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Wealthy Americans are at the forefront of a rush to take advantage of New Zealand's new "golden visa" scheme amid an exodus from the US following Donald Trump's return to the White House. The famously beautiful country's government relaxed rules for its new foreign investor migrant visa in April in a bid to attract more affluent people to boost New Zealand's economic growth. The investment programme, which has been nicknamed a "golden visa" scheme, allows foreign nationals to obtain residency rights in the island country by investing in its economy.

Criteria for eligibility were lowered earlier this year, including the removal of English-language requirements and cutting the length of time applicants must spend in the country from three years to three weeks. New Zealand's government said it had received 189 applications for the scheme in under three months, with just under half submitted by US citizens, whose gradual exodus from Donald Trump's America has been well-reported since his election last November.

Immigration and business law firm Harvey Law Coroporation has recorded a 1,514% rise in search activity around emigration following Trump's election last year and suggested the trend could be linked to "concerns about stricter immigration laws, heightened political tension and potential rollbacks of progressive policies".

New Zealand's immigration minister Erica Stanford said the government had received 85 applications for the "golden visa" scheme from US citizens since April, alongside 26 from China and 24 from Hong Kong.

Before the changes, the scheme attracted just 116 interested parties in two-and-a-half years.

"Nearly everyone who is aplying is applying because of the changes they're seeing under the Trump administration," Stuart Nash, a former Labour minister who now runs immigration and relocation consultancy Nash Kelly Global, said.

"We are seeing more people looking for a safe haven than a tax haven," he told The Guardian. "And that's what they have got in New Zealand."

The country's stable democratic governance has made it a popular choice for investors looking to relocate, Mr Nash said, with a spike in demand for citizenship also recorded after Trump's first election in 2016.

The "golden visa" scheme could also signal a significant boost to New Zealand's economy, which was the worst-performing in the developed world in 2024, triggered by low productivity and interest rate hikes designed to counter post-pandemic inflation.

Its economy has already grown faster than expected in the first quarter of 2025, according to official government data, and Ms Stanford said the new applications represented a potential NZ$845 million (£372 million) of investment in New Zealand business.