Trump sees ’a thirst’ for his ’gold card’ visa idea with $5 million potential path to U.S. citizenship

President Trump plans to sell a "gold card" visa for $5 million, offering a pathway to U.S. citizenship.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday (February 26, 2025) that his plan to sell a “gold card” visa — with a potential pathway to U.S. citizenship for $5 million — would “sell like crazy”.

“I happen to think it’ll sell like crazy. It’s a market,” Mr. Trump said. “But we’ll know very soon.”

During the first meeting of his second-term Cabinet, Mr. Trump suggested that the new revenue generated from the programme could be used to pay off the country’s debt.

“If we sell a million, that’s $5 trillion dollars,” he said. Of the demand from the business community to participate, he said "I think we will sell a lot because I think there’s really a thirst.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters during the same meeting that Mr. Trump’s initiative would replace the EB-5 program, which offers U.S. visas to investors who spent about $1 million on a company that employs at least 10 people.

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Mr. Lutnick said that the programme “has been around for many years for investment in projects” but “it was poorly overseen, poorly executed.”