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Comment by Taniwha | Hacker News Reader

Of course NZ is not open to people just moving here right now - in general only citizens, permanent residents and Australians from some Aussie states have been allowed in since the beginning of Covid. We're not taking tourists or new immigrants at this time.

There are some exceptions, not easy to get, a very small number of rich people (14) making large investments here are being let in, I assume he and his wife are buying there way in.

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You can't blame NZ for letting in some rich people as a risk/reward calculation. Presumably they will buy things and pay big taxes: a net benefit?

Might be a net benefit, but as a NZer it goes against the local culture for most of us, buying your way to the head of the queue seems like corruption to us, it's something that was forced on us by a previous right wing government and it's sad to see the current one continuing to allow it

That's a wonderful cultural aspiration and it makes me want to move there even more!

Keep in mind, we have a political party with absolute power right now. So if you move here, you'll hear a lot of blaming the last govt, while not wanting to acknowledge that the current govt is doing this also and could easily change it.

Identity politics is alive and well in NZ as much as it is anywhere. Blame the politicians who were in power 5 years back.

So you can't really call it an aspiration when all major political parties here support the same model - only the lens of folks political affiliations is being covered here.

Funnily enough, for me it's the pragmatism of the politicians that makes me want to move there.

I thought this as well, but its not true. The area I live has had a large influx of people I meet at the park that have just arrived from overseas and their husbands got work in the government and large companies.

Seems like the skilled migrant category is still open if you are mid career from a English speaking country and have a wife and kids.

I wanted to be more specific but I can't due to privacy reasons.

A close friend of mine immigrated to NZ in April on a work visa with his family. He's not rich at all, just a practicing doctor (not research). There seem to be exceptions other than buying your way in.

Yes we're taking a small number of people with specifically needed skills (like doctors) on a case by case basis - "Google Executive" is unlikely to be one of these

We've essentially put all previous immigration processing on hold since Covid - our mandatory quarantine is currently full through November for just citizens returning home

I wonder how many of those MIQ bookings are citizens returning home from non-essential overseas trips.

I think we should probably be making those trips a lot harder/more expensive and using those MIQ slots for more compassionate or business grounds.

MiQ is free for citizens/permanent residents returning permanently home once (the rules are more complex than that but that's the essence, waivers are available for compassionate grounds) - so it's similar to what you suggest

Yes, but it's not that expensive when you do have to pay. The fees don't even cover the full cost of the MIQ stay. It should be double or triple the cost of the MIQ stay because of the opportunity cost.

The article did say that this was planned since before the pandemic, so maybe some prior decision still applies?

I have personally met one big-league tech executive who got a NZ company to declare him an "essential worker" and migrated his family to NZ this year using that. I'm sure there are others. I'm not sure if that would work if you're already working for that company overseas.

On one hand, it's a bit bogus. Many people wouldn't see his role as essential.

On the other hand, it is good for NZ to have this kind of person move here.

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