US President Donald Trump has previewed plans for a new visa programme he is calling the gold card, describing it as “somewhat like a green card, but at a higher level of sophistication”.
The blingy new programme would allow “very high-level people” a new “route to citizenship”, Trump said. The price tag, he said, would be about $5 million.
Trump revealed his gold card plan on Tuesday to reporters in the Oval Office, where he was signing his latest round of executive orders, including one related to tariffs on copper imports. His commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, filled in some of the details.
Lutnick explained that “the Trump gold card”, as he called it, would replace the EB-5 visa programme, which similarly provides a pathway to citizenship for wealthy foreign investor types but has been an avenue for fraud.
Lutnick implied that the administration would be more discerning as to who might qualify for a gold card, though details were scant at this early stage.
“We’re going to make sure they’re wonderful world-class global citizens,” Lutnick said.
Trump added, “It will be people with money and people that create jobs.”
Asked whether a Russian oligarch might be eligible for a gold card, Trump seemed amused. “Yeah,” he replied. “Possibly.”
He added, “Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are nice people. It’s possible.”
Lutnick began to chuckle as Trump continued, “They’re not as wealthy as they used to be.” Starting to laugh himself, the president added, “I think they can afford $5 million.”
He predicted that the gold card programme would be a moneymaker for the government, reasoning that many companies would pay the $5-million fee to bring in skilled workers.
“We’ll be able to sell maybe a million of these cards, maybe more than that,” Trump said. “If you add up the numbers, they’re pretty good.”
- This article originally appeared in The New York Times