All about New Zealand Investor Visa Category by Arun.

All about New Zealand Investor Visa Category by Arun.

The word investor and entrepreneur are kind of interchanged from some of the people who reach out in about hey look I want to make an investment in New Zealand or I want to be an entrepreneur in New Zealand and does work towards my residency now the problem with that is that as a layperson you will you well probably interchange the words entrepreneur and investor but in the parlance of the immigration New Zealand for us they're two very different words because we have something called the investor category of a visa and then we have something called an entrepreneur category of a visa so for us for people professionals like myself and my colleagues and the and the Immigration Department of New Zealand who deal with this but it was subject for us these are two distinctly separate categories now for instance within the investor category so to speak are again two sub categories so there is something called investor one and investor two so investor one is where somebody has got funds of ten million dollars or above now these funds need to be legally owned by the person who is willing to apply so that is investor one category that you need to have funds of ten million dollars or over and if you have that kind of legally earned money which you can clearly demonstrate belongs to you and most legitimately then you could fall under the investor one category and it is a reasonably straightforward category here so they are not of too many hoops you have to jump through but if you do not have ten million dollars and you have let's say between three million to nine point seven five million dollars of investment to make in New Zealand and this is not to set up a business this is just to get this money and invest it into an acceptable investment in New Zealand which could be either government bonds and you know there are a few categories or you could investor into shares New Zealand enlisted companies and so on and so forth so there are certain ways so cat investor category one means you need to have ten million dollars or above or investor category two means that you need to have three to nine point seven five million dollars of legally earned fund so for inverse to one category the pathway is a reasonably simple for investor category two the pathway is okay I mean it's not as simple as the investor one category because they're coming in with a higher investment so but you know both these categories are possible for people who have ten million dollars and come under investor one or who have three million to nine point seven five million and come under the category investor category two of course it goes without saying that you need to have good health and character and that's like a common thing for each and every particular category whether it is investor or skilled or whatever so people who want to set up a business in New Zealand Will under something called the entrepreneur category now this is not a the business migration unit and so you straightforward category and this particular category will actually go to a particular division inside immigration  New Zealand which is like it's called  will have it so it's quite complex this particular pathway in fact I remember back in the day we used to have something called the LT BV which was the long term business visa and people came and so you'll have to procreate our business plan you have to show you that you have the funds for this you need to have a minimum of four hundred thousand dollars and so on and so forth but because the investment is not very high the number of things you need to do to satisfy a business specialist in the Immigration Department is much more it is quite complex and as an adviser when people come to me and ask me saying a hey look I have about $300,000 or $400,000 it's I would like to start a business in New Zealand and well then eventually moved to residency I am a little on the back foot and trying to convince them to move forward with this entrepreneurial category because number one you will not be in the country when you are kind of creating this business plans you're talking to somebody like us who is faced in New Zealand we're working in two different time zones and like I said it is the entrepreneur category is quite complex as compared to the investor category where but then for the investor category you require a lot of lot of money like ten million for the category one or three to nine point seven five million for category two but when it comes to now the entrepreneur category you might have your three hundred four hundred thousand dollars so but the kind of scrutiny they will do about your business plan about your experience and so on and so forth there is an English requirement and so on and so forth it gets quite complex and I am a little apprehensive to invite some of these people who inquire to start the process of the entrepreneur category because I know  it's going to take a long time I know it's going to be very complex and we will charge you a fair bit of money because a lot of our time and effort goes into it and which is why I'm a little apprehensive as an advisor who is brutally honest and fair and frank and friendly always with all my people who are seeking my particular advice I would recommend that any situations like this where you have a desire or to set up a business in New Zealand and you have three or four hundred thousand dollars of investment to make again see I don't want to use the word investment and confuse you with the investigating okay if you have capital of three or four hundred thousand dollars to make and you're keen to set up a business in New Zealand my suggestion is you first need to be present in the country on a legitimate visa which gives you time to study the market here in New Zealand and kind of get an understanding of what the New Zealand market is all about create your network if they you can comment speak to your adviser on a one-on-one basis because now we are based in New Zealand and how do you do that simple suggestion in both these particular instances which I have seen both where both these gentlemen have asked me for helping them to come to New Zealand through the entrepreneurial category the solution is simple both your wife's also have fantastic background so I would like to encourage you to consider that your spouse comes on a master's course here into New Zealand and in doing that you as the husband or the partner will be eligible for a work visa now while your wife is study you will get a one-year work visa and once she completes of course she will get a three years post study work visa and you will also get a three year extension to your work visa so essentially you have four years in New Zealand you still have the money with you the money that you would have paid me as your advisor and for doing your entrepreneur category visa instead I am suggesting that you've diverted towards a masters for your wife because that will give you four years of stay in New Zealand you might even work for one year in New Zealand before you jump into business and in that one year you might want to enter into the industry that you eventually seek to set up a business in and after that one year of experience where you're also earning your investment back then you should be able you'll be in a position to go ahead and set up your business and the beauty of coming to New Zealand as a partner with a work visa is that particular work visa also allows you to set up a business and the self-employed  I'll try to explain this through emails gets very complex and it can only be done through a face-to-face conversation like this I showed you are not able to answer back at this point but so it's important that you understand how it has to be done so if you do not have access to ten million and you can investor one if you don't have access to three million and you can't be investor to and you only have 300 or 400 thousand dollars and you want to come and set up a business in New Zealand as an entrepreneur then I actually discourage you to do that because I think it will be a wasted or waste of your time money and effort instead send your wife here for the masters come here knowing you have four years with a work visa to come study the market work actually earn your investment back that you've spent towards education of your spouse and then once you understand and settle in and that's when you start your business jelly so there is my very sincere advice to people who would like to start a business in New Zealand with 100,000 or 200,000 or 300,000 dollars made that investment first into the studies of your spouse and you come along and stay legitimately in New Zealand and examine the pros and cons of actually setting up a business and then take it forward from there I told you I'm apprehensive because two hundred thousand three hundred thousand dollars is also a lot of money that's your hard earned money and I don't want you to lose it nor do we want to earn that consulting money when we are only you know fifty percent sure that you will actually end up with that entrepreneur visa instead we are giving you a better offer of option of being present in the country on a legitimate work visa that also allows you to be self-employed and set up a business so hope that makes sense so instead of paying that money consulting fees to us invest that into those studies of your wife and you could come along and be here and study the market and set up your business.