Photo: AFP
US President Donald Trump announced that a “golden card” would be sold to wealthy foreigners for 5 million dollars. This provides foreigners with the right to live and work in the US, along with the opportunity to obtain citizenship. This was reported by Daryo, citing CNN news.
We are selling a golden card. You have a green card. This is a golden card. We set the price of this card at approximately 5 million dollars, and it gives you the privileges of a green card, while also being a pathway to citizenship. As a result, wealthy individuals who purchase this card will enter our country, said the politician.
Trump stated that the sale of the cards would begin in about two weeks and emphasized that millions of such cards would be put up for sale. He did not rule out that some Russian oligarchs would purchase them.
According to US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnik, this card will replace the government’s EB-5 immigrant investor visa program. This program allows foreign investors to apply for a visa to move to the US by investing in projects that create jobs for Americans.
Of course, they must undergo a background check to ensure they are citizens of the world, said Lutnik.
According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services website, the EB-5 program, established by Congress in 1992, can grant green cards to immigrants who invest at least 1,050,000 dollars or 800,000 dollars in economically distressed areas known as targeted employment areas to create jobs for American workers.
Trump and businesses associated with his family have also used this program to finance large real estate projects.
The program faced criticism from bipartisan representatives in Congress during Trump’s first presidential term. Many said the program had strayed from its goals and needed reform.
In 2019, the Trump administration attempted to raise the minimum investment amount for targeted economic areas to 900,000 dollars and to 1.8 million dollars in other areas. However, in 2021, a federal judge confirmed that the acting Secretary of Homeland Security was improperly appointed and overturned the change.
The program was last updated in 2022 during the Biden administration, raising the minimum investment requirements to the current levels.
