WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s administration officially launched its “Trump Gold Card” visa program on Wednesday to provide a path, at a high price, for non-US citizens to get fast-track permission to live in the US.
The Trumpcard.gov website, complete with an “apply now” button, allows interested applicants to pay a $15,000 fee to the Department of Homeland Security for expedited processing.
After going through a background check or investigation process, applicants must then make a “contribution” – the website also calls it a “gift” – of $1 million to obtain the visa, equivalent to a “Green Card”, which allows them to live and work in the United States.
“Basically, it’s a green card, but much better. Much stronger, a much stronger pathway,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “A road is a great thing. Must be good people.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said about 10,000 people have already signed up for the gold card in a pre-registration period, and he expected many more to do so. “I would expect over time that we would sell, you know, thousands of these cards and raise, you know, billions, billions of dollars,” Lutnick told Reuters in a brief interview.
Lutnick said the gold card program would bring people into the United States who would benefit the economy. He compared that to “average” Green Card holders, who he said made less money than average Americans and were more likely to be on or have family members on public assistance. He did not provide evidence for that claim.
Trump’s administration has pursued a broad crackdown on immigration, deporting hundreds of thousands of people who were in the country illegally and also taking measures to discourage legal immigration.
The gold card program is Trump’s version of a counterbalance to it, designed to make money for the U.S. Treasury in the same way the president, a former New York businessman and reality TV host, has said his tariff program has successfully done.
Lutnick noted that there was also a corporate version of the Gold Card that allowed companies to get expedited visas for employees they wanted to work in the United States for a contribution of $2 million per card. employee.
