President Donald Trump’s long-touted “gold card,” which offers foreigners a path to U.S. citizenship after paying $5 million to the government, is open for business.
But even if you have the money, there’s a waitlist at trumpcard.gov. And read the fine print carefully: Your $5 million doesn’t buy you immediate citizenship.
Trump has said that he is not seeking approval from Congress as he is not providing gold card buyers with citizenship – only a path to citizenship. The path to citizenship requirements for card buyers are unclear and White House officials have said more details will be provided soon.
The most common path to U.S. citizenship through naturalization is being a lawful permanent resident for at least five years. It requires the applicant to be least 18 years old when they apply, be able to read, write, and speak basic English (depending on age) and be of “good moral character.”
Trump has described the card, which he has also dubbed the Trump card, as “somewhat like a green card, but at a higher level of sophistication.”
“FOR FIVE MILLION $DOLLARS, THE TRUMP CARD IS COMING!,” President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social on June 11. “Thousands have been calling and asking how they can sign up to ride a beautiful road in gaining access to the Greatest Country and Market anywhere in the World.”
The website shows an image of the gold-colored card, emblazoned with a likeness of Trump’s face, and asks a few questions including name, region, email address and if an applicant is applying for themselves or as a business.
The new website asks interested people to fill out a form that specifies eight regions: Europe, Asia (including Middle East), North America, Oceania, Central America, South America, Caribbean and Africa.
Other countries also offer immigration programs that offers permanent residency or citizenship to foreign investors in exchange for investment. Portugal, for example, offers residency and a path to EU citizenship after five years.
When he first floated the idea in February, Trump said the card would replace the “EB-5” immigrant investor green card visa program,
The EB-5 visa allows immigrant investors the option to invest between $800,000 and $1.05 million to obtain a green card. The investment money is used to help create or preserve U.S. jobs.
“Wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card,” Trump said in February. “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.”
“It’s a road to citizenship for people and essentially people of wealth or people of great talent where people of wealth pay for those people of talent to get in,” he said.
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump ‘gold card’ is open for business. Waitlist is open
