Entrepreneur Work and Resident Visa

Entrepreneur work and resident visa will suit you if you are an aspiring kind who has accumulated sufficient business experience in your field. Starting on a work visa, you may explore further opportunities for expanding your business, eventually arriving at residency.

Entrepreneur Work Visa 

This special work visa allowing self-employment – a perfect match if you want to buy, start and run a business 

To be eligible, you should 

Investment

• meet the specified investment threshold;
  Usually it is $100,000, though a Business Migration team at INZ may waive it at their discretion. for high value, export-oriented sectors such as information and communications technology and others, which are able to produce high yield within the shortest time possible, or prosper in a highly innovative environment).
• score at least 120 points for certain factors (business experience; benefit to New Zealand; capital investment; age; bonus points for businesses outside Auckland)

Business Plan

• Applicants must have a business plan which meets the requirements below:
  
  Firstly, a fit-for-purpose business plan would 
  • secondly, have high specificity for the business; then,
  • be realistic; it should also
  • demonstrate to a Business Migration Team at INZ that the applicant has extensive knowledge and experience in the proposed area of entrepreneurial activity, has done sufficient marketing research into the field and has a genuine intent to establish the business described in the business plan; and, eventually,
  • satisfy at least one of the criteria of
    • high growth
    • being innovative, or
    • showing export potential

Other expectations

In addition to the above, there are other points to consider for your application to be successful.

• if required, obtain professional or occupational registration

• you should not have been part of a business fraud scheme or financial impropriety;
• you were not part of a bankruptcy situation or a business failure within the 5 years before the application;
• provide evidence of sufficient funds (apart from the investment) to finance your business and maintain yourself and your family for the period of the Entrepreneur Work Visa;
• meet character and English language requirements, which are applicable to virtually all temporary and resident class visas; not meeting those can lead to a decline even if you tick all other boxes;
• In addition, the proposed business must not create an unacceptable risk to New Zealand laws and policies

Entrepreneur Resident Visa

While the Entrepreneur Work Visa gives you a chance to put out feelers and make up your mind, there is a further, Entrepreneur Resident Visa, which can allow you to settle in Aotearoa. Just like in the case of most other resident visas, there are some boxes to tick before looking at specific, business details of the application.

Having established, or bought, and run your business successfully you may apply and be granted a resident visa, provided, of course, you are compliant with both general and specific requirements below.

General requirements for Residence categories

To be successful, the applicants must

• meet English language requirements 
  • usually IELTS 4.0 overall score; Investor 2 - no less than IELTS 3.0 overall score;
  • Investor 1 category applicants are exempt from the need to produce the evidence of their language proficiency;
• meet health and character requirements;
• meet fit and proper person requirements, which, in other words, means that
  • all the businesses they influenced had a history of compliance with relevant law;
  • they have never been convicted of an offence related to business dealings, and also;
  • convicted of an offence involving dishonesty; and, finally;
  • have never been involved in business fraud or financial impropriety.
• agree to take part in an evaluation of the category under which they were approved for up to 5 years after their approval.

Specific requirements for Entrepreneur Resident Visa

• The applicants must have successfully established their business in New Zealand and demonstrated they had met the benefits set forth in their business plan. Then they will have 2 avenues open, depending on how long they will have run the business:
  • 2 years or
  • 6 months (this express lane puts more demands on the capital investment to make, at least $500,000, and on creating employment for New Zealanders, at least 3 full-time jobs)
• The business must be benefitting New Zealand significantly and
• It should comply with all relevant laws.

New Shores Migration uses extensive business expertise of the adviser and the team to suggest a viable path to follow. We specifically zoom in on crucial nuances in business paperwork which may lead to frustrating declines if overlooked or underestimated.

Book your free 30-minute consultation today to talk to the professionals.