Trump proposes $5 million ‘gold card’ for wealthy investors, including Russians

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he plans to offer a “gold card” granting wealthy applicants a path to citizenship at a price of $5 million (€4.76 million), replacing an investor visa that has existed for 35 years.

Describing the people he wanted to see apply, Trump told an Oval Office press conference: “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, and we think it’s going to be extremely successful

Asked whether Russian oligarchs would be eligible for the gold card, Trump responded: “Yeah, possibly. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people

According to US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the “Trump Gold Card” is intended to replace EB-5 visas in two weeks

EB-5s were created by Congress in 1990 to generate foreign investment, and are available to people who spend about $1 million on a company that employs at least 10 people in the US.

Lutnick explained that the gold card — which would work similarly to a green card, or permanent legal residency, but granted simply in exchange for money — would raise the price of admission for investors and eliminate supposed fraud and “nonsense” that he said characterises the EB-5 programme.

Like other green cards, it would include a path to citizenship

Lutnick also said that gold card applicants will be vetted “to make sure they’re wonderful world-class global citizens,” but offered no details of how that standard would be set.

‘Maybe it will be fantastic’

Investors’ visas or residence permits are common around the world. Henley & Partners, an advisory firm, says more than 100 countries offer so-called “golden visas” to wealthy individuals, including the US, UK, Spain, Greece, Malta, Australia, Canada and Italy.

According to the US Department of Homeland Security’s most recent Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, some 8,000 people obtained EB-5 visas in the year ending 30 September 2022.

However, the Congressional Research Service warned in 2021 that the visas pose risks of fraud, including verification that funds were obtained legally

Annoucing the gold card, Trump made no mention of any requirements for job creation. And whereas the number of EB-5 visas is capped, Trump mused that the federal government could sell 10 million gold cards, supposedly helping to reduce the deficit.

He said the proposed card “could be great, maybe it will be fantastic

“It’s somewhat like a green card, but at a higher level of sophistication, it’s a road to citizenship for people, and essentially people of wealth or people of great talent, where people of wealth pay for those people of talent to get in, meaning companies will pay for people to get in and to have long, long term status in the country,” he explained.

While Congress sets legal qualifications for citizenship, Trump claimed the implementation of “gold cards” would not be subject to congressional approva