Visas & Advice Detail
Struggling with the Business visa
Nobody can deny that the New Zealand immigration process can be complicated so its reassuring to know that there are plenty of Brits who have been through it
Here, a successful migrant to New Zealand gives his perspective on the New Zealand Business visa category. Paul Goddard emigrated to New Zealand on a business visa. This is his story.
"I didn't have a degree, so when I decided to emigrate to New Zealand the business visa was the obvious choice for me. The process itself was relatively simple, in that it just involved putting a viable business plan together. However, I used a consultant because I wanted a professional to check through my application before I paid out any money. "I had learnt my lesson from a previous application for an Australian visa, where I messed it up and lost all my money, that I needed to run my plan through with somebody who knew how it all worked. "The process went very smoothly. The visa came through just a few months after it was checked by the consultant two months before it was due to come through and, I suspect, that this was because I had a contract with the BBC for a programme following our emigration. Then it was up to me to get out there and make the business work. "Setting up a viable business in NZ is the hardest part of emigrating under this visa. In the UK you would already have a ready-made customer base of friends, family and people you know, but out there the tricky question is how to get customers. "My advice to other migrants would be to use Kiwi networking groups there are plenty of them to tap into, and if I had known about them when I emigrated it would have made things a whole lot easier.
The other advice I would give is to keep pushing ideas that make sense to you. The business visa is a bit of a grey area, and they tend to consider each individual case closely. A few months after I arrived, I decided that I wanted to set up a second business, and asked immigration if I could do this at night time. They said no - apparently you are only allowed to run the business you applied for under the business visa. But I didn't give up; I kept emailing people, and eventually ended up emailing Helen Clark, [NZ's Prime Minister]. Her office responded, giving me permission to run the second business, and immigration then agreed that I could do it. "You should consider emigrating under the business visa even if you're not an obvious candidate. I knew a guy with a lawnmowing franchise who got in on a business visa and he knew nothing about gardening! He asked immigration to give him a go because 'mowing lawns isn't rocket science' and they did! "The business visa is a little risky, because if the business fails you'll be going home. As long as your plan is sound then you can get in, but running a business from scratch can be a lot harder than it sounds.
You can visit the Chamber of Commerce for helpful advice and economic development agencies usually do free workshops on marketing your business in New Zealand. There are lots of services that you can pick up on once you start looking."
Paul now works for migration specialists New Life New Zealand
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