The Donald Trump administration’s new gold card visa program has approved just one applicant since launching in December. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed it on April 23. It’s a modest start for an initiative the president once described as “the green card on steroids.”
White House gives update on Donald Trump’s gold card visa
Testifying before a congressional committee, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the program remains in a deliberate early phase. “They’ve just set it up, and they wanted to make sure they did it perfectly,” he told lawmakers. While only one visa has been granted, he noted that “there are hundreds in the queue that they are going through.”
The single approval sits uneasily beside Lutnick’s earlier claim that the government sold $1.3 billion “worth” of the visas within days of launch. He did not address the discrepancy during Thursday’s hearing.
Donald Trump’s gold card allows foreigners to pay at least $1 million to live and work in the United States, with a path to citizenship. Applicants pay an additional $15,000 fee for what Lutnick described as rigorous vetting. Corporations may also buy in, spending $2 million per foreign-born employee plus a 1% annual maintenance fee.
Trump pitched the idea last year, initially floating a $5 million price tag. The program is deemed a replacement for the EB-5 visa. The latter grants residency to individuals investing roughly $1 million in businesses employing at least 10 workers. A government website now promotes the gold card with Donald Trump’s photo alongside a bald eagle and the Statue of Liberty. A forthcoming “Trump Platinum Card” is advertised at $5 million, offering 270 days in the U.S. without taxation on non-American income.
Lutnick previously projected the program would generate $1 trillion and help balance the federal budget. The publicly held debt currently stands at $31.3 trillion. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates this fiscal year’s deficit at roughly $2 trillion (via AP News).
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on Mandatory.
