New Zealand's Active Investor Plus Visa: Why Wealthy Investors Are Choosing NZ Residency
- Kate Dear
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Here's a question we're hearing more often from high-net-worth clients: "Can I actually buy my way into New Zealand?"
The honest answer is no... but you can invest your way into it. That's what the Active Investor Plus (AIP) visa is for, and interest in it has grown significantly since New Zealand overhauled the settings in April 2025.
What is the AIP visa?
Active Investor Plus is New Zealand's residence-by-investment category. It replaced the old Investor 1 and Investor 2 visas, and it's built around a simple idea: if you're prepared to put serious capital into New Zealand's economy, you can earn residence in return; without needing a job offer, a points-tested skill set, or a family connection.
There are two pathways, and the right one depends on how hands-on you want to be and how much time you can spend in New Zealand.
Growth category
Minimum investment: NZD $5 million
Investment period: 3 years
Minimum time in New Zealand: 21 days over the 3 years
Investment types: pre-approved managed funds and direct investment in New Zealand businesses
Balanced category
Minimum investment: NZD $10 million
Investment period: 5 years
Minimum time in New Zealand: 105 days over the 5 years (this can reduce for investment above the minimum threshold, though we'd want to confirm the exact sliding scale with you before relying on it)
Investment types: everything in Growth, plus bonds, listed equities, approved philanthropy.
Neither pathway requires English language proficiency, which is a deliberate point of difference from most of New Zealand's other residence categories.
Momentum is building
New Zealand doesn't publish a single running total that we've been able to verify directly, and figures reported by different sources vary somewhat, so treat the following as indicative rather than exact. Reporting from mid-2026 put cumulative applications at around 760, with roughly 600 Approval in Principle letters issued, and well over NZD $1 billion in investment either completed or formally committed. Applicant interest has reportedly been strongest from the United States and Greater China, with growing numbers of entrepreneurs and business owners among the applicant pool.
Whatever the precise figure, the direction of travel is clear: since the 2025 relaxation of the rules, lower minimums, shorter minimum stays, and a broader range of eligible investments than the original 2022 version, New Zealand has become a materially more attractive option for investment migrants than it was a few years ago.
Who this is actually for
This isn't a visa for everyone... the capital requirement rules that out for most people. But if you're a business owner, entrepreneur, or investor who has the funds and is weighing New Zealand against Australia, Portugal, the UAE, or other residence-by-investment options, AIP is worth a genuinely close look. New Zealand is trading on relatively low minimum stay requirements, no language test, and (for the Growth category in particular) a light physical presence commitment, all points that tend to matter to people who are still running businesses elsewhere.
Talk to us before you commit capital
The rules around eligible investment structures, fund approval, and timing are detailed, and getting a technical point wrong can be expensive when the number attached to it has six or seven zeros. If the AIP visa is on your radar, get in touch with Queenstown Immigration, we can walk through whether Growth or Balanced fits your situation, and what the process actually looks like from expression of interest through to Approval in Principle. We have partnerships with a number of Approved providers.
This post is general information current as of 19 August 2026, not personalised advice. Application statistics and some scheme details are drawn from secondary reporting and should be treated as indicative, see sources below.
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