Investor Migrant update – February 2024
February update for New Zealand’s Active Investor Plus visa programme.
The Active Investor Plus programme has gained positive momentum, New Zealand continues to be a compelling country for investors and their families, paired with continued interest from potential investor migrants, along with a growing number of New Zealand companies and funds seeking investment, we are well placed to accelerate the flow of investor migrants.
Visa applications
As of 29 January, Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has received forty-four AIP visa applications, of these applications:
12 are approved, with a resident visa granted.
15 are approved in principle and now able to invest, working towards being fully approved.
4 have been withdrawn
There has now been $17m of investment into qualifying assets:
48% of which has gone into direct investments
6% into managed funds
46% into listed equities.
The relatively high allocation to direct investments is a positive early indicator for the overall programme, demonstrating the strong appetite of AIP investors to invest in high growth potential New Zealand businesses.
We continue to see a geographic spread of interest and AIP applications from all global markets, particularly the US, Germany and across Asia. Alongside the efforts of colleagues in the private sector, Invest New Zealand is engaging with approximately 300 qualified visa prospects across all markets, with a further 280 new leads in the process of being qualified.
Recently we have seen countries pulling back on their investor migration programmes. It has been reported that Australia is no longer accepting applications for their Significant Investor Visa which may have a favourable impact for New Zealand's AIP applications. It is also worth noting that approximately 49% of voters around the world are due to vote in sixty-four elections in 2024, including India, the UK and of course the US. These events could have a significant impact on levels of interest in New Zealand.
Direct investments and Managed Funds
As of 30 November, there have been:
142 applications for acceptable direct investments, with 79 approved and 20 waiting to be assessed.
There have been 46 applications for acceptable managed funds, with 32 approved and 1 currently being assessed.
The approved funds provide AIP applicants the ability to invest in some of New Zealand's leading Venture Capital, Private Equity and debt funds. With focus areas such as deep tech, renewable energy and agri-tech, and including companies with more established market positions, the funds represent opportunities to invest into some of our most disruptive, globally ambitious companies and entrepreneurs.
The approved companies also represent a diverse range of investment options; from consumer goods to technology, tourism to manufacturing, there is now a great array of exciting companies for AIP applicants to invest in and help grow.
As flagged in our previous newsletter, we were pleased to launch our application process for "fund-of-funds" (a managed fund that invests in other managed funds) to be assessed as an acceptable managed fund in the second half of last year. Prior to the end of last year the first fund-of-funds applicants were approved and published on the managed funds whitelist and we are excited to see the product innovation that the AIP programme is driving in the New Zealand private fund space. Importantly, with the combination of direct investments, managed funds and fund-of-funds, there is now a wide range of investment opportunities for AIP applicants.
Supporting the wider ecosystem
Much of 2023 was spent ensuring stakeholders in the investor migration 'ecosystem' are informed and supported to participate effectively in the AIP visa and wider investor migration programme. This has included a significant volume of engagements domestically across the immigration advisory system, migrant banking teams, managed funds and wealth advisors. Invest New Zealand has participated in numerous events hosted by the Migrant Investor and Entrepreneur Association (MIEA) and is engaging across central and local government agencies and economic development agencies with an interest in migrant investment.
The support for the AIP programme, and the ecosystems dedication for ensuring migrant investors have a world class experience before, during, and after the visa process is positive. We look forward to further harnessing the wider ecosystem to drive further value out of our investor migration programme.
Promotional activity
We partnered and supported several NZ private sector hosted events in the previous months since our last update, in Los Angeles, Singapore and San Francisco. With positive feedback from last year's event formats we will continue to seek out appropriate opportunities across our key sectors and markets.
12-month implementation review update
As directed by Cabinet Ministers when the AIP visa was established last year, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has been conducting a 12-month review of the Active Investor Plus (AIP) visa since its establishment in 2022. The purpose of the implementation review is to:
Understand how the Active Investor scheme is being operationalised, consistent with the policy intent;
Identify what's going well, lessons learnt, and opportunities to improve implementation;
Identify the actions or investments required to ensure ongoing implementation success; and
Collate early feedback on policy settings to inform the 3–5-year impact evaluation.
The review is looking at the implementation of operational procedures in both Immigration New Zealand (INZ) and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), and has included targeted surveys of AIP visa applicants and their advisors, along with companies who applied to be eligible for investment under the AIP programme.
NZTE is supporting the review, and MBIE officials intend to brief Ministers on the review findings in due course. We understand MBIE will also release the review findings to stakeholders this year. Alongside MBIE, we will be engaging with new ministers on the review findings and will discuss with ministers their intentions for the investor migration programme moving forward.
While the review is yet to be finalised, the overall findings indicate that the implementation of the AIP visa has been in keeping with the expectations set out by the (then) government. Through market feedback, staff interviews, and operational data captured by both INZ and NZTE since the visa's inception in September 2022, MBIE have identified implementation-related successes along with some areas for further work to ensure the success of the investor migration programme.
If you have any queries or would like to learn more about the Active Investor Plus programme please see more here.
