buying a business

[JeffFriggens]

I wondered if any one might know if it is possible to purchase a business in NZ, a going concern as opposed to a start up, or would you need to be a resident or have visas sorted first?

[MotherBear]

Hi Jeff and welcome to the forum.

It would appear that you would certainly need either a Resident's visa or Long Term Business Visa to be able to run a business in NZ. In case you haven't already seen it, have a look at this on the Immigration site. Follow the links through and it should answer some of your questions.

Hi Jeff,

MB is right, you will need one of those visas to run a business. You can buy a business as part of your Long Term Business Visa application.

If you do choose to go down that route, be aware that you must have had experience in the running of such a business. For example, you can't just buy an electricians business if you've only ever had experience in cooking hotdogs!!

[macfod]

we all appear to have lots of hoops to jump to get to NZ so its great having this site here.

We are planning to open or take over and revive an exisiting business in the south island.
We havent had any own business experience in the UK but can cook mighty good chilli's and hotdogs- so would :icon_rolleyes: we get knocked down at the first hurdle if we wanted to open our own food bar.
We have good managerial and business experience and lots of umph.. so we are going out and knocking a few doors down to get sorted .
So, do be put off as the more experiences we have and report back on the more people learn.