up the process for a foreign worker that it sponsors by contributing $2 million.

While signing the order, Trump said, "We think it's going to be very successful... It's going to raise billions of dollars, which will reduce taxes, pay off debt, and do other good things."

Meawhile he said on a Truth Social post, “It is beyond time that the American People, and American Taxpayers, are benefitting from our LEGAL Immigration System. We anticipate THE TRUMP GOLD CARD will generate well over $100 Billion Dollars very quickly. This money will be used for reducing Taxes, Pro Growth Projects, and paying down our Debt.”

The moves mark the latest in a series of efforts from the administration to crack down on immigration and place sharp new limits on the types of foreigners allowed into the country.

Why Gold Card is a better bet than the Green Card?

United States Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick noted that employment-based green card programme ‘illogical’ as under the programme. He went on to explain that in comparison the gold card programme is intended to admit only ‘extraordinary people at the very top’ who can generate business opportunities and jobs for Americans.

"Historically, the employment-based green card programme led in 2,81,000 people a year. And those people, on average, earned $66,000 a year, and they were five times more likely to go on government assistance programmes. So we were taking in the bottom quartile, below the average American. It was illogical. The only country in the world that was taking in the bottom quartile," Lutnick said.

"We are going to stop doing that. We're going to only take extraordinary people at the very top, instead of those trying to take jobs from Americans. They're going to create businesses and create jobs for Americans. And this programme will raise more than $100 billion for the Treasury of the United States of America," he added.

Five things to know:

• The corporate card will let companies sponsor an employee. It will also let them switch that sponsorship to a different person without paying a new fee, Axios points out.
• It will carry the original $5 million price tag, and will let holders spend up to 270 days in the United States a year without being subject to tax on non-US income.
• Approved applicants will receive "lawful permanent resident status" as an EB-1 or EB-2 visa holder, points out the Trump Card website
• Trump previously suggested the United States could sell as many as 1 million of the cards at the $5 million price. Howver, Lutnick's new estimate suggests a tenth of that or less.
• Axios also says, it's unclear if existing law allows visas to be sold in this way — and it's a substantially higher price than similar "golden visa" programs that have met with limited success elsewhere.

(With inputs from agencies and Axios)