In this episode of the NZ Ahead podcast, Liz and Brian sit down with Charlotte from NZ Shores to break down the Temporary Retirement Visa New Zealand.
This visa allows people aged 65 and over to retire in New Zealand for two-year periods, renewable indefinitely.
Charlotte explains the investment requirements, the application process, who this visa is for, and how it can be used as a bridge to other residency options.
In this episode, she shares everything you need to know about retiring in New Zealand, including costs, processes, and what to expect.
Read the full, raw transcript below to follow their journey! You can also watch the video version of this podcast below or over on our NZ Ahead YouTube Channel.
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Quick Facts: Temporary Retirement Visa New Zealand
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What is it? | A visitor visa for retirees aged 65+ to live in NZ for up to 2 years |
| Can you renew it? | Yes, indefinitely, as long as you meet the requirements |
| Investment required | $750,000 NZD to invest (government bonds/shares) |
| Settlement funds | $500,000 NZD (can remain offshore) |
| Annual income required | $60,000 NZD (from pensions, rental, business) |
| Can you work? | No — it’s a retirement visa |
| Leads to residency? | No — it’s a temporary visitor visa |
| Processing time | Approximately 12-14 weeks |
| Health insurance | Required (private) |
| ACC coverage | Yes, for accidents only |
Why New Zealand Is a Top Retirement Destination
Ask anyone over the age of 65 where they would most like in the world to retire and I bet you one of the places would be New Zealand.
In this episode of the NZ Ahead podcast, Liz sits down with Charlotte from NZ Shores to explore the Temporary Retirement Visa New Zealand.
Liz: Charlotte, welcome back to the NZ Ahead podcast. We are thrilled to have you back here with us again.
Charlotte: Thank you so much for having me back. I love joining you guys. It’s always a lot of fun.
Liz: This is part of the investment series that we’re doing. And today we’re going to be talking about the temporary retirement visa. Can you tell us what the temporary retirement visa is, please, Charlotte?
Charlotte: Yeah. So the temporary retirement visa is a type of visitor visa which Immigration New Zealand have for people who, as the name suggests, want to come and retire in New Zealand for a period of time.
It is an investment-based visa, so you do have to have a certain level of income to be able to apply.
But it unfortunately doesn’t give you an incredibly long-term visa. It will give you a 2-year visitor visa which allows you to live in the country.
That visitor visa can be applied for multiple times. So, it’s a good option if you’ve got the money and you want to come experience life down under for a little while.
If you’re wondering is-new-zealand-a-nice-place-to-live , this visa gives you a chance to find out for yourself.
Host: Liz
Guest: Charlotte Stockman, NZ Shores
What Is the Temporary Retirement Visa New Zealand?
Liz: To be clear, you don’t need to have kids in the country. You’re just coming over to retire and you can only do it for two years. Is that right?
Charlotte: Correct. So you don’t—this is different to a lot of our other parent categories or a lot of our categories for older people. This one is you don’t have to have a child who is a New Zealand citizen or resident.
Absolutely anybody can apply. So you can just decide, “Hey, I want to go spend some of my retirement in New Zealand” and this visa will allow you to do so.
It is investment based though, so you do have to have money to be able to invest in New Zealand.
Part of that is actually showing that you’ve got money to support yourself as well because it doesn’t allow you to work. So it is very much, “Hey, I’m retired and I just want to come hang out in a really cool part of the world for a little while.”
This is a great option if you’re not eligible for the golden-visa-new-zealand or don’t qualify for the New-Zealand-Age-waiver-visa .
How Much Money Do You Need for the Temporary Retirement Visa NZ?
Liz: How much do we have to invest?
Charlotte: So, it is for two years. I will immediately say that can be applied for as many times as you want to.
So as long as you have the money available, as long as you continue to meet all other requirements of the visa, you can apply for these constantly. So you could spend 20 years in the country.
There’s no limit. I’m just pulling 20 years out of thin air, but you can keep applying for it multiple times.
The money obviously is the big portion of this. So you do have to be able to prove that you have $750,000 New Zealand dollars to invest.
Investments can go into—immigration has a list of what they deem an acceptable investment, but most our clients tend to look at things like government shares and bonds because they’re safe.
Yes, they’re not going to return you a massive, massive income off that investment, but it is something Immigration New Zealand accept and it’s not high risk.
Typically when we get to older people, they want to make sure that their money is going to be safe and they’re not going to lose it.
On top of the $750,000 investment funds, you have to be able to prove you’ve got $500,000 New Zealand dollars in settlement funds.
Settlement funds can be used for anything. You can’t purchase property though on this visa because it is a visitor visa, but the $500,000 could be used for renting a property, buying a car, whatever else you require really to set your life up while you’re here.
And then you do have to prove you also have a guaranteed annual income of $60,000 New Zealand dollars a year.
If there’s two applicants to a visa, so two partners applying under this, that $60,000 can be spread across both of you.
If it is a single applicant, you must be able to prove that you have that on your own.
That can come from pensions, it could be rental properties, you may own a business which is generating income.
You cannot use employment because this visa technically doesn’t allow you to be employed in New Zealand. You are coming to retire.
You don’t have to sell your business, but you can’t be an employee. So that’s just a key little thing there.
But often with a number of our clients, particularly from the UK and the US, pensions—particularly private pensions—are at that threshold or higher.
And exchange rates work in your favor massively at the moment too.
Liz: Definitely.
For those coming from the US, our moving-from-united-states-to-new-zealand guide offers more context on financial planning.
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What Are the Age Requirements to Retire in NZ?
Liz: So is there a retirement age? Can you be like 40 if you wanted to be?
Charlotte: No, unfortunately not. So it is based off the retirement age which we have in New Zealand which at the moment is 65.
So you do have to be 65 or older. So if you are smart and you manage to retire at 40 and you think you’re retired, hats off to you. I’m incredibly jealous.
But Immigration New Zealand unfortunately won’t quite see it that way. Yes, you do have to be 65 or older to apply for this.
If you’re under 65, you might explore other options such as the new-zealand-skilled-migration-visa or how-to-immigrate-to-nz-over-55 .
What Other Requirements Do You Need?
Liz: What other requirements do you need, Charlotte? Is that everything or is there anything else?
Charlotte: No language, no English language tests. So it is a visitor visa. It’s a temporary visa. So, Immigration New Zealand aren’t testing your English language threshold, which is great.
You do have to hold private insurance. Again, because it is a visitor visa, you’re not actually entitled to free health care in New Zealand.
So, you do have to hold insurance which covers you to an adequate amount that if you were to pass away, your remains must be able to be repatriated.
Part of that insurance must be good cover for cancer care and it must cover any emergency hospital care that you may need as well.
Immigration are quite strict on that. They won’t grant you the visa unless you can prove that you’ve taken that insurance out.
And the older you get, the more expensive it gets as well. So that is definitely a factor to keep in mind.
But I have had a couple of Americans in particular apply for this recently who actually told me, “Well, it’s still cheaper to have travel insurance for while I’m in New Zealand than it is to pay insurance in America.”
So, for our Americans, it doesn’t actually seem that bad.
If you’re coming from the UK or another country where you have nationalized healthcare that’s free, it could be a bit of a shock.
But we have got a number of companies we do work with who can assist with that type of insurance. So if you’re getting a bit stuck because it is quite hard to actually find insurance for older people, particularly travel insurance.
Even if you don’t want to use our services for the visa, I’m more than happy for you to reach out and say, “Hey, what’s that insurance company?” and I can connect you.
Health and Character Requirements
Charlotte: Health and character and insurance really are the things that they’re looking at.
You do have to submit an immigration medical and you do still have to be of good standing with your health.
I guess because we’re the kind of country that won’t turn you away. So if you turn up at the hospital and you’re sick and you need treatment, you’re going to get it.
So I guess it’s just another layer of making sure that this person’s not going to turn up and expect treatment and then leave the country without paying for it, hence the insurance requirement.
For more on health requirements, our health-requirements-for-a-nz-visa guide covers the medical assessment process.
What About ACC Cover?
Liz: Because we have ACC in New Zealand, so if you’re on this visa, you would be covered by ACC. Is that correct?
Charlotte: Correct. You are covered by ACC. So everyone—for those of you listening who don’t know what ACC is, it stands for Accident Compensation Corporation.
ACC is amazing. I am a big user of ACC as someone who runs far too much.
They will cover you for any accident. So if you are out gardening, or if you’re out mountain biking, or if you fall off a ladder because you’re trying to paint something—anything that’s accident related is covered by the New Zealand government.
But ACC doesn’t cover anything health related. So if you have a heart attack and you have to go to hospital, that’s medical. That’s not an accident. So they will—you’re expected to pay for that healthcare.
But ACC—you’re covered for anyone actually. Even if you’re coming in on an NZ ETA, so you’re coming in on holiday, part of the visa cost for you actually covers your accident compensation levy. Which is really cool actually, which is great.
And again, as long as it’s not an existing condition—like I’ve got a ripped shoulder joint and I just happen to rip it again in New Zealand—they will—ACC are very good at excluding anything they think is a pre-existing condition.
So, anything that’s degeneration related or age related, or if you’ve done this before and something has happened again, they will probably not cover you.
But if it’s a genuine accident—I tripped over, I fell off a ladder, I fell off my bike, I didn’t look and got hit by a bus—anything that’s actually an accident, they will cover.
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Can You Buy a House on the Temporary Retirement Visa New Zealand?
Liz: What about if I’ve been doing this now for I’ve done it seven times. I’ve been over here 14 years now in New Zealand and I’m desperate to buy my own home. I don’t need a mortgage. I’ve got the money to buy it outright. Can I buy a house?
Charlotte: This is a little bit outside my wheelhouse and would typically be dealt with more by like a property lawyer.
But there is a process you can go through with the Overseas Investment Office and someone can do this at any point. So there isn’t actually a threshold of how long you have to have been in New Zealand to apply through the Overseas Investment Office.
They can actually approve you to purchase property without holding a resident visa. I don’t know a massive amount about that. That would probably be another really good episode for you guys where potentially we try and find a lawyer who can talk about that.
But not yet, not my wheelhouse, unfortunately. I know it’s possible and I have had some clients go through that Overseas Investment Office process before they’ve been deemed what we call ordinarily resident to purchase a home.
But I’ve never had anyone on a visitor visa go through that process. But New Zealand citizens or residents, Australian citizens or residents, and actually Singaporean citizens and residents can purchase property in New Zealand. So, we have a little bit of flexibility there.
But I couldn’t tell you how expensive the Overseas Investment Office process is. I don’t know how long it takes. I just know it’s there.
Liz: Thank you for answering that. And I always appreciate the fact that when you don’t know, when it’s not 100% your field, you put your hand up and said, “You know what, I could hand this over to someone who does know.”
Charlotte: I don’t want to try and answer questions wrong. It’s always safer to say someone else will be your expert in that space, but any property lawyer in New Zealand would be able to guide you through that process for sure.
For more on property, our buy-a-house-in-new-zealand guide covers the general process.
Who Is the Temporary Retirement Visa New Zealand For?
Liz: Who would you point towards this visa?
Charlotte: Anyone who doesn’t have a child who lives in New Zealand and wants to come and spend a period of time. Those are probably one of our biggest cohorts, particularly at the moment.
Like you say, there’s a lot going on in the world at the moment and New Zealand is kind of very tucked away. We’re not even on half of the world maps you see, so I’m not even sure we exist sometimes.
But if you’re looking to get away from the craziness that’s happening and you want to be at the bottom of the world for a while, it’s a really good option.
The other time that we utilize this—not so much now because we are seeing a lot of our parent categories process quite quickly—but sometimes if we have clients who have children in New Zealand and they are applying under one of our parent-based options and that visa is going to take a while to process, sometimes we use this as an intermediate option to get them here in the country while their other resident visa processes.
So, if you’ve listened to our video on the parent retirement category, sometimes this can tie in quite well with that.
If we know there’s going to be hiccups that cause that to take potentially a year to process, we might say, “Okay, well, you’ve already got the money, so let’s also apply under this category because this visa processes in on average about 12 to 14 weeks.”
So it is very quick. We know that that’s going to process quickly. We could get you into the country while a separate residency visa processes.
Or you may not quite have the threshold of funds for the parent retirement category, but you can meet this category. So, we use this as an option to get you into the country while we explore other visas.
The key is though that this visa in itself doesn’t lead to a resident visa. So, even if you did spend 20 years here on this visa, Immigration New Zealand aren’t going to grant you residence or the option to apply for residence unless you qualify under another separate category.
For those with family in New Zealand, our parent-visa-new-zealand guide covers other options.
How Can People Get in Touch?
Liz: If someone wants to reach out, what’s the best way?
Charlotte: Anyone who is listening to this and is potentially interested in investment-type options, skip going through the eligibility assessment on our website because that’s largely geared towards people who want to come and work or study in New Zealand.
The best option, because these are slightly more complex visa categories, is to reach out to me directly. So my email is ch*******@******es.com.
We have several advisers in our office who specialise in these investment visas, and we can match you up with the person who is going to be the best person to guide you through that particular option.
Please reach out directly rather than submitting a form on our website, just because we can jump on it a lot faster and make sure that you’re being assessed correctly under the categories and the information you want.
We offer free eligibility assessments and a free Zoom consult with a licensed advisor. So please do mention that’s how you found us.
Liz: Don’t forget to say you found Charlotte on the NZ Ahead podcast, so she knows to give you special love and extra-lovely treatment.
Charlotte: Absolutely. And anyone who does come through the podcast or your community, we offer free eligibility assessments to people and a free Zoom consult with a licensed advisor as well.
Liz: For those listening who don’t know, Charlotte is part of our NZ Ahead Slack community. She’s over there on Slack with us and she’s got her own channel and it’s absolutely valuable information over there.
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Key Takeaways: Temporary Retirement Visa New Zealand
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Age | 65 or older |
| Investment | $750,000 NZD (government bonds/shares) |
| Settlement funds | $500,000 NZD (can remain offshore) |
| Annual income | $60,000 NZD |
| Duration | 2 years (renewable indefinitely) |
| Work allowed? | No |
| Leads to residency? | No |
| Health insurance | Required (private) |
| ACC cover | Yes, for accidents |
| Processing time | ~12-14 weeks |
Frequently Asked Questions About Retiring in New Zealand
Q: What is the temporary retirement visa New Zealand?A: It’s a visitor visa for people aged 65+ who want to retire in New Zealand for up to 2 years, renewable indefinitely.
Q: How much money do I need for the temporary retirement visa New Zealand?
A: You need $750,000 NZD to invest, $500,000 NZD in settlement funds, and a guaranteed annual income of $60,000 NZD.
Q: Can I work on the temporary retirement visa New Zealand?
A: No. This visa is for retirement only—you cannot be employed in New Zealand.
Q: Does the temporary retirement visa New Zealand lead to residency?
A: No. It’s a temporary visitor visa. It does not lead to residency unless you qualify under another category.
Q: Can I renew the temporary retirement visa New Zealand?
A: Yes, indefinitely, as long as you continue to meet all the requirements.
Q: Can I buy a house on the temporary retirement visa New Zealand?
A: The visa itself doesn’t allow property purchase, but there is a process through the Overseas Investment Office. Consult a property lawyer for advice.
Q: Do I need health insurance for the temporary retirement visa New Zealand?
A: Yes. You must hold private insurance that covers repatriation, cancer care, and emergency hospital care.
Q: Am I covered by ACC on the temporary retirement visa New Zealand?
A: Yes, for accidents. ACC does not cover medical conditions.
Ready to Explore Your NZ Retirement Options?
The temporary retirement visa New Zealand offers a unique opportunity for retirees to experience life in Aotearoa.
If you’re over 65 and have the means, it’s a fantastic way to spend time in one of the most beautiful countries in the world.
Your next steps:
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Head over to nzahead.com/free for our free 5-day video guide on life in New Zealand..
Your retirement adventure in New Zealand could be closer than you think.
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