Americans Are Buying an Escape Plan
Is it time for a second passport?
Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The Atlantic. Source: Getty.
March 22, 2025
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Updated at 3:05 pm E.T. on March 22, 2025
Even as Donald Trump advertises his hard-line approach to border crossers, he is actively soliciting one particular group of immigrants: rich ones. In February, Trump proposed that America start offering a U.S. “gold card” for $5 million. “Green-card privileges, plus” is how the president described it: “It’s going to be a route to citizenship, and wealthy people will be coming into our country,” he said. Trump predicted that the United States could sell a million of these cards, enough to eliminate the national debt. Even Russian oligarchs could be eligible, he said—though (thanks to economic sanctions) “they’re not quite as wealthy as they used to be.”
Trump seemed to relish the scheme’s shock value. But these days, buying a visa or passport is not controversial: About half of the world’s nations already offer visas, permanent residence, or even full citizenship for sums ranging from the low five to low seven figures. The U.S. itself grants up to 10,000 residency permits a year under its EB-5 investor visa program, which Congress has approved until 2027 and costs applicants about $1 million.
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About the Author
Atossa Araxia Abrahamian is the author of The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World and The Cosmopolites: The Coming of the Global Citizen.
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Donald Trump, Europe, People's Republic of China, immigration