Larry Page, Google’s co-founder and one of the richest people in the world, has been granted the right to remain in New Zealand under the category of wealthy investors.
Applicants are required to invest at least NZ $ 10m ($ 7m, £ 5m) in New Zealand over three years.
Mr Page entered New Zealand in January, when its borders were still closed due to Covid-19.
But the government said she was allowed to enter because of an urgent medical application involving her son.
Mr Larry Page, 48, applied to stay in November. However, his request could not be considered because he was at sea at the time.
But in January, a US tech millionaire was allowed to enter New Zealand for his son to be released from Fiji due to a medical emergency, the government confirmed Thursday. His request was approved in February.
In parliament this week, Health Minister Andrew Little defended the decision to allow him to enter.
“[His entry] met all the general medical emergency requirements that required the removal of health from the islands, and all the requirements and regulations in place … followed,” Mr Little said, according to a parliamentary text.
Some critics of the decision highlight its injustice.
“We have doctors or nurses trapped in a perpetual waiting room to find a place to stay, and Larry [Page] is in full bloom, and he can suddenly become a citizen,” immigration adviser Katy Armstrong told Radio New Zealand.
Mr Page is listed as one of the richest people in the world with a reported income of more than $ 116 bn. He stepped down as chief executive of Google’s parent company Alphabet in 2019, but remains a board member and managing shareholders.
He is not the first Silicon Valley technology billionaire to take up a particular interest in New Zealand.
Peter Thiel, one of Paypal’s founders and the first investor on Facebook, once described the South Pacific island as “the future” and became a citizen back in 2011. Since then you have invested a lot of money there.
Located more than 6,000 miles (10,000km) from the US continent, New Zealand has recently been identified as the strongest country in the world at the threat of climate change.
In a study released last month, researchers at the UK-based Global Sustainability Institute described New Zealand as “the best place to survive the fall of global civilization”.
The cooler, mountainous terrain is well-equipped to deal with threats such as rising sea levels.
