Transferring investment funds

What you need to do to transfer investment funds

If we approve your application in principle for the Active Investor Plus Visa, you have 6 months from that date to transfer and invest your funds in New Zealand.

If we approve your application for an Investor 1 or 2 Resident Visa, a Parent Retirement Resident Visa, or a Temporary Retirement Visitor Visa, you have 12 months from that date to transfer and invest your funds in New Zealand.

The funds you transfer must be:

• the funds you named in your visa application
• funds you received from selling the assets named in your application.

If the funds or assets you named in your application are worth more than the minimum you must invest in New Zealand, you do not need to sell all the funds and assets you nominated.

Funds already invested in New Zealand

You can use funds already invested in New Zealand to support your visa application. You must nominate them when you apply for your visa.

You must provide evidence of where the funds came from and how they were transferred and invested in New Zealand.

Active Investor Plus Visa

Funds must be transferred through the banking system, a foreign exchange company or a money transfer business. The funds can come from your personal bank account, or from one of the following third parties:

• a solicitor trust account (where the solicitor is acting on your behalf)
• a pension scheme in your name, or
• an investment portfolio account in your name.

You must provide evidence that your nominated funds have been invested in acceptable investments and holding investments.

This evidence must include the following information:

• The full name of the principal applicant
• The amount invested in New Zealand dollars
• The date the investment was made
• The type of investment, including the name the company or bond issuer if applicable as well as the amount of shares or bonds
• Documentary evidence of the investment
• A letter from an external and reputable professional such as a solicitor, chartered accountant or investment broker confirming that the funds have been invested
• A letter of confirmation from NZTE if the investment is a direct investment

Nominating additional funds

You can nominate additional funds if:

• you have received an approval in principle letter,
• the funds nominated in your application have been transferred to New Zealand,
• you provide evidence that the funds have lost value in NZ dollar terms through currency exchange or due to unforeseen circumstances, and
• you provide evidence of the additional funds and/or assets within the first 6 months after receiving your approval in principle letter.

If you borrow funds

You may be able to transfer and invest funds from the sale of nominated assets you have borrowed if:

• it is not economically viable or practical to liquidate the assets you named in your visa application, and
• you borrow funds from an acceptable bank or commercial lending institution and secure them against the nominated assets you named in your visa application.

Taking more time to transfer funds

If you think it will take longer than 6 months to transfer your funds, you need to apply for an extension.

You must provide evidence that you have tried to transfer the approved nominated funds to New Zealand. This can include:

• a letter providing the reasons why you have not transferred the funds to New Zealand yet,
• evidence of partial fund transfers to New Zealand, for example telegraphic transfers and bank credit advice, or
• evidence you are trying to sell your assets, for example, if you are trying to sell a property you could provide advertisements or contracts with a real estate agency.

Investor 1 and 2 resident visas and parent retirement visas

Investment funds must be transferred through the banking system from your bank accounts directly to New Zealand. Your bank account overseas must be in your name only.

Transfers must be from your personal bank account. They cannot be from your company’s bank account.

You need to provide evidence that you made the transfer. This could include:

• telegraphic transfer documents for each fund transfer
• a letter from your New Zealand bank confirming the transfers
• bank statements from your New Zealand and offshore banks showing the transfer of funds.

We can only grant your visa after we receive this evidence. You must send original or certified copies of documents. We do not consider electronic documents to be originals.

Moving funds before you transfer them to New Zealand

If you move your funds from 1 type of asset to another or use funds in a business before you transfer them to New Zealand you must:

• own and control the funds at all times
• supply evidence of all electronic banking transactions that show every step in the process as you transferred the funds.

It may take us longer to assess your application if you have moved your funds before you transfer them to New Zealand.

Transferring the sale proceeds

If we have approved your application and you sold your nominated investment assets, any sale proceeds must be transferred from your offshore bank account to New Zealand. You cannot receive sale proceeds from the buyer directly to your bank account in New Zealand.

Currency restrictions

Some countries limit the amount of money that can be exchanged and transferred. If your nominated funds are subject to currency restrictions, you need to ensure that any exchange or transfer is consistent with:

• Immigration New Zealand’s funds transfer requirements
• any currency regulations or restrictions applied by the country you are transferring the money from.

Transferring funds from China

If you want to transfer investment funds from China, you must use an organisation that is recognised by the Chinese Government as providing Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) products. For example these organisations are widely used:

• Bank of China
• China Construction Bank
• Guosen Securities Company Ltd
• ICBC Bank
• OCBC Bank.

There are many other schemes and providers of QDII products. We cannot approve your QDII provider until we have assessed your application. Our approval depends on the transfer and investment documents that you supply.

Exchanging Chinese RMB for transfer

Chinese banks can limit the amount of RMB you can exchange each year.

If you need to extend your exchange quota, the Chinese Government currently allow you to use up to 4 linear family members’ quotas — linear family members are your partner, children and the principle applicant’s parents.

If your bank allows you to exchange RMB using linear family members’ quotas, you must make sure:

• your funds do not go out of your account
• you still own and control the funds.

You cannot withdraw the funds, deposit them in another person’s account and then have them transferred back. This is because you would not have owned the funds while they were in that person’s account.

Transferring funds via other countries

If you need to transfer your funds via other countries, you must check if you will be affected by currency exchange restrictions.

Topping up investment funds

If you have been approved in principle and the funds or assets you nominated in your application have lost value, you may be able to nominate additional funds. You can only do this if your nominated funds have lost value in New Zealand dollar terms as a result of unforeseen circumstances.

Any new funds must meet the same requirements as the funds you first nominated for investment. You must show that:

• you own them
• you lawfully acquired them
• there are no loans or mortgages or claims by other people on those funds.

The timeframe for transferring and investing your funds will not change if you need to introduce new funds.

Additional funds cannot replace all of the funds you nominated in your application. You need to submit a new application if you want to invest completely new funds. If you are applying for an Investor 2 Resident Visa, this means you must also submit a new expression of interest.

If you borrow funds

If you are applying for an Investor 1 Resident Visa, you may be able to transfer and invest funds you have borrowed if:

• it is not economically viable or practical to liquidate the assets you named in your visa application
• the value of your net assets exceeds the required investment amount, and
• you borrow funds from an acceptable bank or commercial lending institution and secure them against the assets you named in your visa application.

You cannot borrow investment funds if you are applying for any other kind of visa, including Investor 2 Resident Visa.

Taking more than 12 months to transfer funds

If you think it will take longer than 12 months to transfer your funds, you need to apply for an extension.

You cannot apply for an extension if you applied under the Parent Retirement Category.

You must provide evidence that you have tried to transfer the approved nominated funds to New Zealand. This can include:

• a letter providing the reasons why you have not transferred the funds to New Zealand yet
• evidence of partial fund transfers to New Zealand, for example telegraphic transfers and bank credit advice
• evidence you are trying to sell your assets, for example, if you are trying to sell a property you could provide advertisements or contracts with a real estate agency.

Foreign exchange companies

You can use a foreign exchange company to transfer your funds to New Zealand if the:

• foreign exchange company uses the banking system to transfer the funds
• investment funds named in your visa application were transferred to the foreign exchange company directly from one or more bank accounts in your name
• transfer is legal, both in New Zealand and the country the funds were transferred from
• transfer can be traced — it cannot come from cash deposits
• foreign exchange company operates lawfully — you cannot use a company that is suspected of, or proven to have committed fraudulent activity or financial impropriety to transfer your funds.

You must provide evidence of all the steps you took to transfer your funds. We cannot accept your application if we cannot identify your funds’ physical transfer any at point.