President Donald Trump is laying down plans to give ‘gold cards’ to rich immigrants to consolidate their American citizenship for $5 million. These gold cards have the residency status of a green card with an easier way for foreigners to acquire citizenship. This initiative is expected to pay off national debt according to President Trump as it is believed around 1 million cards would be sold.

The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program created by the Congress in 1990 which was conducted by the U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services to “stimulate the U.S economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors,” the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website stated. This program was set to be replaced. The commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said, “They’ll have to go through vetting, of course, to make sure they’re wonderful world-class global citizens”.

The EB-5 Immigrant Investment Program requires investments at $800,000-$1.05 million in a business that allows for job creation, the gold card does not have the provision of job creation. It focuses entirely on wealthy incomes that will be rewarded with a fancy status of residency if the fee is paid.

The outcome of this new plan was discussed by the Times of India in relation to its impact on Indian nationals that have been waiting for US green cards “with backlogs exceeding 50 years in some employment-based categories.” The gold card would shut out investors of the middle-tier that followed the requirements of the EB-5 Immigrant Investment Program.

This revenue driven scheme has no limit on the number of gold cards to be sold. Trump said, “We’ll be able to sell maybe a million of these cards,” with the intention of selling millions more to make up for federal deficit. Which would be “great, maybe fantastic?”

Although Trump has said that congressional approval of this plan is not required, courts and the congress can still challenge its legality or file a lawsuit.

Trump went on to say, “"They'll be wealthy and they'll be successful, and they'll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people, and we think it's going to be extremely successful.”

"It's somewhat like a green card, but at a higher level of sophistication, it's a road to citizenship for people, and essentially people of wealth or people of great talent, where people of wealth pay for those people of talent to get in, meaning companies will pay for people to get in and to have long, long term status in the country.”

Howard Lutnick spoke of the advantages of the gold card, a major one was to do away with fraud and “nonsense” that was predominant with the EB-5 program. The program is set to launch in two weeks.

Ajay Bhutoria, an immigration reform advocate told the Times of India, “"I’ve spent years pushing for immigration reforms that bring fairness and opportunity to the millions of talented, skilled individuals caught in the green card backlog—people who have played by the rules, contributed to our economy, and waited decades for a chance at stability. So, when I hear about these $5 million ‘gold cards’—a new path to citizenship for wealthy foreigners who can pay to create jobs—it raises serious concerns for me."

This “pay to play” scheme portrays “The idea that you can buy your way into a green card and citizenship for $5 million, while millions of skilled workers—engineers, doctors, tech experts—languish in a backlog that stretches over 50 years for some, especially from countries like India, is a slap in the face. These are individuals who have already proven their worth, paying taxes, driving innovation, and building lives here. They won’t benefit from this. Instead, we are rolling out a red carpet for the ultra-wealthy, no backlog required, just a fat check. That’s not sophistication-it is elitism dressed up as a policy.”

The reliance on the EB-5 program as an employment based road to a green card, with the view of it being “a more secure, long term solution” than the H-1B policy was discussed by Akshat Gupta, director of business development at US Immigration Fund (USIF) with Business Standard.

There was also no mention of possible job creation under this new plan. Trump said that more information regarding this plan will be disclosed in two weeks.

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