President Donald Trump said he plans to start selling a “gold card” visa with a potential pathway to U.S. citizenship for $5 million, suggesting the new revenue generated from the program could be used to pay off the country’s debt.
“If we sell a million, that’s $5 trillion,” Trump said, adding companies, not just individuals, would be able to purchase gold cards.
“Companies can buy gold cards and, in exchange, get those visas to hire new employees,” he added.
Currently, businesses do have ways of bringing employees into the United States.
The intracompany transferee visa, known as an L-1 visa, allows noncitizen employees to work in the U.S. for a company they are already employed with abroad. However, it does not provide a path to permanent residency.
“Clearly, the incentive he is describing is that this gold visa would bring with it citizenship, which does not come with the visas that companies can apply for now,” said Doris Meissner, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in D.C.
Meissner questioned whether the program would actually be a better choice for businesses.
“The way the president has explained it is that they would be making new investments,” she said. “But companies have other vehicles for doing that, which are more closely tied to their direct business interests and control.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Trump’s initiative would replace the EB-5 program, which currently offers U.S. visas to investors who spend about $1 million on a company that employs at least 10 people.
“It tends to be more of a safety net for wealthy individuals from other parts of the world who want a secure place to live in case something goes wrong in their home country, or for those who want their children to attend U.S. universities and colleges,” Meissner said.
Trump’s gold card plan mirrors “golden visa” programs in countries such as Canada, New Zealand and Malta, where participants can pay a fee or make an investment to obtain residency.
According to Meissner, $5 million would be “very much on the absolute high end” of what such programs typically require.
While Congress determines U.S. citizenship qualifications, Trump claimed the “gold cards” would not require congressional approval.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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