US President Donald Trump announced a million-dollar “Gold Card” program offering a pathway to US citizenship, calling it a “shame” that top students from India and China must return home. The Gold Card is a visa tied to an individual’s ability to provide substantial benefit to the United States.
“It is a gift of getting somebody great coming into our country,” Trump said at a White House roundtable, adding that many exceptional graduates are currently barred from staying. He said CEOs including Apple’s Tim Cook had raised the problem of employers being unable to retain top talent, with students effectively “thrown” out despite graduating at the top of their classes.
Joined by IBM CEO Arvind Krishna and Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell, Trump said the Gold Card website was live and that companies could “buy” the card to keep recruits from leading universities such as Wharton, Harvard and MIT.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the card would cost $1 million for an individual and $2 million for a corporation, and would require “full” vetting to ensure recipients “absolutely qualify to be in America.” He said cardholders — described as needing to be “perfect people” — would have a path to citizenship after five years, at which point the company could transfer the card to another employee.
