US President Donald Trump’s ‘Gold Card’, the pathway to US citizenship at $5 million, are a hit, said US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Talking in a podcast, Lutnick reportedly claimed that over 1000 of such gold cards are sold daily.

The ‘Gold Card’ enables American companies to buy them for prized talents they want to recruit from US universities and mentioned those from India, China, and Japan and also allow wealthy foreigners to come to the US some of whom, it is presumed, will start businesses that create jobs.

“It’s sort of a Green Card Plus, and it’s a path to citizenship,” the president said in opening remarks at the first meeting of his cabinet. “We’re going to call it the gold card, and I think it’s going to be very treasured. I think it’s going to do very well.”

The Green Card, which grants permanent residency, also comes with a path to citizenship. And the US already has a visa programme, called the EB-5, which enables foreigners to get a Green Card against a payment of around $1 million. But the Trump administration has argued it’s badly run.

“I get calls from companies where they want to hire the number one student at a school,” the president said in remarks at the first meeting of his cabinet which was telecast live.

“People come from India, China, Japan, and lots of different places. And they go to Harvard, the Wharton School of Finance, they go to Yale, they go to all great schools, and they graduate number one in their class. And they made job offers, but the offer is immediately rescinded because you have no idea whether or not that person can stay in the country. 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. We’re going to start selling, hopefully, in about two weeks now,” he said.

President Trump sees the ‘Gold Card’ also as a tool to raise money to pay down the national debt.

(with inputs from syndicated feed)