Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has promised to grant automatic Green Cards to foreign students who graduate from US colleges, in a significant shift from his previous anti-immigrant stance.

In a podcast interview, Trump said he wanted to prevent bright students from returning to their home countries, such as India and China, where they often become successful entrepreneurs.

"What I want to do and what I will do is - you graduate from a college, I think you should get a Green Card automatically as part of your diploma, a Green Card to be able to stay in this country. And that includes junior colleges too," Trump, 78, said in the "All-In" podcast.

This move would represent a major expansion of the US immigration system, which has been a cornerstone of Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.

A Green Card, known officially as a permanent resident card, is an identity document showing a person has permanent residency in the United States.

Trump also lamented "stories where people graduated from a top college or from a college, and they desperately wanted to stay here, they had a plan for a company, a concept, and they can't - they go back to India, they go back to China, they do the same basic company in those places.

"...and they become multi-billionaires employing thousands and thousands of people, and it could have been done here," he said.

According to the Institute of International Education, China and India account for over half of all international students in the US, with 289,526 Chinese students and 268,923 Indian students studying in the country in 2022/23.

Trump's pledge could boost the hopes of thousands of Indian students who are graduating or planning to graduate from US colleges.

Trump reiterated his first-term policy, about foreign students getting a Green Card after receiving a degree from a higher education institution in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) field.

"Anybody graduates from a college, you go there for two years or four years. If you graduate or you get a doctorate degree from a college, you should be able to stay in this country," Trump said.

"We force the brilliant people, the people that graduate from college, the people that are number one in their class from the best colleges, you have to be able to recruit these people and keep the people," he added.

“Somebody graduates at the top of the class; they can't even make a deal with the company because they don't think they're going to be able to stay in the country.”

"That is going to end on day one," Trump announced.