Immigration

New Zealand | Upcoming Active Investor Plus visa changes 

Summary

On 9 February, the New Zealand Government announced changes to the Active Investor Plus visa to encourage economic growth and make New Zealand a more attractive investment destination. Changes will take effect from 1 April 2025.

Context

The Active Investor Plus visa category allows migrants to apply for a residence visa through investing at least NZ $15 million or the weighted equivalent in acceptable investments in New Zealand. In addition to meeting the investment requirements, and standard health and character requirements, applicants also need to meet a minimum standard of English, make their investment within 6 months of their approval in principle, and maintain their nominated investment for 4 years.

Through targeted consultation, the Government has recently completed a review of the Active Investor Plus visa scheme to improve the policy so that it is simpler, attracts high value investment, and incentivizes active investments.

The upcoming changes outlined below are designed to streamline the investment process and broaden the range of qualifying investment options. Reflecting feedback from investors and industry stakeholders, the changes also aim to enable investors to become acquainted with New Zealand’s investment community, helping them build confidence to engage in more active investments over time.

The detail

From 1 April 2025, the Active Investor Plus visa will be updated to:

• Replace the current weighted system with 2 simplified investment categories – Growth and Balanced. The Growth Category will focus on higher-risk investments, including direct investments in New Zealand businesses. The Balanced category will allow mixed investments.
• Require a minimum investment amount of NZD$5 million for Growth category investors and NZD $10 million for Balanced category investors.
• Broaden the scope of acceptable investments under the Balanced category to include investments in bonds and property development, approved by Immigration New Zealand.
• Reduce immigration requirements (including time spent in New Zealand) for more active investors. Under the Growth category, the investment must be retained for 3 years, and investors must spend at least 21 days in New Zealand during this period. Balanced category investors must retain their investment for 5 years and spend a minimum of 105 days in New Zealand over this period, but they may be eligible for reductions based on additional investment amounts.
• Remove the English language requirement.

Visa category summary

The below table provides a breakdown of the two categories. Please note, additional visa conditions apply. Further details about the changes will be delivered by Immigration New Zealand by mid-March, ahead of the implementation date.

	Growth category	Balanced category
Investment amount NZD	NZD $5 million	NZD $10 million
Investment options	Direct Investments Managed funds	Bonds Listed equities Philanthropy Property development (new residential or new/existing commercial or industrial) Direct investments Managed funds
Investment period	3 years	5 years
Time to be spent in New Zealand	21 days	105 days OR 91 days if total investment is $11 m 77 days if total investment is $12 m 63 days if total investment is $13 m

Further updates to simplify the investment process

In addition to the above, the following changes have been made to help simplify the investment process:

• Removal of investment caps: There will no longer be limits on the amount that applicants can invest.
• Full investment requirement: To qualify for a resident visa, applicants must now make their investment in full.
• On-Call Investments: Applicants can place committed funds in secure options such as bonds, term deposits, or bank accounts (for a maximum of 6 months) until these funds are required (“called on”) by the managed fund.
• Reinvestment options: For those in the growth category, there will be limited circumstances where returned capital of less than NZD $1 million can be reinvested into balanced category investments.
• Rependent child visa: Newborn children of investors will qualify for a Dependent Child Resident visa and can be included in their parent’s application for a Permanent Resident visa.

All applicants must still meet immigration health and character requirements.

 

Contact us

For a deeper discussion on the above, please reach out to your Vialto Partners point of contact, or alternatively:

Jaq Chong
Director, Immigration

Kim Gibbs
Manager, Immigration

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