President Donald Trump’s new “Gold Card” visa program uses a novel definition of wealth as a job skill to allow the overseas wealthy to bypass immigration rules and secure citizenship, according to immigration attorneys.
Trump last week announced the start of applications for the “Trump Gold Card,” a new investment visa for foreign nationals. In exchange for $1 million and a $15,000 processing fee, “Gold Card” applicants will get full-time residency in the U.S. in “record time,” according to the program’s website. The website also offers a “Corporate Gold Card,” allowing companies to pay $2 million to secure a “Gold Card” for an employee, and a “Platinum Card,” which offers special tax benefits and may eventually be offered for $5 million.
Only Congress can set immigration policy, meaning the president doesn’t have the power to create or destroy a visa program. So to create the “Gold Card,” Trump is effectively adding a new fee model to two existing programs – known as EB-1 and EB-2 – experts explained to CNBC.
The EB-1 and EB-2 programs are both employment-based programs aimed at attracting award-winning or celebrated professionals. The EB-1 program, nicknamed the “Einstein Visa,” is aimed at those with “extraordinary abilities” – such as scientists, artists, entrepreneurs, athletes and professors who have achieved “sustained international or national acclaim.”
