US President Donald Trump has launched a new website inviting immigrants to express interest in the highly publicized “Gold Card” — a proposed residency permit offering a pathway to U.S. citizenship for those willing to invest $5 million into the country.
Announcing the move on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “FOR FIVE MILLION $DOLLARS, THE TRUMP CARD IS COMING!” adding that thousands had inquired about how to join “the beautiful road” to entering what he called the “Greatest Country and Market anywhere in the World.”
The website, trumpcard.gov, currently allows prospective applicants to register basic details such as their name, email, region, and whether they are applying individually or on behalf of a business. The site displays an image of the gold-colored Trump Card, featuring Trump’s portrait, and is open to users from eight global regions: Europe, Asia (including the Middle East), North America, Oceania, Central America, South America, the Caribbean, and Africa.
What’s A Gold Card
US President Donald Trump unveiled the first “gold card”, a residency permit, in April. The bore his face and an inscription “The Trump Card”. At the time, the Republican president said that the special visa would probably be available “in less than two weeks”.
However, the programme has not been launched yet, formally, and the newly launched website says that registered individuals will “be the first to hear when access opens.”
Trump previously said that sales of the new visa, a high-priced version of the traditional green card, would bring in job creators and could be used to reduce the US national deficit.
The billionaire former real estate tycoon, who has made the deportation of millions of undocumented migrants a priority for his second term, said the new card would be a route to highly prized US citizenship. He suggested that the gold card would replace the EB-5 investor visa, and could result in 1 million in sales and raise enough money to retire the national debt.
The EB-5 visa allows immigrants an option to invest between $800,000 and $1.05 million to obtain a green card. The investment money is used to help create or preserve US jobs.
Initially, floating the idea of the visa programme in February, Trump said that his administration hoped to sell “maybe a million” of the cards and did not rule out that Russian oligarchs may be eligible.