US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the US would sell a “gold card” to wealthy foreigners, giving them the right to live and work in the US and offering a path to citizenship in exchange for a US$5 million (RM22.1 million) fee.
“We’re going to be selling a gold card,” CNN reported Trump saying from the Oval Office.
“You have a green card. This is a gold card. We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about US$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 said the sale of the cards will begin in about two weeks and suggested millions of such cards could be sold.
Asked whether he would consider selling the cards to Russian oligarchs, Trump responded: “Yeah, possibly. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, standing alongside Trump, said the card will replace the government’s EB-5 immigrant investor visa program, which allows foreign investors to pump money into US projects that create jobs and then apply for visas to immigrate to the US.
“They’ll have to go through vetting, of course,” CNN quoted Lutnick saying, “to make sure they’re wonderful world-class global citizens.”
Created by Congress in 1992, the EB-5 program can grant green cards to immigrants who make a minimum investment of least US$1,050,000, or US$800,000 in economically distressed zones called targeted employment areas, to create jobs for American workers, according to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services website.
Businesses connected to Trump and his family have also made use of the program to fund major property developments.
The program drew bipartisan criticism from lawmakers in Congress during Trump’s first term, with many warning that it had deviated from its goals and was in need of reform.
The Trump administration in 2019 moved to raise the minimum investment amount for targeted economic areas to US$900,000, and US$1.8 million in other locations, but a federal judge struck down the change in 2021, finding that the acting Homeland Security secretary who authorized the rule had not been properly appointed.
The programme was last renewed in 2022 during the Biden administration, with the minimum investment requirements being raised to their current levels. – February 26, 2025
