President Trump on Tuesday unveiled a brand new pathway to residency: a “gold card” geared toward rich foreigners keen to pay thousands and thousands for the best to reside within the U.S.

That time period is a play on the inexperienced card, extra formally often called a everlasting residency card, which permits non-citizens to reside and work completely within the U.S. Inexperienced playing cards are most ceaselessly awarded to foreigners who marry U.S. residents or to those that obtain one by way of their employer, with the latter course of taking a mean of three years to finish, in line with the Cato Institute.

The brand new program comes because the Trump administration strikes to vary the nation’s guidelines for who can legally reside, work and acquire citizenship within the U.S. That features tightening restrictions on many forms of immigration within the U.S. and pushing to finish birthright citizenship, the constitutionally protected proper to citizenship to anybody born on U.S. soil.

The U.S. already opens the door to rich non-U.S. residents who need residency by way of what is named an EB-5 visa. However that program, launched in 1990, has lengthy been cited for potential abuses, together with one distinguished case from nearly a decade in the past that concerned homeowners of a Vermont ski resort embezzling thousands and thousands from international traders who hoped to attain visas by way of this system.

But each the brand new gold card and the EB-5 program have a standard objective: Attracting international capital by permitting wealthy non-citizens to ante up in trade for a U.S. residency visa. 

“It should be a path to citizenship, and rich individuals shall be coming into our nation by shopping for this card, they will be rich, and so they’ll achieve success and so they’ll be spending some huge cash and paying numerous taxes and using lots of people,” Mr. Trump mentioned on Tuesday. 

Here is what to know concerning the gold card plan.

What’s Trump’s gold card?

The gold card will provide a brand new route for wealthy non-U.S. residents to realize a sound visa to reside and work within the U.S., in line with Mr. Trump, who spoke Tuesday concerning the new visa with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick from the Oval Workplace. 

The price of every new visa shall be $5 million, Mr. Trump mentioned. 

“We will be placing a value on that card of about $5 million, and that is going to present you inexperienced card privileges, plus,” the president added. 

Inexperienced playing cards enable recipients to reside completely within the U.S. and work for whomever they select. By comparability, some immigrants, comparable to these on H-1B visas, are locked into working for the employer that sponsored their visa.

Inexperienced card holders may journey out and in of the U.S. with out restriction, and are capable of begin the method to change into a U.S. citizen. 

When will the gold card be obtainable? 

Lutnick mentioned the gold playing cards could be obtainable beginning in about two weeks. 

Will the gold card change the EB-5 visa? 

Sure, with Lutnick on Tuesday describing the EB-5 program as “stuffed with nonsense, make imagine and fraud.” 

“So the President mentioned, quite than having this type of ridiculous EB-5 program, we will finish the EB-5 program,” Lutnick mentioned in becoming a member of Mr. Trump to stipulate the gold card program from the Oval Workplace. “We will change it with the Trump Gold Card, which is mostly a Inexperienced Card Gold.”

One main distinction between the gold card and the EB-5 visa — the price, with the latter requiring candidates to take a position about $1 million within the U.S., usually by placing the cash right into a enterprise. However the EB-5 visa additionally comes with a bunch of different necessities, comparable to documenting that the funding will create or protect 10 everlasting full-time jobs for U.S. staff. 

How a lot cash might the gold card increase for the U.S.?

Mr. Trump urged that the the U.S. might “promote possibly one million of those playing cards, possibly greater than that.”

At $5 million every, promoting 1 million gold playing cards might increase $5 trillion, he mentioned. 

“And for those who promote 10 million of the playing cards, that is a complete of $50 trillion,” Mr. Trump added. “We’ve $35 trillion in debt. That’ll be good, so we’ll see.”

Sometimes, the variety of annual candidates for EB-5 visas is way decrease than what Mr. Trump initiatives for the gold card. About 8,000 individuals obtained investor visas within the 12-month interval ending Sept. 30, 2022, in line with the Homeland Safety Division’s most up-to-date Yearbook of Immigration Statistics.

If roughly 8,000 individuals obtained gold playing cards every year, the U.S. would increase about $40 billion yearly by way of this system.

The U.S. is a high immigration vacation spot for wealthy traders, in line with Henley & Companions, an organization that gives immigration advisory providers. The group estimated that the U.S. had the second-biggest web inflow of millionaires in 2024, following the United Arab Emirates, at about 3,800 international millionaires shifting stateside final yr.

Who might qualify for a gold card? 

Apart from having $5 million to pay the U.S. authorities, gold card candidates would even have to fulfill different standards, Lutnick mentioned. 

“They’re going to need to undergo vetting, in fact, we’re going to ensure they’re great world class world residents,” he mentioned, with out offering particulars. 

Requested by reporters if Russian oligarchs might qualify for the visa, Mr. Trump responded, “Presumably.”

He added, “Hey, I do know some Russian oligarchs which can be very good individuals. It is potential. They don’t seem to be as rich as they was once. I feel they may afford — I feel they may afford $5 million.”

Do different nations provide gold playing cards? 

Sure, investor visas are frequent world wide. Greater than 100 international locations provide “golden visas” to rich people, together with the U.S., United Kingdom, Spain, Greece, Malta, Australia, Canada and Italy, in line with Henley & Companions.

Does the gold card want congressional approval? 

Congress determines {qualifications} for citizenship, however Mr. Trump mentioned gold playing cards wouldn’t require congressional approval.

“We’ve all of it labored out from the authorized standpoint. It’s very authorized to do,” Mr. Trump mentioned. “It is considerably like a inexperienced card, however at the next stage of sophistication — it is a street to citizenship for individuals, and basically individuals of wealth or individuals of nice expertise, the place individuals of wealth pay for these individuals of expertise to get in, which means corporations can pay for individuals to get in and to have lengthy, long run standing within the nation.”

The Related Press

contributed to this report.