DONALD Trump wants to begin selling gold card visas for $5million to foreigners who want to move to America and create jobs.

The US president on Tuesday said the immigration programme, which he said was legal, could start in about two weeks.

He added it is possible Russian oligarchs could qualify for the gold cards, which were branded as “somewhat like a green card, but at a higher level of sophistication”.

Trump said in the Oval Office: “We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million and that’s going to give you Green Card privileges, plus it’s going to be a route to citizenship.

“Wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card.

“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.

“And we think it’s going to be extremely successful and never been done before.”

Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce, explained that the Trump administration intends to end the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program and “replace it with the Trump gold card.”

The EB-5 program grants investors the opportunity to apply for permanent U.S. residence if they “make the necessary investment in a commercial enterprise in the United States” and intend to generate or sustain 10 permanent full-time jobs.

Lutnick described the EB-5 program as “full of nonsense, make-believe and fraud,” adding, “It was a way to get a green card that was low priced.”

Once vetted, gold card holders “can invest in America and we can use that money to reduce our deficit,” he said.

The president projected that the gold card will attract “very high level people” who contribute to job creation.

With these cards, “you’re getting big taxpayers, big job producers, and we’ll be able to sell maybe a million of these cards, maybe more than that,” Trump said.

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