Donald Trump’s Gold Card US Visa

 

President Donald Trump took the world of international immigration and investment by storm with the announcement of the ‘Gold Card’ residency permit.

Referred to as the EB-5 program, the new initiative replaces the previous program for EB5 visas, which will be granted only to those who invest a large sum — $5 million.

The Gold Card visa is designed to quicken the immigration for ultra-rich people, and is expected to alter the equation of getting US residency considerably adversely even for Indian investors who have been benefiting under the EB 5 scheme so far.

How are things going now?

The Gold Card visa initiative will be a high stakes alternative for EB-5 but now with no investment requirement.

From the Oval Office, Trump announced the new visa that would essentially act as a best of breed Green Card.

“We are going to be selling a Gold Card.” This is a Gold Card; you have a Green Card.

That card is going to be priced at about $5 million, Trump declared during the briefing.

In line with this statement is the essence of the initiative, which includes opening a direct path to US citizenship, but for those who can fulfill the heightened threshold for investment.

Instituting a $5 million investment entry point, the Gold Card seeks to target a very exclusive class of investors who would have enough funds in their portfolio to absorb that kind of cash flow.

This visa category helps expedite the process through the only few bureaucratic delays that US immigration entails.

On the one hand, the prospect of expedited and smoother US citizenship due to work is appealing, but on the other it also forces us to consider whether or not it creates unintended consequences that make a country’s immigration system fundamentally meritless.

Indian Investors and Applicants

Previously, for foreign investors, including many Indian nationals, the EB-5 visa program has been a popular path.

With respect to the number of applications, the EB-5 program, which dates from 1990, has long been the pathway of choice for many middle-tier investors who want to gain U.S. residency by making an investment of $1.05 million ($800,000 in less desirable employment sectors).

This program has for years permitted participation of a broad group of investors in the American dream of being able to get permanent residency, not just the ultra wealthy.

The financial requirement is now much higher and was boosted with the Gold Card visa.

However, this move will no doubt have a bearing on the demographic profile of the eligible applicants.

The EB-5 visa has been one of the biggest sources of funding to Indian investors who now may be priced out of the market.

Such a high threshold of $5 million investment means that only a very special group — being those whose net worth is extraordinarily high — may become eligible for this expedited track.

Thus, a large part of potential investors may be compelled to turn to other channels of immigration or will have to reexamine their foreign investment strategies.

There are two impacts on the Indian investor community. On the one hand there is the advantage for the people who have the needed capital, when the US citizenship process becomes more straightforward and quicker.

On the other hand, the cost of investment is likely to be so high, that a large number of second and third tier investor groups who have viewed EB-5 as one of the more affordable and accessible investment options may give up consideration altogether.

The shift in the lenses of stock investing and the nature of investing may extend beyond the individual level to the broader pattern of foreign direct investment coming out of India.

Rationale Behind Replacing the EB-5 Program

Replacing the EB 5 visa program with Gold Card comes at no choice. But over the years, the EB 5 program has attracted increasing amounts of criticism and scrutiny.

Originally created to encourage capital investment and create jobs in the United States, the program has been highly criticized for its vulnerability to fraud as well the inability to guarantee that investors reap the benefits it is intended to offer.

Critics have derided the program for providing a backdoor for wealthy foreigners to get residency without being compelled to do anything to advance the economic development that the program was originally supposed to bring to Mozambique.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s harsh characterization of the EB − 5 program as “nonsense” and “a way to get a Green Card at a low price” reflects the administration’s reasons for overhauling the system.

The Trump administration changed the aims of the program by raising the investment requirement to a significantly higher level that would make it a wealth based, more exclusive, program as opposed to a broad based immigration access model.

This change is part of a larger ideological position in which financial capability is elevated to be the first and foremost criterion determining who is allowed to immigrate to the UK.

Proponents argue that this model prevents those that can’t contribute to the US economy significantly from gaining residency status, but detractors argue that it undermines traditional values of merit based immigration.

As such, the Gold Card is no mere administrative adjustment, but a genuine readjustment of the conditions according to which US citizenship is being commodified today.

Broader Implications and Future Outlook

With the introduction of a Gold Card visa, the US immigration landscape can be changed.

The program can by setting an exceptionally high financial bar then thereby consolidating US citizenship as a privilege open to the holiest investors alone.

In international relation and investment pattern terms, this has significant meanings, but in the public eye, US immigration policies also have this implication.

Indian investors and investors in these similar markets may be in for a period of recalibration as far as the Gold Card visa is concerned.

A portion of the ultrarich is likely to entertain this new opportunity, although the wider investor population may need to rethink their ways to foreign investment or rebalance their international investment portfolios.

The change could also result in the rethinking of the EB-5 program’s past and the parent philosophy behind investor based immigration in the United States.

It remains to be seen as well how the new program will be carried out, and what other details will come forward in coming weeks.

Undeniably, there is an appeal of an expedited US citizenship process, but attached to it is the high cost, which brings up important issues on equity and sustainability over the long term.

The Gold Card visa will be watched closely by policymakers and investors to see if it can really serve to see economic contribution and accessible immigration principles in balance.

Conclusion

It’s bold — especially controversial — for an investor immigration model that Trump, (who else?)… announced when it’s not urgent for the country: gold card US visa.

With the initiative basically replacing the EB-5 immigrant investor program with a high priced, quick route to US citizenship, it benefits exclusively the ultra rich, impacting such would be investors from India, among other places.

Stakeholders are certain to be closely watching the manner this shift in policy impacts both the dynamics of US immigration and investment trends in the international arena as the new details of the policy begin to unravel.

Ultimately, however, the Gold Card visa may also raise a wider discussion about the commodification of US citizenship as countries move with the big economy in a fast changing international market.