British Expats

British Expats (https://britishexpats.com/forum/)
-   Immigration, Citizenship and Visas (NZ) (https://britishexpats.com/forum/immigration-citizenship-visas-nz-108/)
-   -   Entrepreneur Visa? (https://britishexpats.com/forum/immigration-citizenship-visas-nz-108/entrepreneur-visa-869821/)

Alex M Dec 30th 2015 5:39 pm

Entrepreneur Visa?
 
I wonder if you can help please?

My wife an I are looking at emigrating to NZ; we are in a position to move as soon as possible and have finances in place.

We would like to go the Entrepreneur route and have some initial questions, which I can't find on the NZ Gov website on here!

1- Roughly what does an immigration lawyer charge to help us with our application? Or has anyone done it on their own?
2- How long does this type of visa generally take to be approved?
3- Ater approval, what window of time do we have to move there?
4- Do we have to find a business we wish to buy before applying if we are not going the start up route? From the government site it appears they give you 12mths to find and establish a business so I'm not clear on how this works!
5- I presume due to the points system it's better to stick with our relevant industry? Has anyone got an Entrepreneur Visa, despite moving from an industry they have less knowledge in?

Thank you for your help - obviously any help, advice much appreciated!

Best Regards

Alex

MrsFychan Dec 31st 2015 8:24 pm

Re: Entrepreneur Visa?
 

Originally Posted by Alex M (Post 11824356)
I wonder if you can help please?

My wife an I are looking at emigrating to NZ; we are in a position to move as soon as possible and have finances in place.

We would like to go the Entrepreneur route and have some initial questions, which I can't find on the NZ Gov website on here!

1- Roughly what does an immigration lawyer charge to help us with our application? Or has anyone done it on their own? They charge what they like I am afraid, but make sure they are recommended and approved by NZ Immigration if you use one.
2- How long does this type of visa generally take to be approved? Personally don't know anyone who has come this route, but do know someone who tried and was declined.
3- Ater approval, what window of time do we have to move there? I would imagine that it would be the same as other visas so entry to activate the visa within 12mths
4- Do we have to find a business we wish to buy before applying if we are not going the start up route? From the government site it appears they give you 12mths to find and establish a business so I'm not clear on how this works! Sorry no idea, best bet would be to call Immigration and ask them, much cheaper than an agent
5- I presume due to the points system it's better to stick with our relevant industry? Has anyone got an Entrepreneur Visa, despite moving from an industry they have less knowledge in? again not sure but the people I know, who were declined, did have family knowledge of their desired occupation so although not their main occupation they did have some experience

On an aside this family did finally manage to get out on another visa in the end so it worked out rather costly but they did make it.

Alex M Dec 31st 2015 8:58 pm

Re: Entrepreneur Visa?
 
Thanks, I'm waiting on a reply from immigration at mo.

How is it in Wellington? We love it there. We are probably looking at Auckland or Wellington depending on where we find the best opportunity.

Happy New Year!

MrsFychan Dec 31st 2015 11:19 pm

Re: Entrepreneur Visa?
 

Originally Posted by Alex M (Post 11825220)
Thanks, I'm waiting on a reply from immigration at mo.

How is it in Wellington? We love it there. We are probably looking at Auckland or Wellington depending on where we find the best opportunity.

maybe I'm not the best person to answer as find life here very frustrating, I'm not a "she''ll be right" type of person and on medication now just to get through the day.

escapedtonz Jan 1st 2016 6:46 am

Re: Entrepreneur Visa?
 

Originally Posted by Alex M (Post 11824356)
I wonder if you can help please?

My wife an I are looking at emigrating to NZ; we are in a position to move as soon as possible and have finances in place.

We would like to go the Entrepreneur route and have some initial questions, which I can't find on the NZ Gov website on here!

1- Roughly what does an immigration lawyer charge to help us with our application? Or has anyone done it on their own?
2- How long does this type of visa generally take to be approved?
3- Ater approval, what window of time do we have to move there?
4- Do we have to find a business we wish to buy before applying if we are not going the start up route? From the government site it appears they give you 12mths to find and establish a business so I'm not clear on how this works!
5- I presume due to the points system it's better to stick with our relevant industry? Has anyone got an Entrepreneur Visa, despite moving from an industry they have less knowledge in?

Thank you for your help - obviously any help, advice much appreciated!

Best Regards

Alex

I'm assuming you've read through these pages :-
Entrepreneur Work Visa
Entrepreneur Instructions
Requirements for the Entrepreneur Work Visa

Seems a lot of your questions could be answered in this info ?

Alex M Jan 1st 2016 7:31 am

Re: Entrepreneur Visa?
 
Thanks for your reply; yes I've seen those pages.

But I still don't understand how I can submit a business plan for a business I've not yet purchased?

Snap Shot Jan 1st 2016 7:35 am

Re: Entrepreneur Visa?
 

Originally Posted by MrsFychan (Post 11825288)
find life here very frustrating, I'm not a "she''ll be right" type of person and on medication now just to get through the day.

Sorry to hear that. Especially at New Year. Hope it didn't put a dampener on what passes for Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere.

LittleGreyCat Jan 15th 2016 11:47 am

Re: Entrepreneur Visa?
 

Originally Posted by Alex M (Post 11825436)
Thanks for your reply; yes I've seen those pages.

But I still don't understand how I can submit a business plan for a business I've not yet purchased?

Not planning on taking that route myself, but a few random thoughts anyway.

(1) Your business plan (at the very highest level) is:

(a) Locate a suitable business
(b) Purchase
(c) Invest to enhance (if required)
(d) Employ 3 extra NZ staff
(e) Profit:thumbup:

(2) I am assuming that you have a particular type of business in mind, so the first thing you need to do is investigate which businesses are for sale and start the due diligence - you should be able to do a lot of initial research before you even get to NZ through web sites like TradeMe, commercial agents who broker the sale of businesses, even contacts on this forum. No point in coming to NZ with a pocket full of cash if the business area you want to invest in is over subscribed and struggling with weaker players going to the wall.

I would think that a few questions might be:

(a) Why is the business for sale? Due to problems? If so, can you fix?
(b) Is the location right (enough customers, not too much competition).
(c) How are similar businesses performing
(d) How much scope is there for expansion/improvement (as far as I can see the main requirements are to employ extra NZ nationals, plus make a profit, plus "add value to NZ" which is much more woolly).
(e) How much is owed to the bank, and when must it be repaid (e.g. at time of sale).
(f) How much "float" do you need for stock etc., wages.

You might also consider buying a share in a current profitable business which is looking for extra capital to expand, depending on how you see yourself working with joint owners.

I imagine that Immigration would expect to see a rough breakdown of:
(a) How much you have to invest
(b) How much money/time you have earmarked for locating a suitable business and performing all the due diligence, including checking the accounts, checking no issues with ownership, planning, conforming to current regulations etc. and paying agent and legal fees on the purchase
(c) How much money you have earmarked for general running costs for the first year.
(d) How much contingency you have earmarked.
(e) How much money you have earmarked for refurbishment/enhancement of the business (assuming you don't find a thriving business where the owner has a very good reason to sell despite the good health of the company).
(f) Do you have an understanding with a bank to extend a line of credit to buffer you for things like stock/inputs for the first few months (the existing business is likely to have an arrangement with a bank already).


I agree that you can't have a business plan for a specific business until you have located it, but I think you should have a business plan with more details than "Come to NZ with at least $500k in readies; buy a business".

Got a bit carried away above, and included some things which are part of the due diligence when you have located a suitable business, but I hope you can see where I am going - you need a plan for how you are going to go about buying and running a successful business with a breakdown on how you are going to apportion your investment capital, also hopefully with a timeline for the major steps.

If you wanted to start your own business, of course, there are probably some options which would go down well with the expats here.

Start a craft brewery (perhaps at the back of a pub).

Start a boutique sausage factory which produces sausages with over 90% pork - not much competition there and enough Brits to sell by mail order).

Start a boutique cheese maker producing English style cheeses such as Cheshire, Wensleydale etc.

Start a double glazing factory producing glazing to UK standards of insulation - these days a lot of double glazing is made to measure in small factories from standard extrusions. There is a place near us which does this.

Negotiate a "click and collect" (6+ weeks later) deal with Ikea so Brits can order their favourite furniture and have it shipped out to a warehouse for collection.

You could probably even turn a profit by shipping out a limited range of groceries from the UK - the margin on Heinz baked beans in the supermarkets is criminal in NZ. Start small and build up the new Lidl.

Arrange to import Cava from Spain - you can get it in Australia cheaper than the local sparkling wine and it is far superior. I couldn't even find any Cava in NZ.

Just having fun here - I have no idea which area of business you have experience in and intend to invest in.

Oh, and it would probably help as part of the plan if you committed to work with a similar business in the UK to get up to speed and up to date with current best practice. You need a training plan for yourself.

Best of luck:fingerscrossed:

PB65 Jan 15th 2016 1:38 pm

Re: Entrepreneur Visa?
 

Originally Posted by LittleGreyCat (Post 11838215)
Not planning on taking that route myself, but a few random thoughts anyway.

(1) Your business plan (at the very highest level) is:

(a) Locate a suitable business
(b) Purchase
(c) Invest to enhance (if required)
(d) Employ 3 extra NZ staff
(e) Profit:thumbup:

(2) I am assuming that you have a particular type of business in mind, so the first thing you need to do is investigate which businesses are for sale and start the due diligence - you should be able to do a lot of initial research before you even get to NZ through web sites like TradeMe, commercial agents who broker the sale of businesses, even contacts on this forum. No point in coming to NZ with a pocket full of cash if the business area you want to invest in is over subscribed and struggling with weaker players going to the wall.

I would think that a few questions might be:

(a) Why is the business for sale? Due to problems? If so, can you fix?
(b) Is the location right (enough customers, not too much competition).
(c) How are similar businesses performing
(d) How much scope is there for expansion/improvement (as far as I can see the main requirements are to employ extra NZ nationals, plus make a profit, plus "add value to NZ" which is much more woolly).
(e) How much is owed to the bank, and when must it be repaid (e.g. at time of sale).
(f) How much "float" do you need for stock etc., wages.

You might also consider buying a share in a current profitable business which is looking for extra capital to expand, depending on how you see yourself working with joint owners.

I imagine that Immigration would expect to see a rough breakdown of:
(a) How much you have to invest
(b) How much money/time you have earmarked for locating a suitable business and performing all the due diligence, including checking the accounts, checking no issues with ownership, planning, conforming to current regulations etc. and paying agent and legal fees on the purchase
(c) How much money you have earmarked for general running costs for the first year.
(d) How much contingency you have earmarked.
(e) How much money you have earmarked for refurbishment/enhancement of the business (assuming you don't find a thriving business where the owner has a very good reason to sell despite the good health of the company).
(f) Do you have an understanding with a bank to extend a line of credit to buffer you for things like stock/inputs for the first few months (the existing business is likely to have an arrangement with a bank already).


I agree that you can't have a business plan for a specific business until you have located it, but I think you should have a business plan with more details than "Come to NZ with at least $500k in readies; buy a business".

Got a bit carried away above, and included some things which are part of the due diligence when you have located a suitable business, but I hope you can see where I am going - you need a plan for how you are going to go about buying and running a successful business with a breakdown on how you are going to apportion your investment capital, also hopefully with a timeline for the major steps.

If you wanted to start your own business, of course, there are probably some options which would go down well with the expats here.

Start a craft brewery (perhaps at the back of a pub).

Start a boutique sausage factory which produces sausages with over 90% pork - not much competition there and enough Brits to sell by mail order).

Start a boutique cheese maker producing English style cheeses such as Cheshire, Wensleydale etc.

Start a double glazing factory producing glazing to UK standards of insulation - these days a lot of double glazing is made to measure in small factories from standard extrusions. There is a place near us which does this.

Negotiate a "click and collect" (6+ weeks later) deal with Ikea so Brits can order their favourite furniture and have it shipped out to a warehouse for collection.

You could probably even turn a profit by shipping out a limited range of groceries from the UK - the margin on Heinz baked beans in the supermarkets is criminal in NZ. Start small and build up the new Lidl.

Arrange to import Cava from Spain - you can get it in Australia cheaper than the local sparkling wine and it is far superior. I couldn't even find any Cava in NZ.

Just having fun here - I have no idea which area of business you have experience in and intend to invest in.

Oh, and it would probably help as part of the plan if you committed to work with a similar business in the UK to get up to speed and up to date with current best practice. You need a training plan for yourself.

Best of luck:fingerscrossed:

Apart from all options above this visa initially seems pretty temporary until such time the applicant can demonstrate the business can be successful. For a start the visa is issued initially for 12 months to enable start up of a business and then would assume if can be demonstrated as such you get another 2 years extension. What happens after that doesnt seem clear but would guess the way this is structured is to avoid people 'buying' a way in until a business can be demonstrated as successful and a benefit to NZ. This my personal view/ interpretation based on documents available.

BREWER-MIC Aug 20th 2016 9:13 pm

Re: Entrepreneur Visa?
 
Just seeing this post now but might still be helpful. Here's our story:

Applied for a Long Term Business Visa in April 2013 to start a brewery and restaurant.
Received approval in May 2014
Moved to Nelson (Richmond) in October 2014
Began construction in March 2015 (it is a build to suit lease)
Received occupancy in October 2015 and began tenants improvements/fitout
Opened in Feb 2016
Will be applying for six month Entrepreneur Residency Visa as soon as August financials are finalized.

The whole experience has been a breeze! Immigration has been helpful and hoping for residency soon.


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