Washington DC/IBNS: President Donald Trump's 'Gold Card' or 'Golden Visa' scheme, which offers permanent residency and optional citizenship of the United States for $5 million, seems to have become a hit as per the claims made by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, said reports.

Howard said he sold 1,000 'Gold Cards' in a single day and more people are applying for it.

The Commerce Secretary also said that the program will officially roll out "in about two weeks".

In a session with the 'All-In Podcast' as quoted in media reports, Lutnick said: "Elon Musk is building the software for it right now, and then it goes out in about two weeks...and by the way, just yesterday I sold a thousand."

In February, Donald Trump announced the introduction of the Gold Card scheme which will provide rich and wealthy immigrants a chance to easily gain American citizenship by paying a fee of USD 5 million.

“We’re going to be selling a gold card,” Trump was quoted as saying by CNN.

“You have a green card. This is a gold card. 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. And wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card," Trump had said.

Lutnick said the new card will replace the government’s EB-5 immigrant investor visa program.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services runs the EB-5 Programme of the US government.