The Active Investor Plus visa will have only two categories from April 2025 and the amount of time potential investors can stay in New Zealand is also likely to change.
New Zealand has announced that the country’s ‘Golden Visa’ program will be revised to attract wealthy migrants. This is being done to push economic recovery, and as part of this program, the basic English language requirement clause will also be eliminated.
According to Immigration Minister Erica Stanford, the Active Investor Plus visa will have only two categories from April 2025, and the scope of acceptable investments will be broadened. According to the revised policy, the amount of time potential investors can stay in New Zealand is also likely to change.
These new changes are indicative of the country’s willingness to adopt friendly policies which foster, rather than hinder investment opportunities. New Zealand has been deliberating the need for such changes for some time now, as Finance Minister Nicola Willis, in a recent interview, had blamed the previous government for these stringent immigrant regulations, assuring that some announcements regarding its changes would soon be made.
The proposed changes will have two categories:
- Growth or Higher Risk- which would require minimum investment of NZ$5 million over a three-year period. The capital can be infused directly into business or into managed funds. Visa holders will be mandated to spend merely 21 days in the country.
- Balanced or Mixed Risk- which requires minimum of NZ$10 million to be invested over a period of five years into bonds, stocks, property development (could be commercial, industrial or residential property). Visa holders will have to reside in the country for 105 days, but that period can be reduced, if the investments are above the minimal amount.
Stanford is positive that by offering a low-risk investment opportunity, the Golden Visa program will attract a wider group of people, and not just high-risk investors. She added that while these changes were being deliberated upon with industry experts, it garnered a lot of attention and piqued the interests of a considerable number of potential investors.
Immigration New Zealand published some data that revealed that the Active Investor Plus Visa which had historically generated an average NZ$1 billion ($580 million) a year, had seen a considerable downtrend since the rules were changed in 2022. In the past two years, only 35 applicants have been fully approved, resulting in NZ$352 million of nominated investment funds, which is just a fraction of the previously achieved numbers.
After the recession in 2204, the government’s top priority is to capitalise on declining interest rates to improve the economy. However, as New Zealand currently lacks the required capital, the government is working on changing the foreign investment regulations in order to match the deficit.
A single agency, that would be a one-stop destination for overseas fund managers will be created. There will be visitor-friendly rules granting them access to work remotely, in the hopes that highly-skilled labourers would permanently relocate to New Zealand. According to Stanford, the government is working towards incestivising investors and make New Zealand an attractive destination for safe and stable business.
Despite the government’s efforts to pull up investments, there is still some apprehension regarding the influx of immigration, as the South Pacific country still has strict prohibitions against foreigners purchasing residential real estate. While the present ruling party had campaigned to relax such a ban and make it easier for foreigners to buy property with some regulations, this issue has become a bone of contention for the parties in the current coalition government.
New Zealand is also easing investor visa rules when countries like Spain, the UK, the Netherlands etc are revoking their own Golden Visa policies. In Australia, the Significant Investor visa class was discontinued after the government realised that the wealthy class was buying property in the country without significantly contributing to the economy.
New Zealand, however, is hopeful that these Golden Visa relaxations will herald a new beginning for the country’s economy in terms of investment and skilled labour.