Trump says gold card visa may ‘sell like crazy’: 'People can pay $5 million, create new jobs’

Trump said companies would use the golden visa programme to hire non-citizens to work for them in the US.

Following the announcement of ‘gold card’ visa, US President Donald Trump said it is going to “sell like crazy”.

During the first meeting of his second-term Cabinet on Wednesday, Trump announced plans to introduce a “gold card” visa for $5 million, which could lead to US citizenship. He plans to offer a “gold card” visa with a path to citizenship for $5 million, replacing a 35-year-old visa for investors.

“I will tell you, the people that can pay $5 million, they’re going to create jobs.  They’re going to spend a lot of money on jobs.  They’re going to have to pay taxes on that too.  So, they’re going to be hiring people, they’re going to be bringing people in and companies in.  And, I don’t know, maybe it will sell like crazy.  I happen to think it’s going to sell like crazy.  It’s a bargain,” Trump told reports at White House.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters that Trump’s new plan would replace the EB-5 program, which gives US visas to investors who spend around $1 million on a company that hires at least 10 people. Describing the EB-5 programme as "poorly overseen and poorly executed", Lutnick said the golden visas would be an improvement.

"We're going to make sure they're wonderful world-class global citizens," Lutnick said of future gold card applicants.

Various countries around the world offer some sort of citizenship by investment programme, including several in Europe, like Portugal, which gives "golden visas", or permanent residency for foreigners who invest €500,000 ($524,000) into a qualifying fund.

Trump said companies would use the golden visa programme to hire non-citizens to work for them in the US.

"We have to be able to get people in the country, and we want people that are productive people," Trump said.

During the fiscal year of 2024, the State Department issued over 12,000 EB-5 visas, a record high for the programme, according to BBC.

Asked if he is committing to creating a certain number of jobs in the US, Trump said “no, no”.  “Because not all these people are going to be job builders.  They’ll be successful people, or they’ll be people that were hired from colleges, like — sort of like paying an athlete a bonus.  I mean, Apple or one of the companies will go out and they’ll spend five mil- — they’ll buy five of them, and they’re going to get five people.”

The US President also provided limited details on how the new programme would function.

While the number of EB-5 visas is capped, the Republican president said that the federal government could sell 10 million “gold cards” to reduce the deficit.