Entrepreneur Visa
The entrepreneur category allows self-employment and setting up a business here. It involves very small amounts of capital ($100-150,0000) There are some exceptions e.g. in ICT) but strict adherence to a three-year business plan.
Normally a work visa is required for two years before applying for residence. There is a fast track provision for new companies that reach NZD $500,000 PA turnover or employ at least five staff.
A key feature of the entrepreneur work visa is that it allows self-employment which virtually no other work visa category does.
There are a small number of other exceptions: Contact our expert team for further details.
Entrepreneur high decline rates and long delays
At one point had an 80% decline rate after the work visa stage although that has improved. The key to this category is getting both accounting/business and immigration advice in tandem.
The disadvantage of the category is that it requires some time on a work visa before obtaining residence and the processing time (work visa currently takes up to 12 months to process and the residence stage has similar delays.
Parent retirement visa: the category that time forgot?
We have considerable experience with this category. It requires an adult child in New Zealand, an investment of NZ$1 million for 4 years (with source of funds and approved investment as above although property is still available for this category at present-January 2024). $500,000 funds for support are required and an annual independent income of NZ$70,000. We have worked with clients in countries such as China who have those funds for support have restricted annual withdrawals. Because of the older age group for this category health can be an issue and medical waivers (exceptions to the usual health rules) may be required. We have considerable experience with these if this is an issue for you. A big deterrent for clients under this category is the very long processing delays.
Other quirks of this category
All of the old investment types that used to be available for Investor one and investor two (see our other blog for changes there) including bonds and commercial property investment are still available for this category.
There is also a two-year visitor visa available which requires the same funds for support and investment as well as medical insurance.
- Parents also have access to the three-year period multiple entry visitor Visa which allows stays of up to 6 months.
- There is the parent category “lottery” for those whose sponsors have the required level of income.
- The National led government has talked about establishing a five-year renewable parent visa which would require guarantees for medical and other costs.
Contact our friendly team for more details of these and other options.
Processing time
In our regular meeting with Immigration New Zealand in February 2024 we received the following updates
- Parent Retirement Resident Visa still has 17 months to allocation (beginning of processing).
- Entrepreneur is taking about 3 month to allocation for both work and residence. Total processing time for the work visa is stated as 24 months. This can vary considerably from case to case. Much depends on the quality of the business plan and application documents.
Please note
This is general information only. Every case is different and immigration instructions change over time. The above information was accurate as at February 2024.
Contact us
Let our wealth of experience with all of these categories and our extensive contacts with immigration New Zealand at all levels be used to your advantage. Contact our friendly team either through our website, by email Of****@Pa**********.nz or directly through our director Richard Small Ri***********@Pa**********.nz
