Trump's $1 Million 'Gold Card' Visa Goes Live— An Easy Route to Citizenship for Wealthy Indians?

US President Donald Trump has introduced the Trump Gold Card, an immigration initiative aimed at expediting visas for select immigrants in exchange for significant fees. At a roundtable event, Trump said his "gold card" immigration policy would fast-track visas for foreigners, like those who come to study from countries like India and China, in exchange for a hefty fee. The card is touted to offer more benefits than a green card and boasts of "big advantages.""It's somewhat like a green card, but with big advantages over a green card. Companies will be able to go to any school, buy a card, and keep that person in the United States. It's a gift to get somebody great coming into our country, because we think there will be some tremendous people

who otherwise wouldn't have been allowed to stay. They graduate from college, they have to go back to India or China or France," Trump explained. "The companies will be very happy. I know Apple is going to be happy. Nobody talked to me more about it than Tim Cook. He said it's a real problem. And it's not going to be a problem anymore... The other thing is it'll take in, we think, probably billions of dollars that will go to the Treasury of the United States... Many billions of dollars, even," he said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waODab1d3jk&pp=0gcJCSgKAYcqIYzv

A quick way for wealthy Indians to 'buy' their way to the US?

The programme is actually a green card, effectively offering permanent legal residency with the chance for citizenship The new pathway will allow Indians and other foreigners to pay USD 1 million to expedite their visa application or have companies pay USD 2 million to sponsor a foreign worker they want to bring into the US. The visa program was first proposed in February by Trump, who then signed an executive order in September calling on his administration to establish an application for the gold card."We're going to be putting a price on that card of about USD 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," Trump said from the Oval Office in February.Also Read: Trump Gold Card Is Here! What Is It, Prize, Eligibility Details, And More

Is it similar to the EB-5 visa program?

Trump's gold card is actually meant to replace EB-5 visas, which Congress created in 1990 to generate foreign investment and had been available to people who spend about USD 1 million on a company that employs at least 10 people. But the president made no mention of requirements for job creation for applying corporations or on overall caps on the programme, which exist under the current EB-5 programme.Trump sees the new version as a way for the US to attract and retain top talent, all while generating revenue for federal coffers. He has been promoting the gold card programme for months, and once suggested that each card would cost USD 5 million, though he more recently revised that to the USD 1 million and USD 2 million pricing scheme.(With agency inputs)