“We are going to sell a gold card”, said Trump From the Oval Office of the White House. “You have a Green Card. This is a gold card. We are going to put a price at that card of around US $ 5 million and that It will give you green card privileges, in addition to being a route to citizens“He added.
“Rich people will come to our country Buying this card. They will be rich and will succeed, They will spend a lot of money, They will pay many taxes And they will use many people. We believe it will be great success and that anything similar has never been done ”, Trump continued.
The president said The sale of the gold cards will begin in about two weeks. He also talked about the possibility that the federal government can sell 10 million gold cards to reduce the deficit. “It could be great, maybe it’s fantastic,” he said.
US President Donald Trump holds a hat that says “Trump was right in everything.” (EFE/EPA/YURI GRIPAS).
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“It is something like a green card, but at a higher level of sophistication, it is a path to citizens for people, and essentially for rich people or people with great talent, where rich people pay so that those talented people enter, which means that companies will pay so that people enter and have a long -term status in the country”Trump insisted.
For its part, the Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnickwho was with Trumpexplained that the Gold card will replace the Immigration program for EB-5 investorswhich allows foreign investors, along with their wives and children under 21, to obtain permanent residence in the United States.
“They will have to go through a verification process, of course, to ensure that they are wonderful global world class”Said Lutnick.
Neither Trump nor Lutnick gave more details about how the selection process will be to access the gold card. That information will be known in the next few days.
Henley & Partners, an advisory firm,
He maintains that more than 100 countries around the world offer “gold visas” to wealthy people, including United Kingdom, Spain, Greece, Malta, Australia, Canada, United Arab Emirates and Italy.
Visas for millionaires and risks
Great height towers along the central Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai on July 3, 2023. (Photo of Karim Sahib / AFP).
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The international analyst Francisco Belaunde Matossian commented to Commerce that the plan of Trump It is similar to that already offered by several countries in Europe and Asia to attract Investors.
“The issue is that sometimes such advantages occurs without making an adequate filter to verify exactly who is investing in the country, because there may be people who could be persecuted by the justice of their nation, corrupt people, even gangsters. There were already scandals in Cyprus, Malta, and in other nations where it was just sought to attract investors in exchange for the granting of nationality ”Belaunde said.
In the case of Cyprusnumerous Russian oligarchs had bought nationality, although many were revoked from the invasion of Ukraine, since that state is a member of the European Union, which has imposed sanctions on several Russian millionaires linked to the Kremlin.
Also put as an example to Dubaiemirate that accepts investors who can pay a Golden Visa of 2.7 million dollars. He stressed that in this rich territory it has been detected that European drug traffickers live without any problem and that even from there they continue to manage their illicit businesses.
“At this point, we must bear in mind that Donald Trump is not a very scrupulous person to rigorously verify who invests. He has even issued a measure that says that American businessmen will not be persecuted for justice if they pay bribes to foreign governments. He is a person who is not going to be very neat on that subject ”, The analyst held.
Belaunde referred to the order signed Trump A few weeks ago, the United States Attorney, PAM Bondi, suspends the actions he executes under the Corrupt Practices Law abroad until new application guides that promote the competitiveness of the United States.
On Tuesday, he asked Trump Yes a Russian oligarch It would be eligible for the Gold card And he replied that “possibly”, because there are “some Russian oligarchs who are very pleasant people.”
Belaunde recalled that There are many Russian oligarchs under the United States and other countries in the West for its proximity to the president Vladimir Putin. “Many of them are very questionable people,” he said.
The analyst also explained that if the buyers of the Gold card They are allowed to invest in real estate, USA might experience the problems that are happening in countries such as Canada and Spainwhere housing prices and rentals have shot precisely because rich foreigners exponentially increased demand. This has forced those nations to reorient their immigrant collection policies.
The organization International Transparency has also caught attention to the risks of the Gold visas In Europe. He has assured that these programs have turned the rights of citizenship and residence of the European Union into a luxury good. “With enough money, anyone can acquire them. This is a particularly attractive perspective for criminals and corrupt, and numerous scandals have shown that they are taking advantage of it. These gold -gold passport programs and visa are not aimed at genuine investment or migration, but to serve corrupt interests, ”he said.
Every year, about 50,000 people
They obtain nationality through investment programs that offer more than 100 countries.
Replaces the EB-5 visa
The Gold card It will replace the EB-5 Visa, which according to the Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, has been contaminated by the “fraud.”
The EB-5 It was created by Congress in 1992 to grant Green Cards to immigrants making investments of 1.8 million dollars in high -employment areas and $ 900,000 in rural areas, according to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services website (USCIS). In addition, beneficiaries must create or conserve 10 permanent jobs for qualified American workers.
USCIS details that capital includes cash, equipment, inventory or other tangible assets, as well as cash equivalents and debts backed by assets of the assets of the foreign entrepreneur.
The CNN chain reported that companies linked to Trump and their family have also used the EB-5 program to finance important real estate developments.
According to the Yearbook of Immigration Statistics of the Department of National Security, some 8,000 people obtained investor visas in the 12 -month period that ended on September 30, 2022.
The program has also received criticism in the United States Congress, where it was noted that it had diverted from its objectives and needed to be reformed. In addition, it raised fraud risks, including the possibility that it cannot be verified that investors’ funds were legally obtained.
