Key People Behind the Active Investor Plus Programme: Who Built New Zealand's Investor Visa

As Immigration Minister under the previous Labour government, Michael Wood launched the Active Investor Plus visa on 20 September 2022, replacing the older Investor 1 (NZ$10M) and Investor 2 (NZ$3M) categories that had been in place for years.

Wood's design philosophy was to shift from passive investment (bonds, term deposits) to active, direct investment in New Zealand companies and funds. The original settings required a minimum NZ$15 million investment and incentivised direct investment into businesses and managed funds over government bonds.

While the design was sound in principle, the NZ$15M threshold proved too high to compete with investor visa programmes in Australia, the UK, and Portugal. Over 2.5 years (September 2022 to March 2025), only 116 applications were received — a fraction of what was expected.

Appointed Immigration Minister on 27 November 2023 under Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Stanford is widely regarded as the person who turned the AIP visa from an underperforming programme into New Zealand's most successful investment attraction tool.

Her April 2025 reforms made three critical changes: lowering the minimum investment from NZ$15M to NZ$5M (Growth) and NZ$10M (Balanced), reducing minimum stay requirements, and relaxing the English language proficiency threshold. The results were immediate and dramatic.

In the 10 months following the reforms, applications surged from 116 (over 2.5 years pre-reform) to 573 total by February 2026 — a 394% increase. The investment pipeline grew from NZ$908M to NZ$3.39 billion, with NZ$1.05 billion already deployed into the New Zealand economy.

Stanford continues to champion the programme, announcing in February 2026 that the government has no plans to lower thresholds further and highlighting new infrastructure investment opportunities with three new Invest NZ-approved funds.

In May 2025 (Budget 2025), McClay announced the creation of Invest New Zealand as a dedicated government investment attraction agency, backed by NZ$85 million over four years. The agency became operational on 1 July 2025.

While NZTE's Invest NZ team had been supporting investor migration for years, McClay's move elevated investment attraction to a standalone, commercially focused agency with its own legislative framework (the Invest New Zealand Bill, approved for introduction in August 2025).

McClay appointed Rob Morrison to chair an advisory group of private sector experts to guide the agency's structure. The agency's mandate covers attracting capital to advanced sectors, promoting R&D expansion by global companies, and supporting New Zealand's skilled workforce development.

Seymour led the reform of the Overseas Investment Act 2005, culminating in the Overseas Investment (National Interest Test and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2025, passed into law in December 2025 and taking effect on 6 March 2026.

The reforms addressed a critical barrier for investor families: the inability to purchase a home. Under the new law, AIP visa holders can now buy residential property valued at NZ$5 million or more with a streamlined 5-day OIO consent process, separate from their investment requirement.

Seymour's broader reforms also introduced a single national interest test (replacing the fragmented previous system), reversed the presumption that overseas investment is a privilege (instead assuming investments can proceed unless risks are identified), and targeted 15 working days for most OIO decisions.

Invest New Zealand, housed within New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, is the frontline agency for investor migrants. They designate which investments qualify for the AIP visa, maintain the Live Deals platform (NZ$14 billion in opportunities), and provide free advisory support to applicants.

The team operates globally with over 50 professionals across New Zealand, Australia, East Asia, Greater China, the United States, and Europe. They have completed 437 deals over five years with an average capital raise of NZ$4.6 million per deal.

Invest NZ maintains investment directors in key markets worldwide. These are your first points of contact if you're exploring the AIP visa from overseas:

While Invest NZ handles the investment side, Immigration New Zealand (a branch of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment) is the authority that actually processes and approves visa applications.

INZ's investor visa team handles character assessments, health checks, English language verification, source-of-funds documentation, and the Approval in Principle (AIP) decision. They currently average 31 working days from complete application to Approval in Principle — remarkably fast for an investor visa programme of this scale.

As of February 2026, INZ has granted 129 resident visas under the AIP programme (99 Growth category, 30 Balanced category), covering 1,571 individuals including family members.

The OIO regulates overseas investment in sensitive New Zealand assets, including land and significant business assets. For AIP visa holders looking to purchase residential property, the OIO is the body that processes consent applications.

Since the 6 March 2026 reforms, the OIO targets 5 working days for processing AIP visa holder property purchase applications (for homes valued at NZ$5M+). This was a key part of David Seymour's legislative reforms to make New Zealand more attractive for investor families.