Malcolm Pacific Immigration Says US Citizens Knocking at NZ’s Door – With Money

AUCKLAND, New Zealand–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#MalcolmPacific–There is a growing queue of United States citizens with millions in their pocket looking to get into New Zealand.

David Cooper, chief executive of Malcolm Pacific Immigration, says a quick look at Immigration New Zealand’s (INZ) recent statistics on people seeking investor category 2 visas for New Zealand residence consistently shows the majority are from the US.

“From the surge of inquiries that we have seen, there are plenty of US citizen waiting to see which of the countries they have chosen will welcome them first,” Mr Cooper says.

“New Zealand holds the upper hand in that the conditions around its investor visas give a clearer path to residency compared with Australia, for example. But if the NZ Government doesn’t follow through its process after selecting people from an expression of interest list, they will just take their money elsewhere at a time our economy could do with it.”

Every two weeks INZ publishes Investor 2 Category selection statistics. Of the 50 people selected on September 24 as eligible to “undergo preliminary verification to determine if an invitation to apply for residency will be issued” 66% were US citizens.

The percentage of US citizens selected for those checks has been growing in the past couple of months from around 30% through to more than 50% in August and now 66%.

Mr Cooper says there are a variety of reasons for people wanting to gain residency in NZ, from concerns around COVID-19, to the political environment, to just wanting to give their children a childhood in a country they perceive to be clean and safe.

The Investor 2 category means the principal applicant must have a minimum NZ$3 million to invest, hold that investment in NZ for four years and stay in the country for at least 146 days for three of the four- year term. The investment must also be commercial, not for personal use like a house to live in.

Mr Cooper says generally the investment earns the investor permanent residency, whereas Australia has tougher conditions to meet to achieve the same.

“We can only hope post NZ’s general election these investors and their funds can enter New Zealand, which will help the country’s economic recovery.”

For a quick reference to investor visas go here: https://www.malcolmpacific.com/investor

Contacts

David Cooper – 021 780 277 or email david@malcolmpacific.com