Donald Trump has said the US will sell “gold cards” costing $5mn each in exchange for permanent residency to attract wealthy foreigners to America.
The US president made the announcement while speaking to reporters in the White House on Tuesday afternoon, saying the scheme would grant “green card privileges plus” and a “route to citizenship” for those who bought the card.
“Wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card. They’ll be wealthy and they’ll be successful, and they’ll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people,” Trump said.
Howard Lutnick, the US commerce secretary, who flanked Trump in the Oval Office as he spoke, said the “gold card” programme would replace the EB-5 scheme, which offers visas to foreign investors.
With the new programme, participants would be paying the $5mn fee directly to the US government. “They’ll have to go through vetting, of course,” Lutnick said.
Many countries offer citizenship or residency by investment programmes, but they have come under scrutiny for security risks as well as concerns over possible corruption and tax evasion.
“[They] can help spur economic growth through foreign direct investment, but they are also attractive to criminals and corrupt officials seeking to evade justice and launder the proceeds of crime reaching into the billions of dollars,” said a report published by the OECD in 2023.
US officials did not offer any details on who would be eligible for the “gold card” scheme. When asked whether any Russian oligarchs would be eligible for the programme, Trump said: “Yeah, possibly. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.”
Trump’s plan — which he said he had been planning to announce next week but decided to bring forward — comes as his administration has launched a sweeping crackdown on undocumented immigrants and begun carrying out mass deportations promised during his election campaign.