Changes to the Active Investor Plus visa requirements are expected to meet pent-up demand from international investors looking to live in New Zealand, the Association for Migration and Investment (NZAMI) say.
NZAMI chair and immigration lawyer Simon Laurent said the changes were a roll-back to pre-2022 settings, which were more successful in attracting much-needed international capital investment.
"I think it's going to attract investment in the way that the old investor scheme attracted investment. The managed or the balanced category that's been brought in is essentially exactly what we had prior to September 2022 for the Investor 1 category.
"So we're really going back to what worked - and that's a good thing, because why not? We need to get this capital into the country."
Laurent said anecdotal industry feedback on the government's changes to the visa requirements indicated there was a queue of investors interested in investing in New Zealand.
"There are a number of professional advisors who've got people queuing up, and… I've seen this myself, but just haven't taken the plunge. It's just too difficult. Now if they look at this it's a lot easier in several respects, and they might just bite the cherry, where they weren't prepared to do that before."
He said the changes introduced in 2022 were too onerous for international investors to navigate.
He said reducing the residency requirement to a minimum of one week a year made a lot of sense, considering most international investors travelled the world, but typically stayed longer in New Zealand and invested above the minimum requirement.
Immigration Minister Erica Stanford. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
"We should upsell ourselves and take the view that once people get a taste of spending time in New Zealand, they're going to want to stay here longer," Laurent said.
"The experience that we've had with investors who've come into the country is they want to stay. They want to put more money into the country, and that is actually documented."
Laurent said removing the English language requirement was another important change, as rich investors did not have the same need to possess conversational skills in the way doctors, teachers and other professionals were required to have in their daily work.
"Furthermore, [rich investors] can afford to have people help them translate and interpret. So taking away the English requirement is really not such the big deal that it has been made."
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