President Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, claimed the “Gold Card” visa program already has 250,000 applicants.
However, applications on the website appear to have not been launched yet.
Newsweek has contacted the Commerce Department, DHS, and the White House for further comment via email outside of normal office hours.
Why It Matters
Trump’s proposed “gold card” program would grant U.S. residency to those who invest $5 million in the United States.
The “gold card” announcement followed a series of actions by the president aimed at limiting other immigration pathways for those unable to meet the high costs. In the past, Trump has supported work-based visas, particularly the H-1B visa.
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What To Know
In an interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier on Special Report, Lutnick said, “There are 250,000 people waiting in line now,” and they are willing to pay the huge fee.
Lutnick told Baier that applicants would be “deeply vetted,” after the veteran Fox News host asked about Russian oligarchs applying for the program.
On Tuesday, Trump announced his plan to replace the existing EB-5 immigrant investor visa program with the new “gold card” initiative. This plan would grant U.S. citizenship to foreigners who commit to investing in American businesses.
The EB-5 program requires applicants to pay between $100,000 and $200,000 in fees to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). Additionally, investors must commit between $800,000 and $1 million and create at least 10 jobs for American workers.
Trump promoted the gold card as a “green card plus,” implying it would offer more benefits than those given to regular permanent residents. However, critics argue that this policy prioritizes wealth over merit and may not effectively address economic concerns, especially as the administration seeks to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
Critics contend that this approach prioritizes wealth over merit and may fail to address economic concerns, particularly as the administration seeks to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
What People Are Saying
Donald Trump said in the Oval Office on Tuesday: “It’s going to be a route to citizenship, and wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card. They will be wealthy, they will be successful, they will be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes.”
Howard Lutnick told Fox News: “The president had conversations over the weekend with his friend John Paulson, who came up and said, hey, why aren’t we doing better with that? He called me. We talked about it. Then I did work over the weekend on a Monday.
“And on Tuesday at a press conference, the president comes out and gives the path, which says, imagine if we sell a million of them, that’s $5 trillion. And that pays off our debt, drives down interest rates, and makes America amazing.”
He added: “I think these people are going to come enormous ways because they know they can come into America and they can be in the greatest country on Earth. You’re kind of bullish when you talk about paying down the debt.”
Congressman Ro Khanna told Newsweek in a statement on Wednesday: “You don’t need to have $5 million in your bank account to build a successful company in America. Just look at Sergey Brin, Sundar Pichai, or Satya Nadella.
“We should welcome talented workers to America who will bring their creativity and productivity while also reforming the H1-B program to prevent abuses.”
Marco A. Durazo, a political scientist at the University of San Francisco, told Newsweek: “Such a program questions the Trump administration’s position that all legal immigrants are welcome as long as they do it ‘the right way.’ It was not clear until this proposal was presented that doing it the ‘right way’ would cost additional money and be restricted to a small fraction of people who can afford the exorbitant fees associated with ‘Golden Passport.’ Since when did securing the border and repairing the broken immigration system make entry open to the highest bidder?”
What Happens Next
Details on how the new program would work and if it would be approved by Congress remain scarce. The White House or USCIS has yet to post an official announcement.
