President Trump on Feb. 25 unveiled a new pathway to residency: a “gold card” aimed at wealthy foreigners willing to pay millions for the right to live in the U.S.
That term is a play on the green card, more officially known as a permanent residency card, which allows non-citizens to live and work permanently in the U.S. Green cards are most frequently awarded to foreigners who marry U.S. citizens or to those who receive one through their employer, with the latter process taking an average of three years to complete, according to the Cato Institute.
“For $5 million we will allow the most successful job-creating people from all over the world to buy a path to U.S. citizenship,” Mr. Trump said in a March 4 speech to a joint session of Congress. “It’s like the green card, but better and more sophisticated. And these people will have to pay tax in our country.”
The new program comes as the Trump administration moves to change the country’s rules for who can legally live, work and gain citizenship in the U.S. That includes tightening restrictions on many types of immigration in the U.S. and pushing to end birthright citizenship, the constitutionally protected right to citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil.
The U.S. already opens the door to wealthy non-U.S. citizens who want residency through what is known as an EB-5 visa. But that program, launched in 1990, has long been cited for potential abuses, including one prominent case from almost a decade ago that involved…
