Last week, President Trump floated an idea to sell what he called the “Gold Card” Visa Program, in which wealthy foreigners seeking entry to America would have the opportunity to purchase a special visa with a whopping price tag of $5 million.
Supporters of the idea believe it could eliminate our national debt, and even bring in a hefty profit. At the same time, critics call it exploitative and claim there’s no market for it anyway.
I’ll address the critics first, because they’re the least informed on the topic.
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If the program is exploitative, as they assert, then perhaps they should have addressed that issue at some point over the last three decades, because a similar program has been in place since 1992, spanning multiple Democratic and Republican administrations.
The EB-5 program, created by Congress in 1992, can grant green cards to immigrants who make a minimum investment of at least $1,050,000 or $800,000 in economically distressed zones called targeted employment areas to create jobs for American workers. It is listed on the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services website.
And as for the demand for such a program, since 2000, 135,518 qualified investors and their family members worldwide have obtained legal permanent residency in the United States through the EB-5 Program. Over 91% of these visas were associated with qualified capital investments in projects located in targeted employment areas (TEAs) via a Regional Center (RC), creating jobs for American workers.
In other words, those critics are misinformed.
But will Trump’s proposed idea work as he and his supporters believe it will?
In a word, no.
As much as I’d love for a simple and painless solution to our national debt, there just isn’t one.
Will people line up for this opportunity? Absolutely. But not near the numbers the president or his supporters believe they will. For context, in 2024, just 12,055 Unreserved EB-5 visas were issued via consular processing in FY2024[1] [2] , marking the highest visa issuance level in the EB-5 Program's history. This was close to the annual limit of 14,169 visas, based on 7.1% of the worldwide employment limit set in the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Demand continues to increase for the current program, and other countries have programs similar to those being proposed. For example, Singapore’s Global Investor Program requires an investment of SG$10 million, comparable to about $7.5 million USD. New Zealand’s most expensive program demands an investment of up to NZ$10 million, or the equivalent of $5.7 million in USD, which indicates both a market and demand for Trump’s proposed idea, but that demand is not unlimited.
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According to Henley, roughly 135,000 of the world’s millionaires are projected to migrate to a new country in 2025. The UAE and the U.S. typically top the list of destinations for this demographic. We would likely see only a tiny fraction of that total.
Assuming we treat this program utterly separate from the EB-5 visa program and thus not subject to the limitations imposed by the Immigration and Nationality Act, and that there’s enough demand to bring in about the same number of immigrants, the financial implications could be significant.
With a round number of 15,000 new immigrants under Trump’s proposed “Gold Card” Visa program, at $5 million per visa, we could expect to see an immediate return of $75,000,000,000 in additional revenue for the year, which could be put directly towards paying down the national debt. No question is an astronomical amount of money. It pales in comparison to our staggering $36.22 trillion in national debt. In perspective, the added revenue would only pay down a meager 0.21% of that debt.
The program would also generate revenue in other, less direct ways. New investments and businesses in America would contribute directly to GDP growth, restoring our economy and improving our standing on the world stage. This would help reduce or reverse inflation, lower interest rates, and increase market stability. It would also create jobs, increase spending across all industries, improve quality of life, and empower a strong middle class.
The government also benefits from this growth through increased tax revenues collected. Idealistically, this should mean better services for taxpayers, but as most of us have known for a while—and DOGE is now proving, our government isn’t exactly a good steward of our tax dollars. Much of this increased tax revenue would likely be wasted on sloppy government spending.
The one significant concern I see with the program is tax-related, but probably not in the way you might think. It’s twofold.
The first issue is that, unlike American citizens, these immigrants will not be taxed on their foreign income. This means they get a significant advantage that native-born citizens don’t. Hopefully, their economic activity is enough to justify this special treatment.
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The second issue is that there are numerous ways these immigrants can utilize creative accounting practices to offset income here and funnel money overseas to their home country. This would be essentially embezzling from the American taxpayer.
Ultimately, this visa program is a good idea and will likely spur tremendous economic growth while helping to pay down some of our national debt. I also believe that Trump is an excellent promoter of Trump, and there’s a significant degree of hype around the potential outcome that likely won’t come to fruition. Still, we must use every tool in our arsenal to combat our out-of-control debt meaningfully before it’s too late.
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Dr. David Phelps created Freedom Founders to help its members achieve the freedom they wanted in their lives by building the necessary financial foundation. He is a noted financial expert who is regularly cited by the media, and recently helped the FL Dept. of Education develop its new financial literacy curriculum.