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New Zealand's New Visa Program Requires Positive Energy and a Business Plan (bloomberg.com) 106

pacopico writes: Two years ago, New Zealand started what might be the most radical visa program ever invented. It's called the Global Impact Visa. As Bloomberg Businessweek writes, "You can live in New Zealand or not, do business in New Zealand or not, and stay in New Zealand at the end of the visa term or not. The main requirements are that you're an interesting person with good intentions and good ideas and that you know lots of other interesting people with good intentions and good ideas."

To get the visa, you're vetted by four people. Then, you go live in a yurt village for a week with the other people who have gotten into the program. The whole idea is to come up with business ventures that might bring an enlightened form of capitalism to the world. In a really weird twist, two Americans and an Ethiopian started this thing, which has been a hit so far but not without plenty of controversy.

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New Zealand's New Visa Program Requires Positive Energy and a Business Plan

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  • The main requirements are that you're an interesting person.

    Dang. I guess I will never be allowed to visit NZ.

    • Would being the most uninteresting person in the world mean that you're actually interesting for being completely uninteresting?
      • Proof that there are no uninteresting numbers:

        Consider the set of uninteresting numbers
        This set must have a smallest member[1]
        This number is the smallest, uninteresting number, and is therefor interesting. Remove it from the set
        Now, consider the set of uninteresting numbers...

        By extension, there are no uninteresting people.

        [1]Oh all right, I guess that means that complex numbers are uninteresting.

        • This set must have a smallest member[1]

          This is only true for some sets.

          It is obviously true for the positive integers.

          But it is not true for positive real numbers, or even for positive rational numbers. Give me any real or rational positive number, and I can give you one smaller.

          So there are no uninteresting integers. You have proved that.

          There may be no uninteresting rational numbers. There is no "smallest", but the set of rationals can still be ordered, say, by the sum of the numerator and denominator. The set of algebraic numbers is also

          • But it is not true for positive real numbers, or even for positive rational numbers. Give me any real or rational positive number, and I can give you one smaller.

            You say you can, but in a finite universe at some point the smaller number will be physically impossible to give, therefore the number before that is interesting, as is the number you could not give because of the limitations of physics or lifespan or paper supply or what have you.

    • The main requirements are that you're an interesting person.

      Dang. I guess I will never be allowed to visit NZ.

      I'm just asking for a . . . um . . . friend.

      Are they also looking for folks that are intriguingly bat shit crazy . . . ?

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      The main requirements are that you're an interesting person.

      Dang. I guess I will never be allowed to visit NZ.

      Don't worry you'll be fine. This requirement is there because Kiwi's are so bland and uninteresting that other countries rejects are positively fascinating in comparison.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    "EHF has up to 100 places available each year for international candidates, and also accepts New Zealand entrepreneurs and investors. The Fellowship selection process occurs twice a year, after which successful applicants will be sent a Letter of Offer and invited to apply for a Global Impact Visa.
    Global Impact Visa (GIVs)

    The Global Impact Visa is a three-year open work visa that enables participants in the Edmund Hillary Fellowship to work and live in New Zealand, with a path to permanent residence. Separa

  • Short Version (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Tuesday May 28, 2019 @07:41PM (#58669624) Homepage Journal

    Short version is two personal data miners got rich selling your data to ancestry.com and started a tech commune in New Zealand.

  • it is a good idea.
  • I've never heard of this programme before. At 100 places per year, it's hardly opening the flood gates.

  • Then, you go live in a yurt village for a week with the other people who have gotten into the program.

                  A "yurt village"?

            When, oh when, will adults get back in charge of the world?

    • Some rich people are adults.

      • Some rich people are adults.

        But many other rich people seemingly never grow up - perhaps because, unlike us unwashed masses, they don’t really need to just to survive.

  • Is this a nation or a club?

    I think it's easier to get into the Masons. Which brings up a point: is there a secret Kiwi handshake?

  • by Anonymous Coward

    They are sending armed squads around collecting firearms, socialism growing and their "Chief Censor"(Actual title) helping keep the population ignorant to the great replacement.
    No more tourist dollars from me.

  • by n3r0.m4dski11z ( 447312 ) on Wednesday May 29, 2019 @12:10AM (#58670414) Homepage Journal

    Great idea. Solves the problem that foreigners don't assimilate and solves the problem of crazy people getting in accidentally. Win win.

    And for the uneducated, a yurt is simply a semi permanent tent. Does not have to do with hippies as much as one would think.

    • ...solves the problem of crazy people getting in accidentally.

      How - by letting crazy people in intentionally?

  • By Chinese immigration - same as Australia.

    Doubly so for New Zealand for several reasons.
    1, I believe it's easier to get in to
    2, It's even more isolated and cleaner than Australia for long term safety prospects (simply has less population, currently)
    3, Once you're an NZ citizen it's dead easy to get into Aus, so many of the Chinese who couldn't get here (and trust me, many, many have) - they have a backdoor in.

    The locals in both NZ and Aus have been utterly wrecked by this, with utterly astoundingly huge po

    • My understanding is that any Chinese citizens with money to invest are buying up foreign real estate as a hedge against any disruption back home. It has been happening on the West coast in the US in particular, as well.
      • Not sure if "hedge" is the right word for "mass debt used to gamble that foreign property markets will return massive profits"

      • Correct and it's DECIMATING the quality of living and potential to own a home for multiple generations in Canada, London, Australia, New Zealand.

        The govt are complicit in 'selling' out the locals.

  • Given that "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions", and this visa goes to people with good intentions, is this a visa for travel to Hell or one indirectly issued by Hell?
  • And, if one doesn't get along with those particular four people or they are intimidated by one, or if one has better business ideas than they do?
  • This is a "let in businesses with a plan" visa, wrapped in Yurts and veganism to make it seem something more...."enlightened"

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