Entrepreneur Visa: Worth a second look for U.S.and other applicants?
The Entrepreneur Visa allows applicants with NZD 100,000 – 500,000 to invest in a profitable business for an eventual pathway to residence. This pathway to residence has been called, the “Cinderella” policy of business instructions. What is shown on the Immigration New Zealand website is not the whole picture.Too often the pathway has led over the cliff. The category has:
- Paper applications.
- Long delays (peaking at 18 months but now back down to around 5 months for residence).
- Little flexibility to change business plans. It is hard to predict business conditions 2years later.
- Lack of clear definitions of parts of the instructions such as “high growth.”
- At one point, declines were at 96%. This has since improved.
- Tiny application numbers. But with fresh interest from those wanting to leave US that seems to be changing.
We meet regularly with senior business team management. Recently, we were told that only 20 such applications were on hand. BUT changes under the new Active Investor Plus Category have evened up the playing field, especially for the Fast Track Entrepreneur applications.
At a glance as at 14 December 2024 #
| Entrepreneur: Fast track | Active Investment Plus: AI+ Direct investment into company | |
| Investment | NZD 500,000; about USD 289,000 | NZD 5000,000; about USD 3000,000 more if other investment classes are included) |
| Key requirements | Company must be profitableCreate 3 jobs.INZ Business specialist assesses this, | Must be pre-approved by NZ Trade and Enterprise “NZTE”: NZTE assesses company suitability |
| Post requirements: | 6 month work visa2 years maintaining jobs and profitability | Approval in principal – funds must be in acceptable NZ holding investments can then be invested in stages, 4 years of travel and investment conditions 3 checks. |
| Prior business experience required? | Yes – applicant must meet points for business experience. | No |
| How long: | Residence granted provisionally after 6 months. Must maintain jobs and profitability for 2 years. | Residence granted provisionally once investment madeMust maintain investment for 4 years. |
| Minimum days in New Zealand | No set number but must be “actively involved”- which means full-time in the company here in NZ- Roughly ¾ of each year unless travel is clearly business related No other employment allowed | 117 days in 4 yearsNo restrictions on employment. |
| Age limits | None. | None. |
| Paper or E application | Paper – All evidence must be original or certified – except of E-documents | Electronic : Documents can be uploaded on-line. |
# This is a high level summary only. Requirement may change at short notice.: AI+ is due for review in first half of 2025).
There are still risks with Entrepreneur: The investment may not meet the business plan or may not be considered “high growth”.
Allocation delays have improved to as little as 3 months in strong cases, but much are shorter for Active Investor Plus.
On the other hand proof of the origin of funds is a key requirement for AI+
For fast track Entrepreneur applications, after residence is granted you must maintain the 3 jobs created and the company profitability for two years.
But for normal track, the whole business plan must be met for two years.
The investment is only NZD 100,000 but with very high decline rates, we do not recommend this option.
Key Tips
- Invest in an existing established company. Many declines have been for start-ups. This will make it easier to provide accurate projections.
- Have a very conservative, robust, detailed, business plan. This is where so many applicants go wrong. We have connections with leading accounting firms who can help with this.
- Pre-assessment is a vital first step. It is worth spending time and money to look before you leap. High decline rates tells us that some investors were over-sold this category. You need balanced independent advice. That’s where we can help.
Contact us
Entrepreneur category may not be right for everybody, but if you are looking at investment options, and have business experience, it is still worth considering. We have significant experience with both of the above categories
Contact our friendly team or email me on Ri***********@*************co.nz so that we can assist you case.
