US President Donald Trump.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Since replacing Joe Biden as the President of the United States, Donald Trump has been upending policies and politics unlike few of his predecessors.
In another bold move, Trump has now announced a special visa, dubbed the Trump 'Gold Card', which will offer citizenship to foreigners who are willing to come to the United States and invest there, while also creating job opportunities.
The US does have a similar visa, the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, established in 1990. This visa, as per the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website, is open to those who "make the necessary investment in a commercial enterprise in the United States", as well as "plan to create or preserve 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualified US workers".
Foreigners get Green Cards under the EB-5 programme if they invest at least $800,000 in Targeted Employment Areas (TEAs) or $1.8 million elsewhere in the country, besides creating at least 10 jobs in the country.
Trump's plan is to replace this visa with his 'Gold Card', for which investors will be directly charged $5 million.
Trump made the announcement in the Oval Office while he was signing some executive orders. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who was present with the US President, said, "Rather than having this sort of ridiculous EB-5 program, we're going to end it. We're going to replace it with the Trump Gold Card."
The US President believes he will be able to sell at least a million of these 'gold cards', and made no qualms about affirming that he wants more "people with money".
"They'll be able to work and provide jobs and build companies," he said.
The EB-5 programme grabbed headlines in 2017 after it was revealed that the family company of Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, was touting it to Chinese investors as a way to gain US citizenship.