A San Diego-based immigration attorney said President Trump’s idea for a U.S. investor visa “gold card” could work because it would function much like the existing EB5 investor visa.
“In theory, it can really work because the EB5 program works,” attorney Saman Nasseri told NewsNation. “Now, this will just expand on it and bring bigger businesses, bigger people.”
While Trump said the new system has “never been done before, anything like this,” the broad strokes of what was announced sound similar to the existing EB5 investor program, albeit with a higher price tag.
Trump said he’d like the gold card rolled out within two weeks. It’s an estimate Nasseri says isn’t impossible but has hurdles.
“It is possible that this could start in two weeks and get it going,” he said. “But it all kind of comes down to what that vetting process looks like.”
“The biggest thing with the EB5 process is the source of the funds,” the lawyer added. “Where’s the money going, and is it creating jobs?”
The current program requires would-be investors to invest a little over $1 million and create at least 10 jobs, and it also puts investors on a pathway to a green card and later citizenship.
It’s unclear, however, whether Trump can end the EB5 program without Congress’s blessing, as the investor program was just reauthorized in 2022.
