Active Investor Plus divides into Growth and Balanced. The comparison most people meet first is simply this: one is NZ$5m, the other NZ$10m.
Judge on the amount alone and it's easy to choose wrongly.
We've seen families with more than enough for Balanced choose Growth, and the reverse. What decides it isn't how much can be put up buthow long the money is locked away, how long you have to be here, and what kind of investment you can live with.
This piece works through three common situations to show the reasoning.
Active Investor Plus: the hard numbers first
| Growth | Balanced | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum investment | NZ$5m | NZ$10m |
| Holding period | 3 years | 5 years |
| Minimum days here | At least 21 days across 3 years | Normally at least 105 days across 5 years |
| Investment focus | Venture capital and private credit | Wider, with lower-risk assets available |
| Risk profile | Higher risk, generally less liquid | More flexibility, risk more easily spread |
Source: Immigration New Zealand, August 2026
Neither has an English requirement or an upper age limit — both changed when the new settings took effect in April 2025.
But the real difference isn't the amount
Turn that table around and it becomes clearer:
| What you care about | The category that favours you |
|---|---|
| Not wanting the money tied up too long | Growth(3 years vs 5) |
| Unable to get away for long | Growth(21 days vs 105) |
| Not wanting high-risk, illiquid investments | Balanced |
| Wanting to keep equities, bonds and property development available | Balanced |
| Wanting to commit less | Growth |
Notice the trade-off.
Growth is kind on time — three years of lock-in and 21 days here. The price is that the investment sits in venture capital and private credit, which carry more risk and less liquidity.
Balanced is kind on investment — a wider range and risk that can be spread. The price is five years, 105 days, and twice the threshold.
You are trading one kind of freedom for another.
One: the business is at home and you can't leave
The most common case. The principal applicant is around fifty, still running the business, and can be away two or three weeks a year at most. The spouse and children may move first while the applicant travels back and forth.
Here,the days requirement is usually the first consideration, ahead even of the amount.
Growth's 21 days across three years works out at a week a year, which is manageable while running a company. Balanced's 105 is considerably harder.
So with the funds to do it, Balanced can bring the stay down to 63 days. For families with the assets but not the time this is the crucial point:you don't have to choose Growth purely for the days.
Note that even with the additional investment, Balanced has a floor of 63 days, against Growth's 21 across three years. How feasible the stay is tends to be the most practical dividing line between the two.
Two: enough assets, wanting flexibility
The second case is a family whose assets clearly exceed the threshold and who already have a settled way of investing — equities, bonds and property all in an existing portfolio.
They choose Balanced not because they have more money but becausethey don't want NZ$5m concentrated in venture capital and private credit.
For someone with an established investment discipline, being told what to invest in is harder to accept than the amount. Balanced allows direct investments, managed funds, listed equities, bonds, philanthropic giving and qualifying residential and commercial property development — close to how they already allocate.
The five years and 105 days aren't a problem for this family— they intend to move here long-term anyway, and the children will be at school here.
Children's schooling is often what really drives the decision here. Active Investor Plus is a residence class visa, and once children hold the corresponding resident visa they are generally domestic students, not paying international fees at state schools.
Three: NZ$5m available, comfortable with risk
The third case has funds around the NZ$5m mark, or could stretch further but doesn't want that much tied to the visa.
The logic for Growth is straightforward:take the lowest threshold and the shortest lock-in.
One thing should be said plainly: Growth investments carry real risk, and INZ states explicitly that they are not government guaranteed. Selling, exiting or switching during the period must also be handled under the reinvestment and acceptable investment rules.
So Growth suits not those with less money but those who can absorb this kind of volatility.
If high-risk assets are simply unacceptable, then even with only NZ$5m the better question is whether to restructure and go Balanced later, rather than force a way into Growth.
Four questions to judge for yourself
In practice we don't start from the amount. We start from the family's assets, tolerance for risk and plans:
- How much investment risk, and how long a lock-in, can you accept?
- Do you want to commit NZ$5m, or can you allocate NZ$10m or more?
- How much time can the principal applicant spend here over the next three to five years?
- Do you prefer venture capital and private credit, or would you rather keep equities, bonds and property development available?
Questions three and four usually separate the categories better than question two does.Most people already know whether they have the money. Whether they can be away, and whether they can live with that kind of investment, is what tends to be unexamined.
Neither is better
Neither category is better in the abstract. The choice follows from the family's asset structure, risk tolerance, liquidity needs and how they intend to live.
Two families with identical assets can reach opposite conclusions because one has a child heading into secondary school here and the other has a child already working.
Which is why our first assessment starts with the family rather than the money.
Further reading
Active Investor Plus: requirements and process
Source of funds for AIP: the four documents most often missing
This reflects policy published by Immigration New Zealand as at August 2026. Immigration policy, investment rules and individual eligibility change over time; the conditions that apply are those in force when you apply, assessed against your own circumstances. Nothing here is investment, legal or tax advice.