United States (US) President Donald Trump’s $1 Million Gold Card Visa Program Should Raise Over $1 Trillion; however, it has only been awarded to one person in the last year.
Trump announced the new visa program last year for people who wanted to track their immigration to the United States, and the president described it at the time as “the green card on steroids.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated that the government had sold $1.3 billion of them within days of their launch. It was about raising a trillion dollars, balancing the budget, attracting the world’s richest talent to American shores.
However, all the allegations were denied by Lutnick himself during his hearing before a congressional committee on Thursday. He told the committee that since the program was launched in December, exactly one person has been approved.
However, he added that there are hundreds of applicants waiting to be approved for the program, adding that the administration had wanted to make sure they did everything perfectly before approving anyone.
Lutnick declined to clarify his claim for $1.3 billion in sales from the program, while one applicant has been approved so far.
When pressed by a congresswoman about how the government used the filing fee, Lutnick replied, “That will be determined by the administration for the betterment of the United States.”
How does the Gold Card work?
A foreign national pays at least one million dollars, plus a $15,000 application fee on top of that, in exchange for the right to legally live and work in the United States.
The concept itself is not new, as dozens of countries around the world, including the UK, Spain, Greece, Australia and Canada, offer some version of a golden visa to wealthy investors.
