New Zealand has tightened the rules governing borrowed capital, source-of-funds evidence, and fund transfers under its Active Investor Plus Visa.
Immigration New Zealand announced the changes on August 13, 2026, saying they are intended to make the program’s requirements clearer and support a more transparent investment process. The government did not change the visa’s minimum investment thresholds.
The most significant change affects investors who use borrowed funds to meet their investment obligations.
Under the updated rules, borrowed funds must be obtained in the same country or jurisdiction where the assets securing the loan are located. The funds must come from a bank or commercial lending institution accepted by an Immigration New Zealand business immigration specialist and must be secured against assets nominated in the investor’s residence application.
Applicants must also demonstrate that they resorted to borrowing because of a change in circumstances outside their control and that liquidating, transferring, and investing the nominated assets or funds would not be economically viable or practical.
The rule effectively prevents an Active Investor Plus applicant from using nominated assets located in one jurisdiction to support visa-related borrowing obtained in another jurisdiction.
Immigration New Zealand defines a commercial lending institution for this purpose as a regulated entity that provides loans, credit, or other forms of debt financing on commercial terms.
Applicants must provide clearer evidence of how their nominated funds were acquired
The borrowing change forms part of a broader tightening of source-of-funds requirements.
Immigration New Zealand now expressly requires applicants to provide evidence showing that their nominated funds were earned or acquired lawfully and transferred through appropriate banking channels.
The agency’s transfer rules require nominated investment funds to move through the international banking system using a cross-border payment, such as SWIFT or an international telegraphic transfer.
Applicants may use foreign exchange or money-transfer companies, but the transfer must still pass through the banking system and remain traceable. Immigration New Zealand does not accept arrangements where funds are converted offshore and subsequently deposited into a New Zealand account as a domestic transfer.
Applicants must be able to provide evidence showing each stage of the transfer. Immigration New Zealand states that an application cannot be accepted if it cannot identify the physical transfer of the funds at any point in the process.
These requirements make the documented movement of capital an important part of the application, particularly where an investor’s assets, bank accounts, and investments are spread across several jurisdictions.
INZ clarifies requirements for gifted investment funds
New Zealand has also clarified the requirements for investors relying on gifted funds.
Applicants must demonstrate that a gift was unconditional, complied with the laws of the country where it was made, and involved funds that were lawfully earned or acquired.
Existing investor-visa guidance also excludes gifted funds that are already in New Zealand or that were previously in New Zealand as part of the applicant’s nominated investment funds.
The result is that applicants relying on gifted wealth may need to establish both the legal nature of the gift and the underlying origin of the capital.
New Zealand eases one requirement for managed funds
Not all of the August changes are restrictive.
Investors committing capital to managed funds will now need only a legally binding agreement with the fund manager or nominee. Immigration New Zealand has removed the previous requirement for that agreement to be non-revocable.
Under the previous immigration instructions, qualifying managed-fund investments required a legally binding, non-revocable agreement made under New Zealand law.
The amendment therefore gives managed-fund investors greater contractual flexibility while the government tightens the rules governing the origin and movement of investment capital.
The visa still offers two investment pathways
The changes do not alter the basic structure of the Active Investor Plus Visa.
The Growth category requires a minimum NZ$5 million investment and focuses on investments such as qualifying managed funds and direct investments.
The Balanced category requires NZ$10 million and permits a wider range of eligible investments.
The current framework was introduced in April 2025 as part of a broader effort to increase international investment in New Zealand. Among other changes, the government replaced the previous NZ$15 million weighted-investment framework with a NZ$5 million minimum for the new Growth category and removed the previous English-language requirement. Reuters reported that those reforms were followed by a sharp increase in investor interest.
The government has continued to adjust the program since then. From June 1, 2026, new Growth-category applicants were also permitted to allocate up to 20% of their qualifying investment, or NZ$1 million at the minimum investment level, to eligible philanthropic investments.
Children born after investor visa approval can now be included
The August changes also address the position of children born after an investor visa has already been approved.
Immigration New Zealand can now grant visas as secondary applicants to eligible children born after approval of an Active Investor Plus, Investor 1, or Investor 2 resident visa. The change can also apply when families later apply for permanent residence, seek a variation of travel conditions, or make a second or subsequent resident visa application.
To qualify, the child must be a dependent child of the relevant investor visa holder, hold a Dependent Child Resident Visa granted on the basis of that relationship, and have entered New Zealand using that visa.
A separate amendment also aligns fund-transfer requirements across the Parent Retirement and Temporary Retirement visa categories.
The latest changes focus on the path of the money
The August amendments do not make the Active Investor Plus Visa more expensive and do not eliminate the use of borrowed funds.
Instead, they clarify and tighten the circumstances in which borrowed capital can be used and impose clearer requirements around where that borrowing takes place, how nominated funds or assets were acquired, and how funds reach New Zealand.
For internationally mobile investors, that distinction is important.
An applicant may have sufficient assets to qualify for the visa but still need to demonstrate a compliant connection between those assets, any loan secured against them, the jurisdiction in which the financing occurs, and the eventual transfer of capital into New Zealand.
The latest changes therefore place greater emphasis on financial documentation and the structure of the investment transfer, rather than changing the headline investment requirement itself.
