President Donald Trump proposed in February a “gold card” visa program, which he said would offer permanent residency for a price of $5 million. But despite criticism from some experts who warned of the possibility that the administration’s cozying with oligarchs able to make the payment, this isn’t the first time a visa of this nature has floated around the immigration sphere.
The proposed new program would allow “very high-level people” a new “route to citizenship,” Trump said. The new gold card would replace the EB-5 visa program, which similarly provides a pathway to citizenship for wealthy investor types but has also been criticized, in this case as an avenue for fraud.
Alex Nowrasteh is the Cato Institute’s vice president for economic and social policy studies, he proposed a similar version of Trump’s gold card in a 2019 policy analysis. In his plan, Nowrasteh recommended charging a lower price and not removing the investor’s visa.
“My whole plan that I wrote up in 2019 is substantially and radically different from what Trump came out with,” Nowrasteh told The Latin Times. “It is merely that he stole the marketing and the idea on the names.”
Under Cato’s envisioned program, foreigners could pay an immigration tariff to the federal government in exchange for a gold card visa that would allow the holders to reside and work in the U.S. as long as they are not “inadmissible under existing criteria and do not commit a deportable offense.”
Unlike Trump’s plan, Nowrasteh’s gold card would not provide a new path to citizenship, but its holders could adjust their status to a green card and eventually earn citizenship through any other currently existing legal means. He also suggested Congress adjusting tariff rates by age and education to guarantee that all immigrants make a positive net fiscal contribution.
“The ‘gold card’ proposal is the flip side of this dark record. More than just a policy, it’s a wholesale rewrite of what it means to be an American.” an MSNBC op-ed reads. “In Trump’s vision, citizenship is no longer about building a shared national project; it is an asset reserved for those who can afford it, as it is in countries with ‘golden visa’ programs such as Malta and Cyprus. Being American would become a high-end commodity, available only to the wealthy.”
Nowrasteh agrees with the sentiment, arguing that Trump’s new visa program is “ludicrous” and fuels the oligarchy rhetoric the Trump administration has been accused of embracing. The scholar said that ultimately, the administration could sell only a couple visas a year.
“I think it fuels the [oligarchy] rhetoric, definitely. But it’s also just silly because nobody’s gonna take advantage of those. I mean nobody, like who is going to do this? I have no idea,” Nowrasteh said. “Not many people have $5 million burning a hole in their pocket, and they’re like, ‘you know what I want? A green card and have no other way to get it.”
In his last speech from the Oval Office in January, former President Joe Biden warned of a rising ultra-wealthy “oligarchy” in America posing threat to the country’s democracy, and urged U.S. citizens to defend institutions against “powerful forces.”
A few days later, some of the world’s wealthiest people stood beside Trump as he was inaugurated into office, including CEO and Founder of SpaceX and “first buddy” Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and more.
Upon announcing the new program, Trump also joked Russian oligarchs would “possibly” be able to apply for the visa. These oligarchs are wealthy and politically connected businesspeople who benefitted from Russia’s post-Soviet privatization, often leveraging their influence over politics, media and key industries.