This publication recently spoke to a former New Zealand cabinet minister who has turned to the business of HNW investor visas and a relocation consultancy. We talked about how people should frame expectations around these visas and plan ahead.

It is one thing to emigrate in pursuit of a more pleasant, less heavily taxed and more business-friendly jurisdiction, but without plans and realistic goals, dreams turn sour, however appealing the brochures and marketing spiel. 

This is no different for New Zealand, a country that in early April 2025 modified its Active Investor Plus Visa. The visa is designed to attract investors who take an active role in helping companies access global knowledge networks, capital, and markets. On 1 April, the system was changed to streamline the investment process, by including two investment categories: Growth or Balanced. 

The Growth investment option requires an investment of at least NZ$5 million ($2.92 million)l NZ$10 million is needed for the Balanced investment categories. 

The new system involves a three-year investment period for Growth category applicants, though visa holders must only spend 21 days in the country; applicants seeking different categories must commit to spending varying periods a year in New Zealand. There is no English language requirement.

To make all this work, applicants must plan and reach out to those who are able to make them feel at home. That is the view of Stuart Nash (main picture), a former New Zealand government minister in the Jacinda Ardern administration who today leads Nash Kelly Global, a relocation consultancy. (He is a lawyer by professional background.)

Nash is keen to promote his country’s virtues, one that is among a host of nations with so-called “golden visa” programmes. After holding one post in the second Ardern term, Nash was handed the Economic Development, Tourism, Forestry, and Small Business portfolios. There’s an obvious relevance for what he does now.

“FDI [foreign direct investment] is important in New Zealand and if you are moving to the other side of the world you have to be welcomed and appreciated,” Nash told this news service in a call. “It is very difficult to be in a network [of people] unless you are already part of this.”

With dozens of jurisdictions, such as Italy, Dubai, Portugal, various Caribbean islands and now even the US – with its “Gold Card” idea – to compete in this investor visa space, New Zealand must get the offering right. 

Beyond the basics of tax and so forth – New Zealand does not have inheritance tax or capital gains tax – it is vital to ensure that the details are in rder to make a move feel comfortable and enjoyable, Nash said.

The challenge for HNW individuals of knowing how to make new friends, build networks, integrate their spouses and families into a community can be easily under-estimated, Nash said. “And it is not just about the investor – it is their wife/husband and their kids,” Nash continued. The whole family must be involved in conversations. 

Nash said his consultancy helps to remove the risk from what can be a daunting change. “The vast majority of people in this [HNW migrant] group have high expectations,” he said. 

“There’s nothing worse than to be in the middle of the New Zealand winter and talking to friends in Switzerland or wherever and hear them saying that life there is lovely,” Nash said. 

New Zealand’s appeal
The charms of the two-island nation, with its dramatic country scenery beloved of hikers and movie makers, endless opportunities for outdoor pursuits (on and off the water), distance from unstable parts of the world, high quality of life and robust economy, are well known. 

With cash-strapped governments in certain parts of the world tightening screws on HNW individuals – in the UK for example – countries such as New Zealand with their links to the old country via language, sports and shared history, have obvious appeal. There is also the attraction for high-profile wealthy people of being out of the spotlight. 

Part of what Nash and his colleagues do is leverage networks so that a client can hook up with charitable organisations, angel investors and entrepreneurship networks, sports clubs and teams, social groups of all kinds, and, if they are so minded, political campaigns. 

The New Zealand visa system isn’t the same as outright citizenship, but for those who want it, the pathway to reaching it can take up to 10 years.

At a time when citizenship/residency-by investment programmes – aka “golden visas” – have been attacked politically – such as in the case of the UK, Spain and Malta – New Zealand policymakers are at pains to set out various conditions that applicants for Active Investor Plus Visa programmes must fulfil. The source of wealth must be established; an applicant must be verified as a “fit and proper person” – for example, not having a record of financial impropriety – and be in good health. Police certificates showing a clean record are required. 

The market for such visa programmes appears vigorous, even with certain schemes, such as in Spain, being placed on hold. It is a sign of how mainstream that such programmes have become that a former cabinet minister such as Nash is deploying his own energies to helping people make a happy and successful move.