Unlike similar schemes overseas which use a special visa, the Government’s scheme will be bolted on to New Zealand’s existing visitor visa scheme, meaning people visiting New Zealand on an ordinary tourist visa can continue working for their foreign employer.
People visiting New Zealand from a visa waiver country like the United States, Japan, South Korea, Argentina, Israel, and the European Union will be able to work as part of their visa.
Willis said these visitors will be able to extend their stays in New Zealand, turning a visitor visa, giving people up to nine months in the country - up from three to six months currently.
Stanford said people working for more than 90 days should consider possible tax implications. These will depend on where someone has been working.
In 2023, National campaigned on a digital nomad visa. This would have been capped at 250 applicants a year, but it would have allowed people to stay for longer.
Stanford said questions about the election policy were “testing [her] memory” but defended the option the Government had chosen.
“We didn’t create a new visa... we just went with our visitor visa and the visitor visa can be extended up to nine months, but what you see is many visitors only stay for three months because they are unable to work,” Stanford said.
She defended not changing the visa rules last year when they might have been helpful to a struggling economy.
“We had a number of challenges last year, we had record levels of arrivals and immigration was unsustainable at that time and we had a huge problem with migrant exploitation. We had to get that under control and we have done,” Stanford said.
Immigration New Zealand is going to spend $100,000 advertising the scheme to South East Asia and North America.
Willis, in one of her first outings as the new Economic Growth minister, said allowing tourists to stay longer would benefit the economy. In territories like Portugal the visas have caused some tension with locals for putting up rents, as people working for foreign companies are more likely to be able to afford higher rents than locals.
Willis said the Government was willing to accept some teething issues in the interest of progress, echoing remarks from the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation.
“As the Prime Minister noted last week, too often, when it comes to economic growth, New Zealand has slipped into a culture of saying ‘no’. We have to shift our minds to embrace it,” Willis said.
Only remote work that is based overseas will be allowed. Visitors whose employment requires them to be in New Zealand – such as sales representatives of overseas companies, performers and people coming to work for New Zealand employers – will still be required to obtain visas relevant to their own circumstances.
“This Government is committed to supporting a smarter, efficient and predictable immigration system to grow our economy. Delivering economic growth is critical to improving our quality of life, strengthening local businesses, lifting incomes, and creating opportunities for Kiwis,” Stanford said.
The Government is trying to attract digital nomads. Photo / 123rf
Figures from Tourism New Zealand show tourist arrivals from almost all countries remain below pre-Covid levels. Overall, arrivals are 86.3% of pre-Covid levels.
The most recent data for November, showed arrivals from China were just 53.3% of 2019 levels – making it one of the slowest-recovering markets for tourism, despite the fact it was New Zealand’s third-largest market for arrivals, behind Australia and the United States.
Former EMA chief executive Brett O’Riley, who has been doing some advisory work for firms in Los Angeles, told the Herald he had already had expressions of interest from people he knew who had lost their homes in the recent fires and wanted to live abroad while they rebuilt.
He said they had been asking where they could find details of the new scheme.
O’Riley, who is on the APEC Business Advisory Council, said APEC had been advocating for “skills mobility and the ability for people to move around”.
He said this scheme would achieve that, and could attract highly skilled people to the country who might want to live her beyond the term of their visa.
Pre-Covid, China was our second-largest market and one of the most valuable in terms of holiday visitor spending.
Arrival numbers from Japan were also low, at 68.7% of 2019 levels. Other significant markets like the US and Australia fared better, at 94.4% and 95.1% respectively.
One bright spot in the data is India, with arrivals soaring to 128.9% of pre-Covid levels, placing it behind the United Kingdom and Germany as New Zealand’s sixth-largest market for arrivals.
Willis told RNZ this month she “absolutely” wanted to see Chinese visitor numbers back to pre-Covid levels.
“Every time a Chinese tourist comes to New Zealand and they spend money in our local businesses, they spend money with our local tourism operators, that’s good jobs for Kiwis, that’s money for our small business owners that translates into the ability to pay workers more,” she said.
In government, however, Willis is sending mixed signals, hiking visa fees and nearly tripling the cost of international visa levees to $100.
Thomas Coughlan is Deputy Political Editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the press gallery since 2018.
