A ‘Trump Card Visa’ Is Already Showing Up in Immigration Forms | EUROtoday

The US authorities has the capability to dole out roughly 1.1 million everlasting resident playing cards within the present fiscal 12 months, that are divided into classes for members of the family, staff with superior abilities, and different teams based mostly on exact guidelines.

Lutnick initially proposed Trump’s gold card as a substitute for one in all these classes, often known as the EB-5 investor visa, which is probably the closest factor the United States at present has to a golden visa.

Created by Congress in 1990, this system at present permits roughly 10,000 foreigners to acquire a inexperienced card annually by making a $1.05 million funding within the United States (or $800,000 in rural areas and areas tormented by excessive unemployment), supporting not less than 10 full-time jobs.

When this system was initially crafted, specialists say, lawmakers went to nice lengths to make sure it wasn’t seen as a pathway for corrupt oligarchs to unfairly purchase their approach into the United States. Part of that effort was making certain immigration authorities rigorously assess every EB-5 software to confirm the funding funds aren’t coming from unlawful or unsavory sources.

“There’s a whole unit in USCIS filled with economists and national security experts” who review EB-5 applications, says Doug Rand, a former senior adviser at USCIS under the Biden administration. During his time in the government, Rand says, there was so much paperwork associated with EB-5 petitions that the towering stacks of files caused the floor inside USCIS headquarters to sag.

It’s not clear if this same level of scrutiny will be applied to the gold card program. When asked during the February briefing whether a Russian oligarch would be eligible, Trump said “yeah, possibly, hey I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.”

Advocates for the existing EB-5 program say it has mostly been used by ordinary immigrants who saved for years to invest in American real estate developments and other enterprises, and expect to make their money back one day. In other words, it’s not a group of people who can typically afford to pay $5 million for a gold card and never see those funds again.

“Most people who are trying to take advantage of the EB-5 program as a pathway to a green card and citizenship do not have that type of money,” says Brad Sher, chief executive of EB5 Group, an investment firm that specializes in raising money for EB5 real estate projects. “They are mostly working-class people who work hard to save their money, and they’re often using a majority of their savings to come up with the investment amounts to take advantage of EB-5.” (Sher adds that he is supportive of Trump’s Gold Card, though he hopes it can coexist alongside the EB-5 visa).

During the initial Oval Office briefing on February 25, Lutnick said the gold card initiative would be launching in about two weeks. During his podcast interview, which came out a month later on March 20, he also claimed the project was right around the corner. “About two weeks from today it goes out,” Lutnick said, slicing his hand through the air for emphasis. Whether it’s actually ready and, if so, when it will be announced, remain unknown.

Additional reporting by Matt Giles and Zeyi Yang.