US companies can now hire Indians from top universities under ‘gold card’ initiative: Donald Trump

US President Trump unveiled the ‘gold card' initiative for wealthy foreigners, giving them the right to live and work in the country and offering a path to citizenship in exchange for a USD 5 million fee.

Washington: US President Donald Trump has said that the newly proposed ‘gold card’ initiative will allow American companies to hire Indian graduates from top US universities like Harvard and Stanford.

Trump on Wednesday unveiled the ‘gold card’ initiative for wealthy foreigners, giving them the right to live and work in the country and offering a path to citizenship in exchange for a USD 5 million fee.

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“We’re going to be selling a gold card,” Trump said from the Oval Office. “You have a green card. This is a gold card. We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about USD 5 million and that’s going to give you green card privileges, plus it’s going to be a route to citizenship. And wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card,” Trump was quoted as saying by the CNN. Trump said the current immigration system has hindered top international talent, especially from India, from staying and working in the US.

“A person comes from India, China, Japan, and other countries, attends Harvard or the Wharton School of Finance… they receive job offers, but the offer is immediately revoked because there’s no certainty about whether that person can stay in the country,” he said.

Trump said that because of this, many talented graduates, who were forced to leave the US, became successful entrepreneurs back home.

“They return to India or their home country, start businesses, and become billionaires, employing thousands,” he said.

Trump said that a company can buy a gold card and use it for this recruitment matter.

“I want to be able to have that person stay in the country, these companies can go and buy a gold card, and they can use it as a matter of recruitment.

“At the same time, the company is using that money to pay down debt we are going to we are going to pay down a lot of debt with that, and I think the gold card is going to be used not only for that. I mean, they will be used by companies,” Trump said.

Trump said the sale of the cards will begin in about two weeks and suggested millions of such cards could be sold.

Trump, said the card will replace the government’s EB-5 immigrant investor visa programme, which allows foreign investors to pump money into US projects that create jobs and then apply for visas to immigrate to the US.

Created by Congress in 1992, the EB-5 programme can grant green cards to immigrants who make a minimum investment of least USD 1,050,000, or USD 800,000 in economically distressed zones called targeted employment areas, to create jobs for American workers, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services website.