Investor 2 resident visa: what replaced New Zealand's closed investor routes

Stop searching — it's gone. The Investor 2 resident visa closed to new applicants on 28 July 2022, along with the Investor 1 resident visa above it. Both were replaced by the Active Investor Plus Visa on 19 September 2022, which was itself rebuilt on 1 April 2025 into two new categories: Growth and Balanced. If you are typing "Investor 2 resident visa NZ" into Google in 2026, you are researching a door New Zealand bricked up four years ago.

The interesting part is what got built next door. Because quietly, while Europe was demolishing its investment-migration routes, New Zealand constructed one of the most attractive ones on the market.

What happened to the Investor 2 resident visa?

For years, Investor 2 was New Zealand's workhorse investor route. The deal: a four-year capital commitment — the smallest cheque New Zealand ever accepted from a passive investor — in exchange for residence. But the small cheque came with real obligations. An age cap of 65. At least three years' recognised business experience. An English test, or 20 hours of English tuition as the consolation prize. And a genuine expectation that you would actually show up: 146 days in the country every year, or 438 days across the four years if you tilted your portfolio towards growth assets.

The Investor 1 resident visa sat above it and asked for roughly triple the capital over three years — and in return asked for almost nothing else. No age cap. No English requirement. As little as 88 days in the country across the entire three-year period, provided some of the money sat in growth investments. Bonds counted. It was, bluntly, a parking arrangement: wire the funds, collect the residence, visit occasionally.

Wellington eventually said the quiet part out loud: passive capital parked in government bonds builds nothing. Both categories closed on the same day in July 2022, and the replacement was designed to force money into things that employ people.

Active Investor Plus: the 2022 replacement

The Active Investor Plus Visa arrived in September 2022 with a weighting system that rewarded direct investment into New Zealand companies and penalised passive holdings. It also did something neither old category had dared: it bolted an English language requirement onto the top tier of the market.

It was clever on paper and fiddly in practice. Wealthy applicants — the sort who can choose between a dozen jurisdictions — do not enjoy being graded on vocabulary, and the weighted-investment mathematics made advisers reach for spreadsheets. So in April 2025 the government stripped the whole thing back.

Growth and Balanced: the categories that replaced Investor 2

On 1 April 2025 the Active Investor Plus Visa was reorganised into two categories, and the changes were unambiguously a loosening.

Growth is the active track. Acceptable investments are managed funds and direct stakes in New Zealand businesses, with philanthropy capped at 20%. The capital commitment runs for a minimum of three years. The presence requirement is 21 days in New Zealand over the entire investment period. Not per year. Total. That is a long weekend annually, with rounding.

Balanced is the calmer track: double the headline commitment of Growth, held for five years, in exchange for a broader menu — listed equities, bonds and property are all acceptable. Property comes with strings: new residential developments that add to the housing stock, or new and existing commercial and industrial projects that add value, earthquake strengthening included. Presence is 105 days across the five years, and each additional tranche invested above the minimum trims 14 days off, down to a floor of 63.

The April 2025 revamp also removed the English language requirement entirely — a full retreat from 2022. There is no age cap on either category and no business-experience test. Meet the fit-and-proper, health and character checks, keep the investment in place, and the resident visa lets you and your family live, work and study in New Zealand indefinitely, with permanent residence available once the investment conditions are met.

The market has voted. Since the revamp, applications have arrived at a pace the old investor categories never managed, and Immigration New Zealand's own reporting shows more than 80% of applicants choosing Growth. The largest cohort, by a distance, is American, followed by applicants from China and Hong Kong.

Investor 1 and Investor 2 vs Growth and Balanced

Read the middle columns against the right-hand ones and the story is plain: the new regime asks for more risk appetite and dramatically less of everything else.

Who the new routes actually suit

Growth suits the optionality buyer. You sold the company, the money is already in risk assets, and you want a first-world bolthole for the family without moving there yet. Twenty-one days over three years is not a residence requirement; it is a suggestion. One caveat worth taking seriously: immigration residence and tax residence are different machines. If the family genuinely relocates, New Zealand taxes residents on worldwide income — though new arrivals can qualify for a temporary exemption on most foreign-sourced income. The details are in our New Zealand tax guide.

Balanced suits the capital preserver. Family offices that want bonds and bricks rather than venture exposure pay double for the privilege and spend a few more weeks in the country. Still trivial by the standards of the old Investor 2.

The old Investor 2 constituency has a problem. If your budget was pitched at the old Investor 2 level, the passive route at that price no longer exists. The nearest substitute is the new Business Investor Work Visa, open since 24 November 2025: a materially smaller commitment, but you must buy into an established business that has traded for at least five years, be 55 or under, pass an English requirement — and actually run the thing. That is a job, not a portfolio allocation. Whether it beats writing the larger Growth cheque is exactly the sort of question our programme comparison tool exists for.

Citizenship-hunters should read the fine print. A grant of New Zealand citizenship requires genuine physical presence over five years. A 21-day visiting pattern produces a resident visa, not a passport. Plan accordingly — our New Zealand guide walks through the full ladder.

Verdict

Context matters. In April 2025 — the same month New Zealand loosened — Spain abolished its golden visa and the EU's top court struck down Malta's citizenship-by-investment scheme. The supply of credible first-world residence routes is shrinking while the demand, particularly American demand, is surging. New Zealand read the room.

Our verdict: Growth is the pick, and it is one of the cleanest wealth-migration offers anywhere right now. No English test, no age cap, no business plan, a three-year hold and a presence requirement measured in days rather than months. The price is honest: your capital goes into genuine risk assets, and it is genuinely at risk. Balanced is for those who prefer a bigger cheque and calmer sleep. And if you arrived here searching for the NZ Investor 2 visa — stop mourning it. Its successor asks less of you in every respect but one, and that one is the point. See how it stacks up against every other route in our programmes directory.