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From 24 August 2026, Immigration New Zealand is broadening its “genuine employment” test for skilled residence applications, requiring roles to be free of visa-facilitation motives, operationally needed, New Zealand-based, and accurately described.

New Zealand's anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism framework is undergoing significant transformation as the Department of Internal Affairs assumes sole supervisory authority with enhanced enforcement capabilities. The reforms introduce risk-based compliance settings, extended reporting timeframes, and stricter obligations for reporting entities to align their risk assessments with regulatory perspectives.

A licensing agreement lets one business use intellectual property another business owns, without transferring ownership. Companies in the same group in New Zealand often share a brand or a system with nothing in writing. Each company remains a separate legal entity under the Companies Act 1993, regardless of who owns the shares. An undocumented arrangement gives the user no right it can prove and no right it can defend. That gap shows up when a shareholder falls out, an entity sells, or a liquidator arrives.