President Donald Trump said he wants to replace a long-standing visa program for foreign investors with a "gold card" that would provide them legal permanent residency and a path to citizenship for $5 million.
Trump first floated the idea during an impromptu question-and-answer session at the Oval Office on Tuesday as he signed a series of executive orders.
"Wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card," he said. "They’ll be successful, and they’ll be spending a lot of money... We think it’s going to be extremely successful.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who was with Trump at the Oval Office, said the "Trump gold card" would replace the immigrant investor program. The EB-5 visa provides foreign nationals who invest in projects that create or sustain U.S. jobs with legal permanent residency and a path to citizenship.
"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 and that’s going to give you green card privileges," Trump said. Green cards, or lawful permanent resident cards, allow eligible immigrants to live and work permanently in the United States.
At a press conference Wednesday, Trump presented the gold cards as a revenue opportunity for the U.S. government, saying companies could use it as a recruitment tool.
"I happen to think it’s going to sell like crazy. It’s a bargain," Trump said, adding that "people that can pay 5 million, they’re going to create jobs" and "they’re going to have to have to pay taxes on that too."
The EB-5 visa program, created by Congress in 1990, is available to eligible investors who spend at least $900,000 on a company that employs at least 10 people. Participation on the program has sharply declined since 2016, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. From fiscal years 2016 through 2021, the government issued about 37,000 EB-5 visas.
The proposed gold card would essentially raise the price of admission for foreign investors, Lutnick said, and do away with "fraud" and “nonsense.”
In response to fraud cases related to EB-5 visas, Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., successfully pushed for the program’s reform in 2022.
Trump said Russian oligarchs could possibly be eligible for gold cards when responding to a reporter’s question on Tuesday.
“I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people,” he said.
Trump made no mention of the requirements for job creation, but said on Wednesday his office will be releasing more information.
"We’re going to start selling, hopefully, in about two weeks," Trump said.
A senior White House official told NBC News on Wednesday that gold card applications would be similar to applying for a green card. The official also promised a “heavy” vetting process, focused on national security and criminal history issues and not on “not tracking” or vetting political sentiments.
Investors’ visas are common around the world. Over 100 countries have some form of immigration program for foreign investors, according to Henley & Partners, an advisory firm. Popular "golden visa" countries include Portugal, Spain, Greece, Malta, Australia, Canada, Italy and the United Kingdom.
But these programs have not been free of controversies. Critics have said "golden visas" create a hierarchical immigration system that gives preferential treatment to wealthy people and open the door for corruption, money laundering and other security threats.
In response, countries like Ireland and Netherlands ended their "golden visa" programs in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Spain recently voted to phase out theirs by April.
Dan Stein, president of the conservative immigration group FAIR, which supports tough immigration enforcement, told NBC News that Trump's proposal raises both national security and fraud concerns.
“We don’t recall Trump campaigning on selling citizenship to the highest bidder,” Stein said. “In our view Congress would have to approve this program."
“You don’t want to hang a sign on the Statue of Liberty that says ‘America is on sale,’” he added.
