President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the $5 million “gold card” visa, which features his photo, name, signature and price tag, would be out in less than two weeks.
“For $5 million, this could be yours,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday. “It’s the gold card, the Trump card.”
Wealthy immigrants can buy the card to gain U.S. residency. Here is what to know about the gold visa card program.
What is the Trump Visa Gold Card Program?
During the first meeting of his second-term Cabinet, Trump proposed a gold card visa program to offer U.S. residency to individuals who pay $5 million.
Trump’s visa program is intended to replace the EB-5 visa program, which allows foreign investors to become permanent residents. The EB-5 program gives green cards to non-residents who invest about $1 million in the U.S. and create jobs.
Congress created the EB-5 Program in 1990 to stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Who is eligible for it?
Under Trump’s new gold card visa program, wealthy foreigners could pay up to $5 million to gain a green card.
Under the current EB-5 program system, candidates must meet several criteria, including a commitment to invest a minimum amount of capital into a new commercial enterprise in the United States.
Another criterion is being able to create or preserve at least 10 full-time jobs for qualifying U.S. workers within two years of receiving conditional permanent residency. The EB-5 program also has an annual cap of 10,000 visas.
Where will the money go?
Trump said when he first announced the plan in February that the money from the gold card visas would help pay off the country’s debt.
“If we sell a million, that’s 5 trillion dollars,” he said.
Last month, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told the All-In podcast that over 1,000 gold cards had been sold, and over 37 million people intended to purchase one.
Would buyers be eligible for citizenship?
When Trump publicly discussed the proposal in the White House, he said the gold card is “a powerful path to citizenship, but we’re not doing the citizenship.”
The president didn’t provide many details but said the gold card was like a “green card, but better and more sophisticated.”
According to Trump, gold card recipients would have to pay a tax in the United States and create jobs.
Is this legal?
In announcing the program, the president said he does not need approval from Congress to create the gold card program.
In a Feb. 26 blog post, the CATO Institute’s David J. Bier wrote that while Trump has no authority to make radical changes, he could use his “parole” authority to grant short-term lawful residence to people willing to pay $5 million.
The Associated Press and CQ-Roll Call contributed to this report.