As billionaires across the world weighed in on US President Donald Trump's announcement last week to plan and sell $5 million “gold card” visas that offer permanent residency and work authorisation in the country, several of them have said that they are not interested in them.
“Wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card. They’ll be wealthy, and they’ll be successful," Trump had said last Tuesday. He added that the gold cards would help reduce the federal deficit. “We’ll be able to sell maybe a million of these cards, maybe more than that. And if you add up the numbers, they’re pretty good. As an example, a million cards would be worth $5 trillion dollars.”
But very few billionaires appear interested in buying it, especially when, as they put it, there are cheaper ways of investing in the US without seeking citizenship.
Forbes spoke to 18 global billionaires, and of them, only two said they’d seriously consider buying a gold card.
“I wouldn’t want to be a citizen of any country other than India anytime—particularly in this century,” Max Healthcare's billionaire MD Abhay Soi told the publication.
A Canadian billionaire told Forbes that rich people don't really need the gold card. “If you’re a billionaire, you don’t need it. I don’t have to come to the United States to invest in the United States," they said. Echoing a similar sentiment, a European billionaire said, "In my opinion, there is no reason for rich people to go to this program."
'Russian oligarchs can afford $5 million'
During his announcement last week, Trump said that wealthy Russians would possibly be allowed to apply.
"I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people. It's possible," Trump said. "They're not as wealthy as they used to be. I think they can. I think they can afford $5 million."
He was referring to the Russian oligarchs who have been hit by western sanctions since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
But, a Russian billionaire that Forbes spoke to also said that he would not consider spending $5 million for a gold card. “Whoever has a business idea can do it now for very cheap, so why spend $5 million? I do not understand who will pay $5 million,” they said.
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