A new Golden Visa is luring wealthy Americans to New Zealand with minimal stay requirements and a fast track to permanent residency—just as uncertainty grows back home.
3 min
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New Zealand has created a new, easier path to residency for wealthy people, and it’s attracting attention from Americans looking for an alternative to living in the U.S.
According to New Zealand Trade and Enterprise—the government’s international business development agency—70% of incoming inquiries into a revised program leading to permanent residency in the country are from the U.S.
A spokesperson with the agency said it remains to be seen whether those inquiries turn into the same level of visa applications. Still, the inquiries are evidence that Americans are interested.
“There’s a huge increase in demand from the U.S.,” said Dominic Jones, managing director of Greener Pastures New Zealand, which helps those applying for the country’s so-called Golden Visa to find investment opportunities.
Many U.S. citizens are seeking residency in New Zealand—as well as other countries —as a “plan B” during President Donald Trump’s administration, according to immigration attorney David Lesperance. Many of these are applicants who worry Trump could exact retribution on them or their families for perceived slights, in addition to those who have family members that could face discrimination because of their sexual orientation. Some are concerned about the future of the U.S. economy.
For those with the money, reallocating $2.88 million in assets from the U.S. to New Zealand for three years—as the new requirements allow—isn’t a heavy lift, Lesperance said. “Depending on foreign exchange and returns on investment over this time, the cost could easily be zero or positive,” he wrote in an April 2 blog post.
The island country is also only requiring applicants to be physically present for 21 days over three years, depending on which category of investment visa they pursue.
“These applicants are people who are in a financial position to look at this as an asset reallocation and one or two vacations in the next three years in exchange for a permanent insurance policy in a first-world country,” Lesperance told Barron’s.
U.S. citizens have long been interested in living in New Zealand. About 38% of applicants to a previous program with stricter requirements that was in effect from September 2022 through April 1 this year were from the U.S., according to the trade and enterprise agency.
That program required a four-year investment of between NZ$5 million and NZ$15 million ($2.88 million and $8.4 million) in the country, with the amount varying depending on the type of investment. It also required being in the country at least 117 days over four years and passing an English language test—which was more an annoyance than an impediment for U.S. citizens.
Wealthy investors consider New Zealand as a residency option because of the country’s lifestyle, climate, and dramatic, beautiful landscapes, according to Jones. It’s also a stable, English-speaking democracy with a free economy, and it’s safe, he said.
“We’re on the other side of the world,” Jones said. “We don’t tend to get involved in global conflicts. The drive to safety isn’t why all people all choose Golden Visas, but it’s why people choose the New Zealand option.”
The revised New Zealand Active Active Investor Plus Visa program that went into effect on April 1 eases up on the previous requirements through the introduction of two categories for obtaining permanent residency.
Under a “growth” category, applicants need to invest $2.88 million for three years directly into privately owned New Zealand-based companies that have been approved by the trade and enterprise agency, or in New Zealand managed funds that are invested in the local economy, Jones said.
Applicants are only required to be in New Zealand for 21 days during the three-year investment period, and they don’t have to pass an English test.
A second “balanced” category requires a minimum $5.6 million over five years, but allows it to be invested more passively in listed stocks, government bonds, and New Zealand-based corporate bonds, Jones said. It also requires applicants to be present in the country for at least 105 days over five years.
Once the requirements are met during the three- or five-year period, applicants achieve permanent residency in New Zealand, even if they no longer spend time in the country, according to Lesperance.
The growth category was structured to be quicker and more attractive, to encourage applicants to make meaningful, active investments in the country with the potential to spur economic growth and create jobs.
“What our government is trying to do is attract capital, but also put it into forms of enterprise where the impact on the economy is material,” Jones said.
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As millions flock to GLP-1s, doctors warn the drugs can cause rapid and significant muscle loss.
5 min
Chanel Robinson achieved exactly what the gold rush of blockbuster weight-loss drugs promised: She lost nearly 100 pounds, lowered her cholesterol to normal levels and reined in her polycystic ovary syndrome.
Yet, nearly three years into her journey on Mounjaro, the 30-year-old from Atlanta, Ga., is discovering the hidden costs of the slimmed-down life.
Robinson experiences muscle fatigue daily, feeling physically weak, frail and often cold. Robinson said she experiences bursts of sluggishness sporadically during the day, and has trouble with basic tasks like opening a jar. “It shouldn’t be this difficult,” she said.
GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Mounjaro and Zepbound have been a success for public health and the pharmaceutical companies that make them. Obesity rates are falling, the volume of food consumed in America is declining and retailers report a slump in sales of plus-size apparel. It has improved health and happiness for millions of people.
But for at least some of the 13 million Americans taking them, losing muscle along with fat is an unexpected downside that isn’t broadly discussed or immediately apparent.
The drugs can cause rapid and significant loss of lean muscle mass, up to 10%, comparable to a decade or more of aging, according to an analysis published by the American Diabetes Association.
The loss of lean tissue is similar to weight loss from dieting, but the magnitude over a short period can lead to frailty, instability and lack of coordination, doctors and researchers say. Another concern is that losing muscle could slow down patients’ metabolism, leading to weight regain.
“We are curing obesity by encouraging frailty,” said Daniel Green, principal research fellow at the University of Western Australia, who contributed to the analysis. Many taking weight-loss medications initially lose fat and feel great, but quickly start to feel weak and lethargic, he said.
Green’s research showed that the rate of muscle loss could be slowed significantly by regular strength workouts. “It should say ‘must be taken with resistance training’ on the box,” he said.
Drugmakers say weight-loss drugs should be taken only on the advice of a physician and as part of a long-term plan that includes diet and exercise.
A spokesperson for Eli Lilly, maker of Zepbound, said Food and Drug Administration guidelines say it should be used “with increased physical activity.” The spokesperson added: “Sustainable weight loss is about more than a number on a scale.”
Both Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk said clinical trials showed users did lose some lean muscle tissue, though at far lower rates than fat. Liz Skrbkova, a spokeswoman for Novo Nordisk, said that trials for its drug Wegovy showed changes in muscle mass didn’t “significantly differ” from patients who took a placebo. Eli Lilly said users lost three times more fat weight than lean tissue.
Rayna Kingston, 30, from Denver, said her injections of Zepbound left her feeling so tired the following day that she struggled to complete anything other than basic tasks. She said she shifted her dose to a Sunday because Mondays were her least busy day. Her partner would bring her meals in bed because she felt so weak.
She stopped exercising, and said her doctor didn’t give her any guidance on strength training or muscle maintenance. “I was relying on Reddit forums to understand what was happening to my body,” she said. She got so frustrated with the fatigue she came off the medication just under two months later.
Experts say that losing muscle at such a rate can be especially dangerous for those over 50 or with osteoporosis or limited mobility as it could lead to an increased risk of injury. “Loss of muscle mass is detrimental to moving around and quality of life, but it is also not safe,” said Katsu Funai, associate professor at the University of Utah.
Elderly Americans are set to be able to get GLP-1s from Medicare from July.
There is also pushback from doctors and regulators against using weight-loss drugs as a “quick fix” to lose a bit of weight.
People who take GLP-1s regain weight four times faster than those who lose weight through lifestyle interventions, and weight regained is often mostly fat, according to a recent analysis published in the British Medical Journal. There currently are few, if any, guidelines or studies on de-prescribing the drugs, researchers say.
The nurse practitioner who prescribed Robinson the medication didn’t warn her that resistance training is essential to maintaining muscle mass, Robinson said. She said she regrets not exercising and now does Pilates once a week.
In the haste to disrupt the obesity epidemic, weight loss has been treated as the singular, undisputed metric of success, which experts say is problematic.
“People worship body weight as an outcome measure because it’s simple, quick and inexpensive,” said Green. “But what matters is fat and muscle mass, which is more expensive to measure as it requires an MRI.”
Grace Parkin, 34, a property manager from Sheffield, England, has lost 125 pounds after she started taking Mounjaro in 2024. “I don’t care about my muscle mass as long as I’m a healthy weight,” she said.
The doctor who prescribed the drug didn’t tell her to exercise, though the pharmacy that sold the medication gave her information on exercise and protein intake, she said.
She didn’t exercise and said she soon felt side effects: a “deathly cold, from the inside” likely because of the drug. Still, she vowed to keep going, saying the weight loss was worth it.
In response to some of the side effects, drug companies are hoping to develop weight-loss treatments aimed at preserving or even building lean muscle mass.
German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim recently said it had promising results from one such drug. Eli Lilly last September halted a trial of a similar drug.
While weight-loss medications are designed as lifelong treatments for chronic diseases, namely obesity and Type 2 diabetes, they are increasingly marketed as lifestyle fixes.
Tennis superstar Serena Williams, who used GLP-1s to slim down after having children, was featured in this year’s Super Bowl commercial promoting telehealth company Ro’s weight-loss medication.
Serena Williams poses for an ad campaign for a weight-loss drug. Ro/Handout/Reuters
Women may be particularly vulnerable to the drugs’s side effects, which can also include nausea, diarrhea, migraines and rarer cases of pancreatitis.
A study last year from a university hospital in Turin, Italy, showed that women are more prone to adverse reactions to weight-loss drugs than men, including muscle loss.
Green, the researcher, said the issue is of particular concern to those taking GLP-1s recreationally and who don’t have much muscle mass to begin with. Others say a lack of oversight is compounding the issue.
“Patients are self-reporting, and telehealth companies don’t have the patient in front of them to conduct a proper medical assessment,” said Rupal Mathur, an internist in Houston whose practice specializes in weight loss.
She said medical spas are prescribing off-label drugs that don’t meet the criteria set out by the FDA that justify a prescription.
The number of people taking weight-loss drugs who are not living with obesity or Type 2 diabetes is difficult to track since it is unregulated.
However, an analysis by the FDA from 2023 found that more than half of new Ozempic and Mounjaro users didn’t have Type 2 diabetes.
Scientists are calling for more clinical trials to pin down the full effects of weight-loss drugs on muscle loss in different demographics.
“The only studies that have been done have looked at people living with obesity or Type 2 diabetes,” said Green. “That makes it all the more concerning for those using weight-loss drugs in an ad hoc or unregistered way.”
