Wealthy foreigners willing to pay about $5m, Russian oligarchs potentially among them, will soon be able to apply for a visa to live in the United States courtesy of what is being billed as the “Trump gold card”.
Donald Trump announced the new visa program from the Oval Office on Tuesday night, saying it could start in about two weeks.
“It’s going to be a route to citizenship, and wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card. They’ll be wealthy, and they’ll be successful, and they’ll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes,” he said.
The president was asked by reporters whether Russian oligarchs would be eligible to apply. “Yeah, possibly,” he replied. “I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.”
The proposed gold card would be among the most expensive visa programs in the world. It would replace the current EB-5 immigrant investor visa program which allows individuals to reside in the US in return for job-creating investments of at least $1m or $800,000 in distressed parts of the country.
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The commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said all applicants would be thoroughly vetted to ensure they were “wonderful, world-class global citizens”.
Despite the $5m asking price, the new visas-for-sale scheme is likely to be popular among the global super rich. One possible impediment is America’s unusual tax system which makes US citizens answerable for US taxes on income earned anywhere in the world.
The new Trump gold card will be created at a time when the president is devoting much of his time to deporting millions of undocumented immigrants. It will also provide a twist on America’s traditional reputation as a refuge for hardworking poor “yearning to breathe free”.
As the political comic Jason Selvig noted, the gold card offers a rewriting of the words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your rich, your huddled masses of oligarchs.”
