Washington, Feb 26: President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he plans to offer a “gold card” visa with a path to citizenship for USD5 million, replacing a 35-year-old visa for investors.
“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,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the “Trump Gold Card” would 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 USD1 million on a company that employs at least 10 people.
Lutnick said the gold card – actually a green card, or permanent legal residency – would raise the price of admission for investors and do away with fraud and “nonsense” that he said characterize the EB-5 program. Like other green cards, it would include a path to citizenship. (AP)
