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Can you sit on a board there?
Pick a market. You get the residency test, the nationality test, the work-authorisation position, the appointment steps in order, and the frictions that actually delay appointments — each cited to the instrument that creates it.
Choose a market
No nationality test, and — uniquely on this Exchange — Australian residence can satisfy the statutory resident-director requirement. NZX listing rules separately require two New Zealand-resident directors.
- Residency test
- Companies Act s.10 requires a director resident in New Zealand, or resident in Australia and a director of a company registered there. NZX Listing Rule 2.1 additionally requires at least two directors ordinarily resident in New Zealand.
- Nationality test
- None.
- Work authorisation
- A non-resident director attending board meetings does not require a work visa. Executive and interim operating roles do.
- Board language
- Board process is in English.
- Tenure limit once appointed
- No fixed cap. The NZX Code requires the board to assess independence annually and to consider whether long service has compromised it.
- Time commitment
- Typically 8–11 board meetings a year plus committees and site visits.
- What a seat pays
- NZD 60,000 – 120,000 a year for a non-executive director of an NZX 50 issuer, before committee fees.
- Tax on your fees
- Directors' fees for services performed in New Zealand are New Zealand-source income with withholding for non-residents.
The appointment steps, in order
- 1Consent to act, and confirmation of eligibility under the Companies Act
- 2Notification of the appointment to the Companies Office within the statutory period
- 3Confirm the board still satisfies both the Companies Act resident-director test and NZX Rule 2.1 after your appointment
- 4For a licensed financial market or insurance entity, the FMA or Reserve Bank fit-and-proper expectations apply
What actually gets in the way
- The NZX two-resident-director rule is the binding constraint, not the Companies Act test, and it is often overlooked
- The market is small, so a director's reputation travels quickly and is effectively a single reference
- Time zones make an NZX board hard to combine with a European portfolio in the same quarter
The instruments behind these answers
- Companies Act 1993 s.10 — A company must have at least one director who lives in New Zealand, or who lives in an enforcement country and is a director of a company registered in that country. Australia is the prescribed enforcement country. (New Zealand Companies Office)
- NZX Listing Rules Rule 2.1 — An issuer must have at least three directors, at least two of whom are ordinarily resident in New Zealand. (NZX)
- NZX Listing Rules Rules 2.4 and 2.13 — An issuer must have at least two Independent Directors, or one third of the board where it has eight or more directors, and an audit committee of at least three members with a majority independent and at least one with an accounting or financial background. (NZX)
- NZX Corporate Governance Code — Comply-or-explain recommendations on board composition, evaluation, remuneration, risk and reporting, including diversity policy and disclosure of gender composition. (NZX)
Reviewed against primary sources in September 2026. This is governance decision-support, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and transitional provisions frequently apply — verify against the primary instrument before you rely on it.
Eligibility is only the first question
Being allowed to sit on a board there is not the same as being read for one.
The mobility index answers the second question: whether your record is legible to a board in that market, whether you hold what it is currently short of, and whether you can do the job in the language its board works in.