A lawyer and prominent scientist have slammed the English test requirement part of the Government's newly-introduced investor visa.
The active investor plus visa, announced by the Government on Wednesday, includes a minimum $5 million "active" investment, while the minimum amount of money required for indirect investments is $15m.
Investors would also need to spend at least 117 days, or about a month per year, in New Zealand during the four-year investment period.
There's also now an English language test requirement.
"If you're investing in a New Zealand business, you need to be able to communicate that adds value as well," Regional and Economic Development Minister Stuart Nash said on Wednesday.
Nanogirl scientist Michelle Dickinson, appearing on AM's panel on Friday, said it's "crazy" that there is an English test requirement.
"It assumes that business owners in New Zealand don't speak other languages and couldn't utilise that, especially for going into new markets," Dr Dickinson said.
"I'm a business owner, I speak English and I speak Chinese fluently - I don't need my investor to speak fluent English in order for me to have a great business relationship and investment.
"So, I think it's a little bit assuming all Kiwis only speak English and therefore this is what we need.
"If you move or immigrate to a new country, you spend your time picking up that language when you are here, and so I don't know whether that pre-requirement before you get here to speak that is what you need versus all immigrants move to New Zealand because they want to do well, and with that comes the language and the culture that you learn as you come here."
Dr Dickinson said the new visa has made it very difficult for investors to move to New Zealand.
"Also, you're looking at other countries to invest in, too, so what we've done has made ourselves very difficult to move to compared to some of the other countries that these investors may go to Australia or the US, for example.
"I think we should be enticing investors to help New Zealand businesses but realise that finance is only a small part of what makes a business."
Lawyer Chris Patterson, appearing on AM's panel alongside Dr Dickinson, said attracting billionaire investors is a competitive environment and doesn't agree with the English test requirement.
"It's the networks, it's the connections, it's also some of the skills that they've got, some of the technology that they can introduce or bring in, all of those things.
"Hey, look, we've got two other official languages. I mean, we're not going to require them to learn to Te Reo. We're not going to require them to learn sign language.
"Why do we require them to learn English? Do we really need them to be able to speak English?"
Patterson said the main things investors bring to New Zealand are their money and connections.
"We just need their money, their connections, their networks because of the environment we're in because we don't have enough of it.
"New Zealand doesn't have enough capital and we don't have enough connections. That's the whole purpose - who cares if they could speak English or not?"
Dr Dickinson and Patterson aren't the only ones criticisng the English test requirement. National's Erica Stanford said the Government should "read the room" over its recent investor visa announcement.
Stanford, National's Immigration spokesperson, told AM earlier that the English test could knock a large number of Chinese investors out of qualifying.
"We've got a brand new Minister of Immigration who I thought would come out of the blocks and actually set himself apart from the previous minister and fix some of the issues that we've got in the system," Stanford said.
Former Immigration Minister Tuariki Delamere, now an immigration advisor, said on Thursday the language requirement made it "the anti-Chinese policy".
"There are a lot of people that'd like to come here because of New Zealand," Delamere told AM.
"Yes, they're wealthy - I don't believe wealthy people need English. I brought people in 20 years ago and they happily lived in New Zealand [and] employed many people - they still don't speak English."
Wood defended the English test requirement when asked about it Newshub.
"The English language requirement, which is an increase on existing requirements, will help ensure we attract investors who can and will be actively involved in the businesses they support, transferring knowledge and building connections to benefit our communities and economy," he said.
"We don't expect this to be a barrier for the majority of globally experienced investors as it is not an expectation of perfect fluency, rather it will ensure they can quickly integrate with the companies they invest in and use their knowledge and skills to help businesses grow faster."
Watch the full panel with Chris Paterson and Michelle Dickinson above.
