Trump Floats “Gold Card” to Replace EB-5 Program

The controversial EB-5 visa program may be nearing an end.

President Donald Trump this week teased his plan for a gold card visa program, the New York Times reported. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick added the gold card would replace the EB-5 program, an important investment vehicle for the real estate industry.

Trump described the gold card as “somewhat like a green card, but at a higher level of sophistication.” He referred to the visa program as a new “route to citizenship” for those willing to pony up roughly $5 million.

Lutnick hinted that the administration would be more selective about those who qualify for a gold card compared to the EB-5 program. Trump also said the program would be geared towards “people that create jobs” and estimated the government would “be able to sell maybe a million of these cards, maybe more than that.”

The EB-5 program was created by Congress in 1990, to grant visas to foreign investors who spend about $1 million and employ at least 10 people. The number of visas granted in the program is capped and the Homeland Security Department’s most recent Yearbook of Immigration Statistics disclosed 8,000 people obtained investor visas in the 12-month period ending in September 2022, according to Time.

EB-5 has been referred to as the “crack cocaine of real estate financing,” an important source of capital for those developing expensive buildings, particularly in Manhattan. But the program has also been seen as vulnerable to fraud, including misrepresentation of investment opportunities, falsifying documents and misallocating investor funds.

Last year, Queens developer Richard Xia and his companies settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission for $272 million over allegations he defrauded Chinese EB-5 investors.

— Holden Walter-Warner