Northern Minnesota is under a new alert until Friday at 7 p.m.

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

Lawyers' phones are ringing with wealthy foreigners wanting to know more about how to score a "Gold Card" – a glorified green card that would allow them to live and work in the U.S. without going through the usual hassle or red tape. Apparently, the card's $5 million price tag is not scaring off the jet-setters looking to make the U.S. home. Or at least one of their homes.

"$5 million to these people is jet fuel cost. It means nothing to them," says Matthew Kolken, an immigration lawyer from Buffalo, NY, who has Canadian clients asking about the Gold Card. The clients declined to comment, but Kolken says he thinks the Gold Card is underpriced, if anything, considering the time and hassle it would save foreign multi-millionaires.

"It allows them to potentially buy their way into the United States," says Kolken. "They would just be able to throw down their Amex Black Card."

"I have one from India, one from Pakistan, and two from Egypt. And a colleague who has a few [clients] from Russia," says immigration attorney Mona Shah. Most are drawn to the offer of an express lane to permanent residency, plus more favorable tax implications; foreign nationals living in the U.S. on a Gold Card would only be taxed on their U.S. earnings.

Shah says the security — and the status — of being able to flash that "Gold Card" to get waved into the U. S. is also a big draw, as well as what Trump has described as "privileges - plus." The president hasn't elaborated on what that means, but Shah says clients are imagining VIP perks that range from easy loans to a special fast-track lane through Customs at U.S. airports.

"They seem to believe that this is going to be some kind of separating first class from economy class, and that this is some kind of 'red carpet' visa and they will be treated like a VIP everywhere," says Shah.

But whether any such perks – or obligations – will come with the Gold Card remains far from clear, and the administration is not offering any more details some three months after President Donald Trump first started hyping the idea.

"It's a great thing, the Gold Card. Remember the words 'the Gold Card!'" he proclaimed to reporters in the Oval Office in February. "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, never been done before anything like this."

Trump added that he'd be happy to call it the "Trump Gold Card." In fact officials say a government website is now using the name 

, and Trump has since revealed a sample card with a picture of his face on the front.

Trump has said the proceeds of the Gold Card would go to help pay down the budget deficit, and possibly even chip away at the massive $36.2 trillion national debt.

"We'll be able to sell maybe a million of these cards, maybe more than that," Trump said. "A million cards would be worth $5 trillion. And if you sell 10 million of the cards, that's a total of $50 trillion. We have $35 trillion in debt. That'd be nice."

But most immigration experts and attorneys see that figure as wildly unrealistic. They expect sales to be in the low thousands.

Immigration lawyer Darren Silver says he's received a flurry of calls about the Gold Card, but interest wanes as soon as he explains this program is not like the existing EB-5 visa program, which requires an investment of something closer to $1 million in a business that creates jobs or $800,000 for investments in a lower-income 'targeted employment area.'

Silver says his clients are surprised when he tells them the Gold Card is not an investment that might offer any returns. It's effectively just a donation.

"I had to explain to them, 'you're gifting the U.S. government $5 million. That's all you're doing.'" says Silver. "And once I explain that to them, they're out."

Similar programs offering residency or citizenship in exchange for investments have been tried in multiple other countries, including Malta, Greece, Portugal, New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates. Many of those countries have faced challenges and a number have recently ended their programs.

In April, Malta's "Golden Visa" program was deemed to be in violation of EU law and 

. Spain's program was terminated after it was blamed for driving up housing prices. A UK program shut down in 2022 amid issues involving national security, illicit funds and money laundering.

Similar concerns ended programs in Cyprus, Ireland, Bulgaria.

"We've seen that these programs attract unsavory characters," says Kate Hooper, senior policy analyst with the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute. "Time and again, the issue has been that these programs aren't very good at tracing who investors actually are and where their money comes from. Those are real challenges to running effective, investor visa programs and we're seeing more of these programs fold."

Trump has said Gold Card applicants will be "very carefully" vetted. But he didn't do much to allay concerns when a reporter asked if Russian oligarchs, for example, would be eligible for gold cards.

"Yeah possibly," Trump replied. "I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people."

The Trump administration will also face other challenges, including managing the optics of rolling out the red carpet to welcome uber-wealthy and privileged foreigners at the very same time that the administration is actively detaining and deporting

 of lesser means, for a variety of reasons.

"The Gold card is straight out capitalism at its height," says attorney Shah. "I think the founding fathers might roll over in their graves if they knew we were selling residency in this manner."

But supporters say opening up a special new lane for wealthy immigrants ultimately helps everyone.

"We're really short on money right now in the U.S. Treasury and this would seem to be a better way to get money than to raise taxes on American citizens," says Stephen Moore, a former Trump economic advisor and a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation. "We can take the huddled masses, 

we can take the people who are very wealthy, they're not mutually exclusive."

John Lettieri, CEO of the Economic Innovation Group, a bipartisan think tank, agrees. He sees the Gold Card as a good step toward creating a more merit-based immigration system.

"Right now, we grant visas on a lottery basis that's totally random and blind to attracting and retaining the best and brightest people from around the world, and we need to be more conducive to that kind of talent if we want to maintain the [competitive] edge that we have right now," he says. "The Gold Card is not a handout. We're getting something very substantial in return, and it can be a very significant way to offset the cost of other very important programs that Americans depend on."

A whole separate question is whether Trump can legally do what he's proposing without approval from congress. Immigration lawyers, 

 as well as some Republican lawmakers and conservative immigration experts say he cannot. But Trump insists it's "totally legal" since he's offering only permanent residency, and is stopping short of offering citizenship.

Meantime, while the wealthy wait and ponder the risks and benefits of a Gold Card, late-night comedy shows and the internet are having some fun with the Gold Card idea. In one post on X, a woman offered to beat Trump's offer, with what she called a $1 million dollar "discount." For just $4 million, she posted, she would help an uber-rich foreigner come to America by marrying him.

Tovia Smith

Author

Foreign nationals with $5 million to spare will be able to register for a “gold card” visa that would give them the right to live and work in the U.S. But details about the program remain unclear.

Trump’s $5 million Gold Card offers the rich a fast lane to residency

Go Deeper.

Like this?