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TO QUALIFY for a Long Term Business visa it is expected that the business formed by the visa holder will benefit New Zealand econmically.
This means that it is expected that the business will provide employment.
The New Zealand Immigration Service, at a recent seminar clarified that the minimum criteria to be met was the creation of one new full time job.
The policy on this matter states:
A business may be considered to benefit New Zealand if it promotes New Zealand's economic growth through, for example:
l introducing new, or enhancing existing, technology, management or technical skills, or
l introducing new, or enhancing existing, products or services; or
l creating new, or expanding existing, export markets;
l creating employment (other than employment for the principal applicant);
l revitalising an existing business; and
Or in the opinion of a business immigration specialist it appears likely that the business will be trading profitably at the time any subsequent application under the Entrepreneur category is made or clearly has the potential to be trading profitably within 12 months after the application is made.
The policy does not set a minimum threshold as to what constitutes the number of jobs that must be created. As many agents and their applicants have asked us for clear and reasonable guidance on this subject we have stated the following:
The creation of one fulltime job (ie 30 hour per week minimum) for a New Zealand citizen or Resident from the beginning of Year Two of the business plan certainly meets the criteria.
It is stressed this is the minimum but it does give clear guidance that if their proposed business has a realistic plan to create one such job it will meet the benefit to New Zealand provisions as outlined in the policy.
This does not mean to say such an application will automatically be approved - obviously the application must meet all the other policy criteria and the planned creation of employment must be assessed as being realistic.
Equally the fact that the job created is less than 30 hours per week does not automatically mean the application fails to meet the benefit to NZ provisions - rather it means uncertainty for the applicant as each application will need to be assessed on its individual merits.
Therefore it is entirely possible that two separate applications both proposing to generate one part time job may merit two different decisions - the individual unique circumstances of one may correctly mean it is assessed as meeting the benefit to NZ criteria while the other application does not.
However, the payment of taxation or the contribution to growth in GDP in New Zealand are not sufficient in themselves to meet the benefit criteria. The payment of taxes does not meet the benefit criteria as it is an obligation expected of all new migrants. Similarly, all new migrants are expected to settle and participate in the economy thus contributing in some way to the growth in GDP.
Taxation and participation in the New Zealand economy are like the observance of Health and Safety requirements - it is expected of all New Zealand employers they are not an additional benefit.