Wealthy foreigners — including Russian oligarchs — will be able to pay $US5 million ($7.89m) to buy a "Trump Gold Card" for access to permanent residency and a path to US citizenship, President Donald Trump says.
While signing executive orders in the Oval Office on February 25, Mr Trump revealed that he wants to start selling the cards to reduce the nation's deficit by replacing a foreign investors visa scheme that has been in effect since 1990.
"We're going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million and that's going to give you Green Card privileges plus it's going to be a route to citizenship," Mr Trump told reporters.
"Wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card. They'll be wealthy and they'll be successful and they'll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people."
"Gold" visa schemes are not unique to the US, with many European countries offering similar paths to citizenship and federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton previously saying he'd like to "bring back" a $5 million "golden ticket" foreign investor visa scheme to Australia.
Mr Trump's new Gold Card scheme could, however, risk the US importing organised and undetected crime from abroad, according to political analysts.
What is a 'Trump Gold Card' and how would it work?
The US president was scant on details when he first dropped his "Trump Gold Card" revelation on reporters in Washington, DC.
It might sound like something out of a Willy Wonka film or a playing card franchise, but it's definitely not. Instead, it's a migration route for wealthy individuals or companies to secure workers and a path to US citizenship.
Mr Trump confirmed the scheme would work in the same way as a Green Card, with the major difference being that investors won't be required to directly inject their money into US businesses or other sectors.
Instead, each $5 million payment would go into the Trump administration's coffers to reduce the country's $US839 billion ($1.32 trillion) deficit.
Mr Trump said he expects the scheme to be underway by mid-March, and expects major ivy league colleges or tech giants like Apple to show interest in the cards.
"Generally speaking, it will be people with money and people that create jobs. They won't have to pay any tax on income outside of the United States… but they'll have to pay if they create jobs in the United States," he said.
"People of wealth or people of great talent … will pay for people to get in and to have long-term status in the country."
The US's current EB-5 foreign investor scheme requires applicants to spend about $US1 million ($1.57m) on an American company that employs at least 10 people.
About 8,000 people obtained those visas in the 12-month period to September 30, 2022, according to the US Homeland Security Department’s most recent Yearbook of Immigration Statistics.
Standing alongside Mr Trump, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said that scheme was "full of nonsense, make-believe and fraud".
The president also said he expects his administration to sell "maybe a million" Trump Gold Cards, which would result in $US5 trillion ($7.89 trillion) in deficit-reducing revenue.
“I happen to think it’ll sell like crazy. It’s a market," Mr Trump said on February 26 during the first meeting of his newly sworn-in cabinet.
“No other country can do this because people don’t want to go to other countries. They want to come here."
Has a scheme like this happened before?
If you ask the US president, the answer is no. But that isn't exactly true.
Countries in Europe and elsewhere offer what have become known as “golden visas” that allow participants to pay to secure immigration status.
Henley & Partners, a global residence and citizenship advisory firm, says more than 100 countries around the world have offered “golden visas” to wealthy individuals and investors.
That list includes the United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Greece, Malta, Canada and Italy — but those sorts of visas haven't always proven successful.
Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Austria and Ireland all terminated their golden visa schemes after the European Commission found in a 2019 report that "investor residence schemes" could pose risks to the security of EU member nations.
In February 2022, the UK also axed its "golden visa" investment scheme in a bid to clamp down on organised crime and funds filtering into the country via Russian oligarchs, amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
"The overall conclusion of the Migration Advisory Committee's assessment of the (golden visa) route was that it primarily benefits the investors rather than the UK," Priti Patel, who was then the country's secretary of state for the Home Department, said in a statement at the time.
"The operation of the route has facilitated the presence of persons relying on funds that have been obtained illicitly or who represent a wider security risk."
In Australia, former Home Affairs minister Clare O'Neil announced in January last year the Albanese government would dump its investor visa scheme, saying "it has been obvious for years that this visa is not delivering what our country and economy needs".
Despite that, Mr Dutton has since signalled he would seek to reintroduce the scheme.
"I think we'll bring it back, you know, whether we do it before the election or look at a different design for it, we'll have to consider all of that," the opposition leader was filmed saying at an event last month.
What do experts say about the 'Trump Gold Card'?
Abul Rizvi, a former deputy secretary of the Australian Department of Immigration, told the ABC that "there are both advantages and disadvantages" to Mr Trump's new visa scheme.
"The advantage obviously is that you get an immediate rush of money into the coffers of the US government," Mr Rivzi said.
"The big risk is: How do you know whether the money was lawfully obtained? How do you know it's not a criminal you're talking about? And how do you know this is not going to lead to assisting criminals to strengthen their foothold in th US?
"It's really hard in countries like China and Russia to check whether the money earned was legitimately earned and not earned through criminal means."
After his announcement of the Gold Card , Mr Trump was asked in the Oval Office whether the scheme would allow for Russian oligarchs to legally buy their way into the US.
"Yeah, possibly. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people," the president responded.
The president's announcement also came at the same time his administration has been progressively deporting who it describes as "illegal aliens" found to have committed crimes in the US.
Dr Emma Shortis, the Director of The Australia Institute's International and Security Affairs Program, described the Gold Card scheme as "Trump all over" and said it represents a broader strengthening of relations between the US and Russia.
"Money is the language (Trump) speaks and so, in that framing, it is entirely logical that you would offer a path to citizenship that literally just involves handing over millions of dollars," Ms Shortis told the ABC.
"What's going on is that Trump and the broader Trump movement is ideologically aligned with Putin's Russia."
Both analysts questioned whether the US would actually be able to sell 1 million or more Trump Gold Cards, as the US president had predicted.
Ms Shortis also said Mr Trump's suggestion that corporate conglomerates could buy the card to secure talented foreign workers is a sign of his own interest in boosting the profits of members of his inner circle like Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk and Amazon executive chair Jeff Bezos.
"Trump is really good at the grift, so I suppose I would question whether he cares about the deficit at all," Ms Shortis said.
"Many of his executive orders … are designed not in the national interests of the United States, but in the interests of Trump and a very small group of very powerful men."
ABC/AP
