Residence permits for moving to Austria

It depends on your passport. A citizen of an EU or EEA member state or of Switzerland does not need a permit: he/she has a right of residence under EU law and only has to register it. Everyone else — a third-country national, which since 2021 includes British citizens — needs a residence title under the Settlement and Residence Act for any stay of more than six months, and a visa or visa-free entry for anything shorter. A short stay, whether visa-free or on a Schengen visa, does not permit gainful employment.

The residence permits, compared side by side.

Two things, and neither is a permit. Within 3 days of moving into your accommodation you register the address with the registration authority on the Meldezettel form, as everyone in Austria does. And if you stay longer than three months, you apply within 4 months of arrival for a registration certificate (Anmeldebescheinigung), for which you show that you are employed or self-employed, that you have enough means and health insurance not to need social assistance, or that you are studying and have both. The certificate costs €44; applying late is an administrative offence. After five years you can have a certificate of permanent residence.

The registration certificate, in full.

Austria’s work-and-residence permit for third-country nationals (Rot-Weiß-Rot – Karte, § 41 NAG): one card that lets you live in Austria for 24 months and, in the five employed categories, work for the employer named in your application — or, in the two self-employed categories, run the business the AMS assessed. It has seven categories — very highly qualified workers, skilled workers in shortage occupations, other key workers, graduates of Austrian universities, self-employed key workers, start-up founders and regular workers in tourism, agriculture and forestry — and each has its own test, most of them a points table. After two years on the card, and 21 months of employment under its conditions in the last 24, an employed-category holder can apply for the Red-White-Red Card plus, which opens the whole labour market; a self-employed key worker moves to a settlement permit, a start-up founder to the plus card on the company’s own test.

The seven categories, compared.

The EU Blue Card needs a degree from a programme of at least three years (or, for IT managers and professionals in ISCO-08 groups 133 and 25, three years’ comparable experience in the last seven) and a gross annual salary of at least €55,678 in 2026; in return it has no points test, it moves more easily to other EU states, and your family is exempt from the German-before-entry requirement. The Red-White-Red Card for other key workers takes experience and language instead of the degree, at a lower salary floor — €3,465 gross a month in 2026 — but adds a points test. Both are issued for two years, both are tied to one employer, both lead to the Red-White-Red Card plus, and both have a labour-market test. Where both fit, the choice is usually made by the family’s German and by how mobile you expect to be.

The EU Blue Card in full.

As a rule, not as a worker: every employed category of the Red-White-Red Card and the EU Blue Card starts from a binding offer from an employer in Austria, and there is no general permit for coming to look for work. Four exceptions exist. The very highly qualified — 70 of 100 points on degree, experience, salary history, language and age — may come on a six-month job-seeker visa. A citizen of a country whose nationals enter without a visa may look for work during the 90-day visa-free stay and, having found a job, apply for the card from inside Austria. Someone who brings a business rather than a job — a self-employed key worker or a start-up founder — needs no employer, and a researcher comes on a hosting agreement with a research institution. And someone who does not need to work at all — a retiree, a person with private means — has a settlement permit of his/her own.

The job-seeker visa, and who qualifies.

It depends on the category: 70 of 100 for very highly qualified workers, 55 of 90 for skilled workers in shortage occupations and for other key workers, and 50 of 85 for start-up founders. Graduates of Austrian universities, self-employed key workers and regular workers in tourism, agriculture and forestry have no points test. The points are for qualification, work experience, language — German and English, and 5 points each for French, Spanish or Bosnian, Croatian or Serbian at B1 — and age, with a few bonuses — English as the company language, a degree completed in Austria, professional sport. Two rules trip people up: language certificates may not be older than 5 years, and age is assessed on the day the application is filed.

The points tables, by category.

There is a fixed euro floor in one category only. Other key workers must be offered at least €3,465 gross a month in 2026, plus the two special payments — half the monthly maximum contribution base for social insurance, which is adjusted every 1 January. Skilled workers in shortage occupations must be paid the collectively agreed minimum for the job plus any overpayment customary in the company; graduates of Austrian universities must be paid what comparable Austrian graduates earn; the very highly qualified have no salary floor — the job must match their qualification and the criteria that earned the points, and the pay must meet the collective agreement. The EU Blue Card has its own threshold: €55,678 gross a year in 2026.

Every 2026 figure on one page, with its source.

No. The Settlement and Residence Act lists every residence title Austria issues, and none of them is granted for an investment. The only investment-linked routes are two categories of the Red-White-Red Card — the self-employed key worker, whose business has to bring a macroeconomic benefit, typically an investment of at least €100,000 or the creation of jobs, and the start-up founder, with an innovative product, a business plan and at least €30,000 in capital — and both require you to run the business yourself. Citizenship for extraordinary merit exists in the Citizenship Act, but it is a discretionary grant that requires the Federal Government to confirm a special interest of the Republic, not a programme with a price.

The two routes for people who bring a business.

No, and as of 12 September 2026 none is announced. Visa-free entry and the Schengen visa are for stays without gainful employment, and on its wording the Act Governing the Employment of Foreign Nationals treats work done in Austria for a foreign employer as work in Austria — no official source addresses the remote-work case in terms, so the cautious reading is the strict one. Remote workers who want to stay longer than a visit use the routes that exist: the Red-White-Red Card for self-employed key workers or start-up founders if the work is a business of their own, an employed category if an Austrian entity employs them, or — if they do not need to work at all — the settlement permit without work. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens need no permit and simply register.

Working remotely for a foreign employer, in more detail.

You can; there is no retirement visa, and the route is the settlement permit “Except Gainful Employment” (Niederlassungsbewilligung – ausgenommen Erwerbstätigkeit). It requires fixed and regular income of twice the reference rate — €2,616.78 a month for a single person and €4,128.24 for a couple in 2026, net of rent above the allowance — all-risk health insurance valid in Austria, accommodation, and German at level A1 shown before entry, with no exemption for age. It is subject to a quota: the ordinance for 2025 fixed 385 places nationwide for this permit and the family members who join its holders, 130 of them for Vienna, allocated in order of filing; no ordinance for 2026 had been issued by 12 September 2026, so those numbers apply in 2026 at no more than one-twelfth per month (§ 13(7) NAG), and an application filed when no place is left is rejected rather than held over (§ 12(4) NAG).

The settlement permit without work, and how the quota works.

For six of the seven Red-White-Red Card categories, the EU Blue Card, the researcher permit and every temporary permit — students, intra-corporate transferees — no German is required for the permit itself, though German earns points where there is a points test; the seventh category, regular workers in tourism, agriculture and forestry, requires A1 (§ 12d AuslBG). For a first application for the family titles and the settlement permits other than the researcher’s, German at level A1 has to be shown before entry, with a certificate not older than a year; children under 14 and the family of very highly qualified workers, EU Blue Card holders and researchers are exempt. Once settled, the holder of a Red-White-Red Card, a Red-White-Red Card plus, a settlement permit or a “Family Member” title has to fulfil Module 1 of the Integration Agreement — A2 — within 2 years of the first such title, which a Red-White-Red Card or a school-leaving qualification giving university entrance counts as fulfilling; EU Blue Card holders and researchers are not subject to Module 1 until they move to the Red-White-Red Card plus. Permanent residence requires B1.

German before entry, and the Integration Agreement, defined.

The Act measures “secured means of subsistence” against the reference rates of the social insurance system: €1,308.39 a month for a single person, €2,064.12 for a couple and €201.88 for each child in 2026, after regular outgoings — rent, loan instalments, maintenance — above the first €386.43 have been deducted. The settlement permit without work requires twice those amounts; students are assessed at €722.58 a month under 24 and €1,308.39 from 24. Holders of a Red-White-Red Card or EU Blue Card do not prove means at all: the salary is the means. Savings can stand in for income on a fixed-term title, spread over its twelve months, if their origin is shown.

The 2026 figures, with the previous year for comparison.

The rule is abroad: a first application is filed in person at the Austrian embassy or consulate for your place of residence, and the decision is awaited there (§ 21(1) NAG). The exceptions are what most readers of this site will use. A citizen of a country whose nationals enter without a visa may file with the authority in Austria during the visa-free stay; applicants for the Red-White-Red Card, the EU Blue Card, the researcher permit and the student permit may file in Austria after lawful entry; and an employer may file a Red-White-Red Card or EU Blue Card application in Austria on your behalf. Filing in Austria does not extend your right to stay: you leave when the visa-free period or the visa ends and the decision follows you. Since 7 August 2026 the one exception that matters here is a Red-White-Red Card application filed in person in Austria, which § 21(6) NAG no longer lists among the filings that create no right to stay; the official migration portal (migration.gv.at) says such an applicant may remain in Austria while the application is decided.

The procedure, step by step.

The authority and the Public Employment Service have 8 weeks from filing to decide a Red-White-Red Card or EU Blue Card application, 4 of them for the AMS’s confirmation. Since 7 August 2026 titles without a deadline of their own — the plus card and the student permit among them — have to be decided within 90 days, extendable by 30 in complex cases — though not for the student permit, whose 90 days cannot be extended (§ 19a(2) NAG) — in proceedings begun since that date; the quota-bound settlement permit and family reunification keep the general six-month limit; a family application waiting for a quota place is held over with the deadline suspended (§ 12(7) NAG), whereas an application for the settlement permit without work filed when no place is left is rejected outright (§ 12(4) NAG). Those are maxima counted from filing; in practice a request to complete the file delays the decision. The Vienna authority reported an average of 52 days across all third-country procedures in 2025. Add the time to assemble the file — recognitions, translations, a language certificate — which is usually the longer half.

What actually decides the timing.

The federal fee for any fixed-term residence title is €218 since 1 January 2026, for a first application and for each renewal, filed abroad or in Austria; the unlimited title “Long-term Resident – EU” costs €275. A Visa D to enter and collect an approved title, or to look for work as a very highly qualified worker, costs €195; the registration certificate for EU citizens €44; the residence card for their family €91. What the fees do not cover is everything you pay somebody else for — sworn translations, apostilles, the language examination, a degree assessment, and our fees. Those are the real costs, and they vary with how much of the file already exists.

The full fee schedule for 2026.

Yes. The spouse or registered partner and the unmarried children under 18 of a Red-White-Red Card or EU Blue Card holder receive a Red-White-Red Card plus, without a quota and with unrestricted access to the labour market, valid as long as your own card; both spouses have to be at least 21. The family has to show income at the family’s reference rate, health insurance and accommodation, and German at level A1 before entry — unless you hold the card for the very highly qualified, an EU Blue Card or a researcher permit, in which case the family is exempt. An unmarried partner is not a family member under the Act. The family of an Austrian citizen has a title of its own, and the family of an EU citizen a residence card under EU law.

The family routes, in full.

Yes, but inside the first two years it is a new application: the card is tied to the employer named in it. Since 7 August 2026 the change is handled as a change of purpose and a Red-White-Red Card holder may start the new job provisionally 45 days after applying if no decision has been made; on an EU Blue Card the rule since 2022 is 30 days, and an immediate start after 12 months of Blue Card employment, when the labour-market test no longer applies. Once you hold the Red-White-Red Card plus, after two years, you may work for any employer without asking.

What changed on 7 August 2026, with the sections.

The card does not lapse with the job — a rule the EU Blue Card has had since 2022 and that has applied to the Red-White-Red Card since 7 August 2026. The Public Employment Service has to allow a Red-White-Red Card or EU Blue Card holder at least 6 months from the start of unemployment to find a new position before it reports to the residence authority that the card’s conditions have lapsed, and 3 months more where the previous employer imposed exploitative working conditions (§ 28c(2)(1) AuslBG). Provided you have reported the end of the employment to the residence authority without delay, the authority may not withdraw the card during that period (§ 28(5a) NAG); report it to the AMS at once as well. A new job inside it is a change of employer, with the 45-day provisional start on a Red-White-Red Card and the 30-day rule (immediate after 12 months) on an EU Blue Card.

The card’s rules on employer binding and job loss.

Not on a visa-free stay or a Schengen visa: those are stays “without gainful employment”, and the Act Governing the Employment of Foreign Nationals requires a permit for a foreign national employed in Austria by an employer with no Austrian establishment (§ 18 AuslBG) — the work is where you do it, not where the employer sits. Not on the settlement permit without work either, which bars any gainful employment. What the law does allow is a status that carries the right to work: an EU citizen’s right of residence (and the residence card of his/her family), the Red-White-Red Card plus, “Family Member”, “Long-term Resident – EU”, or one of the two self-employed categories of the Red-White-Red Card if the remote work is a business of your own. No official source addresses the remote-work case in terms, so the safe reading is the strict one, and the question is worth putting to a lawyer before the move rather than after.

Remote work and the settlement permit, in more detail.

Through the title “Long-term Resident – EU” (Daueraufenthalt – EU, § 45 NAG), after 5 years of uninterrupted settlement in Austria, with Module 2 of the Integration Agreement — German at B1 — and the general requirements still met. Years on a temporary permit, such as the student permit, count only half, and only if they run straight into the settlement title. Absences of more than 10 months in total or 6 months at a stretch break the five years. The right is unlimited, the card is renewed every 5 years, it carries free access to the labour market, and it costs €275. It lapses after more than 12 consecutive months outside the European Economic Area.

Permanent residence, in full.

As a rule after 10 years of lawful and uninterrupted residence, at least 5 of them settled, and after 6 years for certain groups — EU and EEA citizens, people born in Austria, people with German at B2 or with B1 and proven integration, and the spouse of an Austrian after five years of marriage. Everyone needs German at B1, the citizenship test, a secured livelihood over the preceding years and a clean record, and as a rule has to give up his/her previous nationality. A reform announced by the current government — B2 as the general level — had not been enacted by 12 September 2026. Citizenship is a separate subject from residence, and this site stops here.

From residence to citizenship, at a glance.

Residence permits and tax residence are separate questions, decided by different laws. Unlimited income-tax liability — on worldwide income — arises from having a home in Austria that you keep and use, or from your habitual abode here; a stay of more than 6 months creates it in any case, and retroactively. The 183-day rule people cite is a treaty rule for allocating employment income, not the Austrian test. A second home can be kept without unlimited liability by someone whose centre of life has been abroad for more than five years, if it is used for no more than 70 days a year and a log is kept. Any move to Austria on a permit that requires living here will make you tax-resident; what that means for you depends on where your income arises and which treaty applies.

Land-transfer law is provincial, and all nine provinces treat EU and EEA citizens like Austrians. A third-country national needs an approval before ownership can be registered, and the western provinces — Tyrol, Vorarlberg and Salzburg — grant it only in narrow cases, where a public interest in the acquisition exists or, in Salzburg, for listed purposes; in Vienna the approval, or a confirmation that none is needed, comes from MA 35. A residence permit does not by itself confer the right to buy, and buying does not by itself confer a right to reside. Second-home restrictions in the alpine provinces apply to EU citizens too.

Since 1 January 2021 a British citizen is a third-country national: 90 days in any 180 without a visa and without gainful employment, a Visa D for a stay of up to six months, and for anything longer a residence title under the Settlement and Residence Act — the Red-White-Red Card, the EU Blue Card, the settlement permit without work, a family title. British citizens who were already living in Austria on 31 December 2020 hold, or could apply for, the title “Article 50 TEU” under the Withdrawal Agreement, which preserves their position; the deadline for that application was 31 December 2021, and a late application is possible only for reasonable grounds.

Which route fits a British citizen depends on what he/she is coming to do.

The residence permits, compared side by side.

The same law as for every third-country national, with two practical advantages. A US citizen enters Austria without a visa for 90 days in any 180, so he/she may look for work during that stay and, having found a job, apply for the Red-White-Red Card from inside Austria — and, since 7 August 2026, the Act no longer says that such an application gives no right to stay beyond the visa-free period; the official migration portal says the applicant may remain while it is decided. And since 2024 a working-holiday visa exists for US citizens aged 18 to 30, for up to twelve months of work and travel. A visa-free stay itself does not permit employment, and — apart from the Red-White-Red Card case just described — it is not extended by filing an application.

Where and how the application is filed.

Yes, and it is one of the better-trodden roads into the system. The residence permit “Student” follows admission to an Austrian university, university of applied sciences, private university or college, or college of teacher education (or to a university course of at least 40 ECTS), with means of €722.58 a month under 24 and €1,308.39 from 24 in 2026, health insurance, and a work permit for up to 20 hours a week granted without a labour-market test. After graduating you may renew the permit once for 12 months to look for work or found a company, and a graduate of an Austrian university who finds a job matching his/her degree has a Red-White-Red Card category of his/her own, with no points test and no labour-market test.

The student permit, and the road from it.

An amendment to both Acts (BGBl. I Nr. 81/2026) transposing the recast EU Single Permit Directive. Four changes matter to readers of this site: a Red-White-Red Card or EU Blue Card holder who loses his/her job, and reports it without delay, keeps the card for at least 6 months of job search; a Red-White-Red Card holder who changes employer may start the new job provisionally 45 days after applying (the EU Blue Card keeps its 2022 rule: 30 days, or an immediate start after 12 months on the card); residence titles without a deadline of their own — the plus card and the student permit among them, not the quota, family and long-term titles — now have to be decided within 90 days in proceedings begun since that date; and a Red-White-Red Card application filed in person in Austria has been taken out of the rule that in-country applications give no right to stay beyond the visa-free period (§ 21(6) NAG) — the official migration portal says such an applicant may remain while the application is decided. The euro thresholds and fees for 2026 had already changed on 1 January.

The dated change log, 2022 to 2026.