New Zealand Active Investor Plus Visa: application process and timeline

Some investors search for this as New Zealand's "Golden Visa," though its official name is the Active Investor Plus Visa. It replaced the former Investor 2 category when the government relaunched the investor settings on 1 April 2025. ^{[2]Immigration New Zealand — 2025 changes to the Active Investor Plus Visa and statistics}

Change log

Two categories exist, and the one you choose sets your investment period and your minimum time in New Zealand: Growth and Balanced. Both are explained with full thresholds, acceptable asset classes and family-inclusion rules in My Golden Visa's requirements guide and how to get the New Zealand Golden Visa. This page focuses on what happens after you decide to apply.

The sequence below sets out who acts at each stage, what INZ expects, and the published timing. It does not cover cost: the application fee and the firm's own fees sit in My Golden Visa's requirements guide, not in this table.

The first stage is the one you control most directly, and it is where avoidable delay can build up: a file with gaps in the evidence tends to generate a request for further information before INZ reaches a decision. The quality of what you lodge on day one sets the tone for everything after it.

Your category decides how long you hold the investment and how many days you need to spend in New Zealand, not just how much you invest.

^{[1]Immigration New Zealand — Active Investor Plus Visa}

A shorter Growth-category commitment means your evidence checkpoints and your route to permanent residence arrive sooner. A longer Balanced-category commitment buys access to a wider range of acceptable assets but stretches your reporting obligations over five years instead of three. The full list of acceptable investments, and which route suits a given portfolio, is covered in My Golden Visa's requirements guide.

From 28 September 2026, any managed fund accepting Active Investor Plus money must provide and maintain an investment deployment plan, so investors and fund managers have clearer confidence in how the fund intends to deploy capital in New Zealand. Invest New Zealand also gained stronger powers to suspend or revoke a managed fund's or direct investment's eligibility if it stops meeting programme standards. ^{[3]Immigration New Zealand — Active Investor Plus: new managed fund requirements from 28 September}

A six-month stand-down now applies before a managed fund or direct investment that has been declined can be resubmitted. This stand-down attaches to the investment offering itself, not to visa applicants: it does not restart your own clock or delay your application, though it may narrow your choice of fund if your preferred option was recently declined. If you are planning to invest through a managed fund, ask the fund manager directly whether it has a current deployment plan and whether its eligibility has ever been suspended, before you build your source-of-funds evidence around it.

INZ requires evidence that your nominated funds were lawfully earned or acquired and transferred through appropriate banking channels. ^{[1]Immigration New Zealand — Active Investor Plus Visa} In practice, this is the stage where a well-prepared applicant and a rushed one diverge.

Three things help most. Move funds by direct bank transfer between accounts in your own name wherever possible; indirect routes, cash deposits or third-party transfers invite further questions. If you plan to invest from a joint account held with a family member included in your application, document that relationship and the account history before you lodge, not after INZ asks. Keep a paper trail that matches your declared source of funds all the way back, whether that is business income, the sale of an asset or an inheritance: a gap between the amount you declare and what your bank statements show is a frequent reason an otherwise straightforward application stalls.

Once your investment is confirmed and your resident visa is issued, the clock does not stop. You hold the investment for the full period your category requires, and INZ checks in twice: once at 24 months, and again at the end of your investment period, 36 months for Growth or 60 months for Balanced. Each checkpoint requires evidence that the investment is still in place and a post-investment questionnaire, both due within three months of the checkpoint date. ^{[1]Immigration New Zealand — Active Investor Plus Visa}

Miss a checkpoint deadline, and you risk the investment-period conditions not being treated as met, which can affect your path to permanent residence. Build the three-month submission windows into your own calendar as soon as your resident visa is granted, rather than waiting for a reminder.

INZ does not publish a guaranteed turnaround for every stage, and applicants often want to know whether they should simply wait. You can track progress through INZ's online application system, and INZ will contact you directly, usually by request for further information, if it needs anything beyond what you lodged. Respond to any request promptly and completely: an incomplete or slow reply to a request for further information is one of the few delays genuinely within your control. If your approval in principle or final decision is taking noticeably longer than the published averages, a direct enquiry through the online system, or through the agent managing your case, is the right next step, not a second application.

The published timing figures are averages and service levels, not guarantees, and several things can push a case well past them. Incomplete or inconsistent source-of-funds evidence is a frequent cause of delay, because it can generate a request for further information. A managed fund losing its eligibility partway through your process, or being suspended under Invest New Zealand's oversight powers, can force a change of investment plan after approval in principle. Family members added late, or documentation for a joint account that does not match your declared source of funds, can also slow a case that was otherwise moving on schedule.

This does not mean approval is guaranteed for any individual case (see our disclaimer); INZ decides each application on its own facts. It does mean that the parts you control, evidence completeness, fund due diligence, and a prompt response to any request, shape your actual timeline more than the headline averages do.

Becoming an investor under this visa is a residence decision, not a tax decision, and the two carry different rules. Investing in New Zealand, and later spending time there, can have New Zealand tax consequences depending on your circumstances. Inland Revenue publishes general guidance for individuals with international tax positions. ^{[4]New Zealand Inland Revenue — International tax for individuals} This guide does not cover tax residency, rates or exemptions; take independent tax advice before you commit funds.

Treat the dates above as an illustration built on INZ's own published windows, not as a forecast for any individual application: your own dates start from your approval in principle and move with it. ^{[1]Immigration New Zealand — Active Investor Plus Visa}

How we built this timeline: the stage timings above come from Immigration New Zealand's Active Investor Plus Visa page and its investor-category statistics update; the 28 September 2026 rules come from INZ's managed-fund requirements notice, cross-checked against My Golden Visa's partner legal programme data. INZ's published figures are averages and service levels, not guarantees, and your own timeline depends on evidence quality and whether INZ requests further information.

My Golden Visa lawyers prepare and review the evidence that commonly stalls an Active Investor Plus application: source-of-funds documentation, transfer records and the investment plan itself, before it reaches INZ. If you want a realistic read on your own timeline, contact My Golden Visa and a consultant will walk through your category choice, your evidence gaps and what to prepare first. Ask about the firm's licensing and its track record with Active Investor Plus files when you get in touch; a credible adviser will share this readily.