New Zealand · Residency by investment
Active Investor Plus Visa
The programme was rebuilt from 1 April 2025 into two categories, Growth and Balanced. The English language requirement was removed outright, and the presence requirement was cut. It has loosened further since. From February 2026, offshore AIP holders may buy or build one NZ home valued at NZD 5 million or more. From 1 June 2026, Growth applicants may direct up to 20% of the investment to qualifying philanthropy.
This is the most successful repricing of an investor visa anywhere in the last decade. There were 734 applications for 2,390 people in the first 14 months, against 116 applications in two and a half years under the old settings. But the visa and the passport are two different products. The visa asks for 21 days, the passport asks for 1,350, and the gap is where most families' plans quietly fail.
Qualifying routes
A 36-month hold, limited to higher-risk assets only: managed funds and direct investment into NZ businesses. Up to 20% may go to qualifying philanthropy from 1 June 2026.
A 60-month hold, with a wider menu including bonds, listed equities, and new residential, commercial or industrial development.
The facts
- Minimum investment
- 5M NZD
- Total landed cost
- NZD 5m for Growth or NZD 10m for Balanced in at-risk capital, plus INZ application fees starting at about NZD 27,470, which cover the principal applicant and immediate family. This is before legal, migration-adviser and fund-manager costs.
- Route type
- Residency by investment
- Timeline
- 6–15 months (INZ reports an average of 36 working days to approve an application once investment evidence is filed. But that clock starts only after approval in principle. Applicants then have 6 months (extendable by 6) to deploy the capital.)
- Physical presence
- Growth: 21 days in New Zealand across the 36-month investment period. Balanced: 105 days across 60 months, reduced by 14 days for each additional NZD 1m placed in Growth-category assets, down to a floor of 63 days.
- Family
- A partner, in a genuine and stable relationshipDependent children aged 24 and under
- Permanent residency
- A Resident visa is granted up front. The Permanent Resident Visa follows once the investment and presence conditions are met, 36 months (Growth) or 60 months (Balanced).
- Citizenship
- 5 years as a resident. But citizenship by grant separately demands 1,350 days physically present in NZ, including at least 240 days in each of those 5 years.
- Language test
- There has been no language test for the visa since April 2025. Citizenship by grant still requires the applicant to understand and speak English. From mid-2027, most adult applicants will also need to sit a formal citizenship test.
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- NZD 5m for Growth or NZD 10m for Balanced, in acceptable investments, transferred through the banking system.Funds must be lawfully earned, and the source of funds and wealth is examined.The investment must be made within 6 months of approval in principle. One 6-month extension is possible.Meet health and character requirementsNo English language requirementNo age limit
- The 21-day Growth presence rule buys residency, not citizenship. New Zealand citizenship needs 1,350 days, including 240 days in every one of five years. Anyone marketing AIP as a passport route is glossing over a gap of two orders of magnitude.
- Approval in principle is not a resident visa. As at 24 May 2026, 734 applications had been lodged, 299 approved in principle, and only 294 actually approved, roughly 40%. The rest are still in progress or still deploying capital.
- The FIF regime is the real cost of living here, and it starts the day the transitional exemption ends. See the transitional-residency entry. This is the single most under-disclosed feature of the programme.
- Growth category capital is genuinely at risk. It cannot sit in bonds or listed equities. It must go into managed funds or direct NZ business investment. Losing the capital does not void the visa conditions. It just means the capital is gone.
- Only 122 of 734 applications chose Balanced. At NZD 10m for a lower-risk menu, the market is largely ignoring it, which says more about pricing than about risk appetite.
- Six months to deploy from approval in principle is tight for NZD 5m going into illiquid private assets. An extension exists, but it is not automatic.
- The residential property concession is narrow. One home, NZD 5m minimum, and it does not repeal the wider Overseas Investment Act regime on sensitive land.
- Policy has now moved three times in four years. Investor 1/2 closed 2022, AIP arrived in 2022, AIP was rebuilt in 2025, and it was tweaked twice in 2026. Settings this fluid can move again.