Trump announces plan to sell US citizenship 'gold cards' for $5 million

President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced that his administration will be selling a route to United States citizenship through a "gold card" for $5 million, which would replace the similar EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program.

The current immigrant investor program allows potential migrants to apply for permanent residence if they “make the necessary investment in a commercial enterprise in the United States” and create at least 10 full time jobs, per The Independent.

Trump described the new cards during a briefing in the Oval Office as something "like a Green card but at a higher level of sophistication.”

“We're going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million and that's going to give you [permanent resident] Green Card privileges, plus it's going to be a route to citizenship,” the president said. “Wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card. 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 and never been done before.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick clarified that potential buyers would be vetted, and that money obtained through the investor cards would go toward reducing the U.S. deficit. 

The secretary also noted that the new program would work better than the current one, which he claimed was “full of nonsense, make-believe and fraud."

“It was a way to get a green card that was low priced," he added.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.