Washington, DC [US] September 20 : US President Donald Trump signed an executive order for a 'Gold Card' visa programme with fees set at USD 1 million for individuals and USD 2 million for businesses.
"We think it's going to be very successful... It's going to raise billions of dollars, which will reduce taxes, pay off debt, and do other good things," Trump said as he signed the executive order.
United States Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, noted that through the gold card plan, the US will only allow "extraordinary people at the very top" to come to the US who can create business and jobs for Americans.
Lutnick called the employment-based green card programme "illogical", noting that under that programme, the country was taking in "bottom quartile" people who earned only USD 66,000 a year.
"Historically, the employment-based green card programme led in 2,81,000 people a year. And those people, on average, earned $66,000 a year, and they were five times more likely to go on government assistance programmes. So we were taking in the bottom quartile, below the average American. It was illogical. The only country in the world that was taking in the bottom quartile," Lutnick said.
"We are going to stop doing that. We're going to only take extraordinary people at the very top, instead of those trying to take jobs from Americans. They're going to create businesses and create jobs for Americans. And this programme will raise more than $100 billion for the Treasury of the United States of America," he added.
White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf emphasised the US commitment to preventing illegal immigration and opening pathways for people who can contribute to the US.
"A major focus of your Administration has been shifting the conversation and shifting the policy dynamics around the issue of immigration, closing the border, preventing illegal immigration, but also, as is the case with the executive order in front of you, opening new pathways ways for truly extraordinary people to come contribute to America instead of taking away from it," Will Scharf said.
"So this executive order is entitled the Gold Card. It will set up a new visa pathway for foreigners of extraordinary ability who are committed to supporting the United States, for a payment of $1 million to the US Treasury, or if a corporation is sponsoring them, $2 million by that corporation," he added.
Additionally, Trump issued a proclamation imposing a USD 100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications.
The action aims to curb the overuse of the program, allowing companies to bring in only "highly skilled" workers from other countries. The Trump administration believes that this move will create and protect jobs for US workers.
The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa which allows US-based companies to hire and employ foreign workers for speciality jobs like science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), and IT (High skills and at least a bachelor's degree).
United States Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, said, "The whole idea is that no more will these big tech companies or other big companies train foreign workers. They have to pay the government $100,000, then they have to pay the employee. So it's just not economic. If you're going to train somebody, you're going to train one of the recent graduates from one of the great universities across our land, train Americans, stop bringing in people to take our jobs. That's the policy here. All of the big companies are on board."