By Sodeeq Kamsela, with agency report
U.S. President Donald Trump is contemplating replacing a visa program for foreign investors with a new “gold card” that could be bought for $5 million as a route to American citizenship.
Trump told reporters he will replace the “EB-5” immigrant investor visa program, which allows foreign investors of large sums of money that create or preserve U.S. jobs to become permanent residents, with a so-called “gold card.”
The EB-5 program grants “green cards” to foreigners promising to invest in U.S. businesses.
But Trump said, “We are going to be selling a gold card. We are going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million.
“It’s going to give you green card privileges plus it’s going to be a route to (American) citizenship, and wealthy people would be coming into our country by buying this card,” Trump said.
The U.S. President, who has torpedoed many of the country’s visa and foreign policies, promised to release details about the ‘gold visa’ scheme in two weeks.
Trump also hinted at the possibility that Russian oligarchs could navigate the $5m route to U.S citizenship, telling journalists, “Yeah, possibly. Hey. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.”
The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, administered by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, was created by Congress in 1990 to “stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors,” according to the USCIS website.
“The EB-5 program – it was full of nonsense, make-believe and fraud, and it was a way to get a green card that was low price. So the president said, rather than having this sort of ridiculous EB-5 program, we’re going to end the EB-5 program.
“We are going to replace it with the Trump gold card,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters on Tuesday.
