Wealthy foreign nationals may soon be able to apply for a new US visa program offering permanent residency in exchange for a $5 million investment. 

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced on Wednesday that registration for the “gold card” visa will open shortly, with a government website expected to go live within a week.

The announcement was made during Axios’ “Building the Future” event in Washington. 

According to CNN, Lutnick said, “I expect there will be a website up called ‘Trump card dot gov’ in about a week. 

The details of that will come soon after, but people can start to register.”

The visa program is designed to replace the existing EB-5 immigrant investor scheme, which currently allows applicants to secure green cards through investments of $1.8 million, or $900,000 in targeted employment areas.

The “gold card” was first proposed by former President Donald Trump in February.

At the time, Trump said, “We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million and that’s going to give you green card privileges, plus it’s going to be a route to citizenship. 

And wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card.”

Lutnick claimed the new program has already generated interest abroad.

 “Basically, everyone I meet who is not an American is going to want to buy this card if they have the fiscal capacity,” he said, citing conversations during a recent visit to the Middle East.

He also positioned the program as a tool to address the national debt.

 “These are going to be great people who are going to come and bring businesses and opportunity to America, and they’re going to pay $5 million. 

If there are 200,000 people who pay, that’s a trillion dollars. That pays for everything,” Lutnick said.

However, immigration law experts caution that such a visa program would likely require Congressional approval.

 More details are expected in the coming weeks.

Source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/migrate/foreigners-can-start-registering-for-trumps-new-5-million-gold-cards-within-a-week/articleshow/121327545.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst