Startup strain? Golden visa money may outpace NZ’s investment options

Tuesday, 15 July 2025

New Zealand’s “golden visa” has triggered a wave of interest from global investors willing to put up $5 million each in exchange for residency but immigration advisers are questioning whether the country’s business and startup scene can keep up with the cash.

The Government is trumpeting the fact that 215 applications have so far been received for the rejigged visa categories, with $1 billion in new money landing this year if all those who applied are approved.

The “Trump” effect, which has seen an uptick in US interest, combined with the end of investment-for-residency programmes in many other countries, including the UK, Canada and Australia, has seen a wave of interest. Just a handful of applicants have so far made it to the actual investing stage, given it is so new.

There are two categories of investment available - growth and balanced. Growth sees migrants invest $5m in “higher risk” local startups, venture capital, or into specific managed funds that provide financing for local companies. The options are presented by NZTE, but migrants must do their own due diligence. Once they’ve invested, they must spend three weeks in New Zealand over three years to gain residency.

The other option is the balanced category, which sees migrants plough $10m into “lower risk” categories including bonds, new property developments, philanthropy and managed funds, with investors needing to spend 105 days in the country over five years - or less if more is invested - to gain New Zealand residency.

By June this year, about 100 applicants had been approved and seven had invested the required money, five of those in Growth and two in the Balanced categories, alongside others that had moved from previous visa programmes. Immigration advisers spoken to by The Post said Growth applications were more popular, despite being considered more risky.

Opportunities

But some saw another problem as well - that there may not be the number of businesses able to absorb the money that could be coming their way, given the relative thinness of New Zealand’s venture and angel capital ecosystem.

Immigration lawyer and chairman of the New Zealand Association of Migration and Investment, Simon Laurent, said he thought the pool might be “a little bit small”.

“We've got 200 applications so far, they represent close to a billion dollars in potential investment in this space, and that's only three months in. When we get to a year, it might be 3 or 4 billion, - I don’t know if we have enough startups and businesses to soak up that capital - it’s almost too much of a good thing.”

Managing director and immigration adviser with Pathways to New Zealand, Richard Howard, agreed that if anything, it was a “good problem to have”.

However, he said, while the growth category visa was popular right now, he expected the categories to balance out over time and he said he also believed applications themselves would “level out between 40 and 50 applications a month for the rest of the year” once the initial flurry subsided.

Iain Macleod, director of Immagine Australia and New Zealand Immigration said he was getting mixed signals from the market in terms of available investments. Some were saying there were “tonnes” of companies looking for capital to kickstart or boost their growth, while others were questioning where the money was going to go, given the size of the local economy, he said.

“I guess the proof will be in the pudding and we will know more when the Government reviews things after 18 months of it being in operation,” Macleod said.

“[Immigration] Minister [Erica] Stanford advised me that they'll be reviewing over that timeline.”

Infrastructure

Laurent said market feedback had included a feeling that either the growth or the balance category should be opened up to infrastructure investment, because the country needed it. At the moment, neither were.

“A possible reason it hasn’t happened is that if you make it possible for people to invest in infrastructure bonds, that’s pretty safe - it’s normally government-guaranteed,” he said. “If there’s that option, people might prefer to invest in that over more risky angel investing or startups … it could actually sabotage what the government's trying to achieve.”

Pathways’ Howard said there would be ways around it, including by having a cap on how much people could put towards an infrastructure bond, forcing people to spread their risk across other growth strategies.

“There is some talk that either private sector or government may look at an infrastructure bond - that talk’s been around for a while - but it would seem quite timely to have quite a large infrastructure bond-type investment which could really soak up a lot of this investment.”

The flight to safety, even within what was on offer at present, was seeing more interest in funds over direct investment in companies, advisers told The Post, despite the fact those applying had considerable amounts of cash to invest and understood the risks.

But Immagine’s Macleod felt not all of those being enticed by these visas were sophisticated investors - especially out of the US.

“I am seeing many for whom they will be selling up and investing everything to get their chance to join us in NZ - and who have no other residence pathways,” he said.

“I am finding they are not all aware that it might not be all that simple to get their money out at the end of their three year investment period.

“And don't start me on the tax implications for those interested from the US,” he said.

“I am hoping they are all doing their due diligence not just on eligibility criteria or investment opportunities, but on getting their money out after three years and not being crippled by the tax complexities.”

Complex list

The Post has heard anecdotally that there has been some confusion for those looking at the new Invest NZ website, that the information is not clearly set and the site overly busy compared with similar sites in other countries. One prospective investor who did not want to be named said the site compared poorly with the likes of that of offered by countries across South East Asia and the Middle East.

Elly Flemming, head of immigration at legal firm Pitt & Moore, concurred, saying the investment choices were presented on the website could be a little easier to navigate.

“When clients ask what they can invest in under the growth visa rules, even I find it a bit overwhelming - there’s no search tool, it’s a big list and not particularly user-friendly,” she said.

But she said heightened interest in the visas was undeniable, especially from the US, Canada and Singapore, and the immigration system seemed to be moving fast to capitalise on the interest.

“I think for quite wealthy people, especially given the currency conversion, for those people who have got that money it's a really easy way to get residents and permanent residents, if that's what they want in New Zealand, and especially now with the volatility in America, for a lot of people, they want a safe haven, you know, in case they need to leave.”

Simon Laurent agreed, but said another factor was other countries closing down their golden visa options.

“I was at a conference of international immigration lawyers in Denver a couple of weeks ago, and the news around the world was that multiple jurisdictions had shut down their so-called golden visa or investor residence programs, primarily because there’s a real concern that it was being used to launder money from undesirable elements and criminal groups.”

Laurent said New Zealand’s strict regime around verifying the source of funds defended the country from that. But it was so strict that it would do things like prevent Chinese people using the scheme, as they were unable to move the amount of foreign currency required out of China through verifiable channels.

Most of the applications had come from the likes of the US, UK, Europe and Singapore, he said.