Americans are now the dominant national cohort applying for the New Zealand Active Investor Plus visa. Of the 659 applications Immigration New Zealand reported under the revamped Active Investor Plus visa as of April 17, the United States accounts for roughly 40%. China and Hong Kong follow.

The pre-reset version of the New Zealand Golden visa program attracted 116 total applications over two and a half years.

Erica Stanford, New Zealand’s immigration minister, announced Feb. 13 that the new settings had committed NZD $3 billion in inbound investment less than a year after launch. By April, the figure had climbed to NZD $3.865 billion in potential investment across 659 applications covering 2,155 people. Of those, 538 had been approved in principle and 247 had progressed to granted resident visas.

What the New Zealand Active Investor Plus visa actually is

The reset took effect April 1, 2025. It replaced the previous AIP structure, which had required NZD $15 million over four years and 117 days of physical presence.

The new program runs two tracks:

• Growth category: NZD $5 million minimum, three-year hold, 21 days of physical presence over 36 months. Eligible assets are higher-risk: direct investments in New Zealand businesses and Invest New Zealand approved managed funds.
• Balanced category: NZD $10 million minimum, five-year hold, 105 days of physical presence over 60 months. Eligible assets include bonds, listed equities, qualifying philanthropy, and certain new property developments. Investors can scale up capital to reduce the day count: NZD $11 million cuts the requirement to 91 days, $12 million to 77 days, and $13 million or more to 63 days.

The English-language test was scrapped. Average time from application to approval in principle is 35 working days. Growth filings dominate: 545 of the 659 applications sit in the Growth track against 114 in Balanced. DLA Piper attributes the skew to Invest NZ’s pre-approved fund list, which lets investors know upfront whether their capital will qualify.

Why Americans are filing

Registrations on Live and Work New Zealand, the government’s expression-of-interest portal, jumped 6,500% from the daily average in the days after Donald Trump’s November 2024 election victory, the New Zealand Herald reported. Daily registrations went from around 20 to 1,313 on Nov. 7. US site traffic rose 2,220% on the same day.

The investor pipeline followed. The 40% US share has held across every quarterly Immigration NZ readout since launch.

For high net worth relocation to New Zealand, the AIP sits in a narrow niche. Caribbean citizenship-by-investment programs run between roughly $200,000 and $300,000. Portugal’s golden visa requires €500,000. The US EB-5 minimum is $800,000 in a targeted area. NZD $5 million translates to roughly USD $3 million, putting the AIP among the most expensive residency programs globally.

The luxury home carve-out

On Feb. 26, the New Zealand government announced that AIP holders could purchase or build one residential property valued above NZD $5 million. The general ban on foreign residential buyers, in place since 2018, stays. The carve-out applies only to AIP visa holders.

The personal residence does not count toward the qualifying investment total. Stanford has emphasized that there have been no “massive peaks” in property-driven demand and that thresholds will not be eased further.

The change closes a gap that had limited the visa’s draw for families. Prior rules forced AIP holders to lease housing or hold property indirectly. The Feb. 26 update lets ultra-wealthy applicants buy a family residence directly, on a price floor that excludes anything resembling mass-market housing.

What the data does and doesn’t show about Americans living in New Zealand

Approvals in principle are not the same as visas granted, and visas granted are not the same as people physically resident. The Growth-track minimum stay can be satisfied with three weeks over three years. Balanced-track holders need 15 weeks over five years before scaling up capital.

AE has covered the broader pattern in Americans Moving to New Zealand.

What the data does show is direction. The pre-reset visa drew 116 applications in 30 months. The post-reset version drew 659 in 12. The American share has held at roughly 40% across every published readout. The AIP brings in capital and a small number of permanent residents. It is not a population-replacement program.