“They’re going to spend a lot of money to come in,” Trump told reporters Friday in the Oval Office as he signed the order to create the visa programme. “It’s going to raise billions of dollars, billions and billions of dollars, which is going to go to reduce taxes, pay off debt and for other good things.”
Individuals can pay US$1 million to receive US residency with the “Trump Gold Card,” following a processing fee and vetting, according to a website announcing the programme. According to the site, a “Platinum Card” will soon be available for US$5 million, and allow recipients to “spend up to 270 days in the United States without being subject to US taxes on non-US income.”
Businesses that pay a US$2 million fee per employee can receive US residency for an unspecified number of workers, according to the website.
“The Trump Corporate Gold Card allows your business to transfer access from one employee and grant it to another, with the cost of a transfer fee and DHS vetting. A small annual maintenance fee will also apply,” the website said, referring to the department of homeland security.
It’s not clear how soon the visas could be awarded. The website includes an “apply now” section, which asks applicants for their name, the region in which they live and their email address.
Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said the platinum card programme is dependent on congressional approval and predicted “that will happen later this year.”
The executive order directs the commerce secretary to deposit revenue from the programme into a “separate fund” at the treasury and use it to promote commerce and American industry.
Lutnick told reporters Friday that the vetting fee for the Gold Card is expected to be US$15,000 and said that applicants would be subject to “a much more rigorous vetting than has ever been done before.”
The Gold Card would replace the existing EB-1 and EB-2 visas that allow foreign nationals with extraordinary or exceptional abilities to seek permanent residency, Lutnick said.
After an implementation phase Lutnick said should last less than a month, “other visa green card categories are likely to be suspended, and this will be the model that people can come in to the country.”
Trump first teased the Gold Card venture in February, touting the concept as an initiative that would help draw capital investment and create jobs, while also providing revenue to reduce the deficit. Lutnick joined Trump at the White House event Friday to announce the initiative.
The visas for the super-rich are part of Trump’s efforts to overhaul the country’s immigration system, which also include ramped-up deportations of undocumented migrants. Trump has said he wants to expand legal pathways to citizenship, particularly for high-earning individuals.
“The main thing is we’re going to have great people coming in, and they’re going to be paying,” Trump said.
The announcement comes as Trump is also moving to extensively overhaul the H-1B visa programme, requiring a US$100,000 fee for applications in a bid to curb overuse. Such a move would make it far more expensive for technology companies and other firms to employ foreign engineers and other skilled workers to fill in-demand jobs.
Trump said that technology executives would be “very happy” with the golden visa programme because it would allow them to bring in additional workers.
Accenture, Cognizant Technology and other IT consulting stocks hit session lows on Friday on the news of the visa fee.
Trump has envisioned as many as one million people purchasing the Gold Cards, but immigration experts have said that the pool of individuals who could afford to take part in the programme is far smaller.