Trump's Golden Card: What Is the Difference with the Eb-5 Visa?

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced the launch of the “Gold Card”, a new immigration scheme aimed exclusively at foreign investors with high purchasing power. This program will also allow applicants to live and work legally in the country, with the possibility of accessing US citizenship, in exchange for an investment of 5 million dollars.

For his part, Trump compared the “Gold Card” with the traditional “Green Card” or permanent residence card, but emphasized that this new program is specifically designed to attract foreign capital. In addition, the president assured on February 25 that the sale of the cards will begin in approximately two weeks.

Also, the president pointed out that the objective is to issue millions of them. However, details about its operation are not yet fully defined.

¿cómo Se Compara Con La Visa Eb-5?1544

Meanwhile, the “Gold Card” program was presented as a replacement for the current EB-5 scheme. Specifically, the latter is a visa for immigrant investors created in 1992 that allows obtaining permanent residence in exchange for investments in projects that generate employment in the United States.

Currently, the requirements of the EB-5 visa include:

Minimum investment of 1.05 million dollars or 800 thousand dollars in targeted employment areas (TEA).
Creation or conservation of at least 10 permanent jobs for American workers.
An annual limit of 15 thousand visas, distributed among investors and their families.
Restrictions by country of origin, with a maximum of 700 annual visas per nation, which has generated long waiting lists in countries like China and India.

In contrast, the “Gold Card” poses a more direct process: the payment of 5 million dollars in exchange for a residence with benefits similar to the “Green Card”. However, details on background checks, annual limits or additional requirements have not yet been specified.