Feb. 25 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump revealed a plan Tuesday to grant "gold cards" to foreign nationals who invest $5 million in the United States. The new cards would provide U.S. residency, as well as a path to U.S. citizenship. It would also end the current investor visa program.
"We're going to be selling a gold card," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, alongside Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. The president said the new program would begin in about two weeks.
"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, plus it's going to be a route to citizenship. And wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card," Trump added.
Lutnick said the program would also allow companies to buy U.S. residency for highly skilled and educated employees to replace certain kinds of work visas.
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"Generally speaking, it will be people with money and people that create jobs," Trump said.
Other countries have similar visas including Britain, which offers a Tier 1 investor visa toward citizenship for foreign investors who spend $6.3 million to $12.6 million.
Lutnick said applicants would be vetted under the new program, which will raise money to help pay down the national debt.
"We are going to make sure they are wonderful, world class global citizens," Lutnick said. "They can come to America, the president can give them a green card. They can invest in America."
The new card will replace the government's "ridiculous" EB-5 immigrant investor visa program, according to Lutnick. The current program grants green cards to immigrants who make a minimum investment of at least $1.050 million or $800,000 in economically distressed areas.
The EB-5 program, which was created in 1992 and reauthorized for five more years in 2022, has drawn bipartisan criticism from lawmakers in Congress, who say the program has deviated from its goals and is in need of reform.
Lutnick called the current program "full of nonsense, make-believe and fraud."
"It was a way to get a green card that was low price," Lutnick said. "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."
