Editorial: All that Glitters

In yet another bombshell dropped by the US administration in the aftermath of the second coming of Donald J Trump, the president had announced his plans to offer a gold card visa with a path to citizenship for $5 million (approximately Rs 44 cr), replacing a 35-year-old visa for investors. In about two weeks, the Trump Gold Card is set to replace the EB-5 visas, which were created by Congress in 1990 to generate foreign investment and are available to individuals spending upwards of $1 million on a company that employs at least 10 Americans in full time jobs. Or this investment could be directed to a government approved entity that acts as a conduit between EB-5 investors and job creating projects. Essentially, the money must go into the US economy as capital investment.

It is telling to note that the gold card, essentially an alternative to the green card, or permanent legal residency, is aimed at raising the entry barrier to the US by hiking up the price of admission for investors, in a deft stroke, 'doing away with the fraud and nonsense characterising the EB-5 programme' (as described by the Commerce Secretary). The Homeland Security Department's most recent Yearbook of Immigration Statistics tells us that close to 8,0,00 people obtained investor visas in the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, 2022. As per a report by the Congressional Research Service in 2021, EB-5 visas were said to pose a risk of fraud, encompassing verification that funds were obtained legally. It's interesting to note that such investor friendly entry gateways are common across the world. Over 100 nations have “golden visa” programmes aimed at attracting uber wealthy individuals. These include the US, UK, Spain, Greece, Malta, Australia, Canada and Italy. Some Caribbean nations have similar initiatives for a much lesser investment. St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda have direct citizenship programmes from $2,00,000 (Rs 1.75 cr) to $4,00,000 (Rs 3.4 cr). These nations gain a large share of their revenue from these programmes. Nations in the Middle East and Africa including Jordan and Egypt, as well as Turkey have such programmes as well.

While most of these nations are hyper focussed on the prospect of job creation while welcoming affluent investors to their shores, Trump's announcement was conspicuous by the absence of any such deliverable as he made no mention of the requirements for job creation. In typical bulldozer fashion, Trump has chosen to override the existing Congressional determination and approval of qualifications for citizenship, and claimed that the gold cards won't need Congressional approval. It's a scary thought when you consider how the scheme could simply sell US citizenship to high rollers as well as those intent on parking ill-gained wealth, a case in point being the numerous Russian oligarchs. Criminals and corrupt officials seeking to evade the large arm of the law and launder the proceeds of crime reaching into billions of dollars could possibly view the US as a safe haven for 'investment purposes'.

This has come as bad news for millions of Indians who are aspiring to bag their merit based green cards, and are languishing in decade-long wait times, who will now be tossed aside by the millionaires with a fast track entry. While the number of EB-5 visas is capped, Trump said the federal government could sell 10 million gold cards to reduce the deficit. MAGA supporters have said if 7 mn gold card immigrants make a landfall in the US, it could pay off the national debt that is now over $36 trillion. It's a fat chance considering even the EB-5 programme currently caps visas at 10,000 issuances annually. The threshold is rarely crossed.