The EU Blue Card: Austria’s permit for well-paid graduates
The EU Blue Card is Austria’s residence permit for graduates with a well-paid job offer: no points test, easier movement between EU states, and a family that need not show German before entry.
It is issued under § 42 of the Settlement and Residence Act (Niederlassungs- und Aufenthaltsgesetz, NAG), with the employment conditions in § 12c of the Act Governing the Employment of Foreign Nationals (Ausländerbeschäftigungsgesetz, AuslBG). Four things decide it: a degree from a programme of at least three years, a job offer that matches it, a gross annual salary of at least €55,678 in 2026 — and a labour-market test that finds no equally qualified job-seeker for the post. Where the Red-White-Red Card counts points, the Blue Card counts salary.
| Official name | Blaue Karte EU (EU Blue Card) |
|---|---|
| Who it is for | Graduates — or IT managers and professionals with three years’ experience in the last seven — with a job offer at or above the salary floor |
| Main requirement | A three-year degree, a matching job offer (the Directive and the official portal ask for at least 6 months), €55,678 gross a year in 2026, and the labour-market test |
| Right to work | For the employer named in the application, anywhere in Austria; subsidiary self-employment allowed |
| Validity | 24 months, or a shorter contract plus three months; then, after 21 of 24 months in employment, the Red-White-Red Card plus |
The legal basis
Summary of § 42 NAG and § 12c AuslBG, with the procedure in § 20d AuslBG — not the statutory wording
Under § 42(1) NAG a third-country national is to be issued an EU Blue Card if he/she meets the general requirements of the Act — accommodation and means are not tested — and the regional office of the Public Employment Service (Arbeitsmarktservice, AMS) has confirmed under § 20d(1)(5) AuslBG that § 12c AuslBG is satisfied:
- a completed course of study of at least three years at a tertiary institution — or, under § 12c(2), for IT managers and professionals in ISCO-08 groups 133 and 25, 3 years of comparable experience in the 7 years before the application;
- employment corresponding to that qualification (the 6-month minimum comes from Art. 5(1)(a) of Directive (EU) 2021/1883 and the official migration portal, not from § 12c);
- a gross annual salary of at least 1.0 × the average gross annual salary of full-time employees as last published by Statistik Austria — €55,678 in 2026, special payments included;
- a labour-market test under § 4b AuslBG: no equally qualified job-seeker is available;
- for a regulated profession, the entitlement to practise it in Austria.
The employer’s written declaration that the stated conditions will be observed accompanies the application, which the employer may file in Austria (§ 20d(1) AuslBG). The AMS has 4 weeks to confirm and the residence authority 8 weeks in all to decide (§ 42(2) NAG); the fee is €218 since 1 January 2026 — how the file is assembled and filed.
The conditions above are set out in § 42 NAG and § 12c AuslBG, with the procedure in § 20d AuslBG: § 42 NAG, § 12c AuslBG, § 20d AuslBG, § 50a NAG. The consolidated German text is published in the Austrian legal information system (RIS); the English on this page is a summary, and where the two differ the German text governs.
What each requirement means
A degree of at least three years — or, for IT managers and professionals, 3 years of experience in the last 7
The standard route is a completed course of study of at least three years; formal recognition is needed only for a regulated profession, but the AMS has to be satisfied that the degree is what it says it is. The second door, open since 1 October 2022, is for information and communication technology only: managers and professionals in ISCO-08 groups 133 and 25 qualify with 3 years of relevant experience at degree level in the 7 years before the application.
A matching job offer for at least 6 months, at €55,678 or more in 2026
The job has to correspond to the degree, and the employer’s declaration binds the employer to the stated terms. The 6-month minimum comes from the Directive and the official guidance; the Act sets no minimum of its own and issues the card for two years, or for a shorter contract plus three months (§ 42(4) NAG). The floor is the average gross annual salary of full-time employees as last published by Statistik Austria — €55,678 in 2026, special payments included — and a figure a few hundred euros short fails. The salary is the means: of the general requirements you prove health insurance, and the authority still checks public order — a criminal-record extract is usually asked for.
The labour-market test — and no points
There is no points table; instead the AMS regional office at the employer’s seat checks whether an Austrian, an EEA citizen or a registered job-seeker with equal qualifications is available. The test is dropped when the holder of a Red-White-Red Card as a very highly qualified worker, an ‘other key worker’ or a graduate switches to the Blue Card with the same employer (§ 12c(5) AuslBG), and when a Blue Card holder changes employer after 12 months.
One employer for 24 months — changing or losing the job
A change of employer before the Red-White-Red Card plus is a new application; the new job may start provisionally 30 days after a complete filing, and at once after 12 months of Blue Card employment. On losing the job, report it to the residence authority without delay (§ 28(5a) NAG) and, as MA 35 in Vienna asks, to the AMS. The AMS must then allow at least 6 months of job search, 3 more where the former employer imposed exploitative working conditions (§ 28c(2)(1) AuslBG), and the card is not withdrawn meanwhile — more on losing the job.
EU Blue Card or Red-White-Red Card?
| EU Blue Card | Red-White-Red Card, other key workers | |
|---|---|---|
| Qualification | A three-year degree, or IT experience | None required; training and experience earn points |
| Salary floor in 2026 | €55,678 a year, special payments included | €3,465 a month, plus special payments |
| Points test | None | 55 of 90 |
| Change of employer | After 30 days; at once after 12 months | After 45 days |
| Family’s German before entry | Exempt | A1 required |
| Moving within the EU | Business trips without a permit; a move after 12 months | None |
Where both fit, the family’s German and your mobility usually decide. The mobility: business activities in Austria on another member state’s Blue Card for 90 days in any 180 without a work permit (§ 12c(3) AuslBG), and after 12 months on that card an Austrian Blue Card under § 50a NAG, filed within 1 month of entry and decided within 30 days. The short answer, on the homepage.
Your family, the card plus and permanent residence
Your spouse or registered partner — both at least 21 — and unmarried children under 18 may be granted a Red-White-Red Card plus (§ 46(3) NAG — discretionary wording, in practice granted): no quota, no German before entry, unrestricted work, valid as long as your card and decided within the same 8 weeks (§ 46(6) NAG). The family shows its own means at the couple rate, health insurance and accommodation — what the family has to show. After two years, with 21 months of employment under the card’s conditions in the last 24, the card plus can be granted to you as well (§ 41a(2) NAG). Long-term Resident – EU follows after 5 years of settlement with German at B1; absences of up to 18 months in total or 12 at a stretch outside the EEA do not break the count (§ 45(5) NAG); on any other title it is 10 and 6 months outside Austria.
What the application turns on
The salary and the degree, read against each other. The AMS takes the gross annual figure from the employer’s declaration and compares it with the threshold for the year of filing; a figure below it fails. Then the degree — of at least three years, from an institution the AMS can identify, and matching the post: a job outside the field of study fails § 12c however high the salary. Filing in Austria after visa-free entry does not extend the stay (§ 21(6) NAG); a file not complete in time sends you home to wait.
Who you are
- A valid passport (§ 7(1)(1) NAG-DV). It is shown in the original before any title is issued, whoever files the application and however it is filed.
- A colour passport-format photograph, 45 × 35 mm, meeting the EU residence-permit photo standard (§ 2a NAG-DV, referring to Regulation (EC) No 1030/2002), not older than six months at the time of the decision.
- Where the application turns on them: your birth certificate, marriage or registered-partnership certificate, divorce decree, adoption order, or the certificate of a child’s birth (§ 7(1)(3) NAG-DV). A certificate issued abroad needs an apostille or consular legalisation, and a German translation, where the authority asks for them (§ 6(3)–(4) NAG-DV) — for civil-status certificates it usually does, though documents in English are often accepted without translation.
That an employer in Austria will employ you
- A signed employment contract, or a written offer that states the position, the gross monthly salary, the hours and the start date.
- The employer’s declaration (Arbeitgebererklärung) under the AuslBG — the employer’s written undertaking to observe the stated conditions (§ 20d(1) AuslBG; § 9 NAG-DV). The AMS form, completed and signed by the employer.
- For a shortage occupation: evidence of the collectively agreed minimum for the post and of any overpayment that is customary in the company. For the EU Blue Card: a contract or binding offer for at least six months — the requirement of the EU Blue Card Directive and of the official migration portal; the Austrian statute sets no minimum of its own and issues the card for two years, or for a shorter contract plus three months (§ 42(4) NAG).
What you are qualified as
- The degree certificate, and proof of the status of the institution that issued it (§ 9(1)(1) and § 9(2)(4) NAG-DV for the Red-White-Red Card; § 9(6)(2) NAG-DV for the EU Blue Card) — a diploma supplement or transcript usually does the second part. For the very highly qualified, a four-year programme; for other key workers and the EU Blue Card, three; for the Blue Card’s IT-experience route, a work reference and a confirmation of employment showing three years of degree-level experience in the last seven (§ 9(6)(4) NAG-DV).
- For the graduate category: the certificate of the Austrian degree, and for a diploma programme also the record of study and the examination certificates for the second stage (§ 9(3) NAG-DV).
- For a vocational qualification: the certificate or diploma of the completed training. For a shortage occupation, the training has to be in that occupation.
- For “special skills” without a formal qualification — a designer, a musician, an athlete, an IT specialist who learned on the job: employment and training references and an employer’s confirmation (§ 9(2)(2) NAG-DV).
- A degree from outside Austria does not need formal recognition (Nostrifizierung) for the Red-White-Red Card or the EU Blue Card except in a regulated profession — the health professions, for example — but the AMS has to be satisfied it is what it says it is. The official migration portal points to the anabin database: a university listed there with status H+ is recognised, and otherwise a confirmation of the institution’s status from the competent authority of that country is filed with the application. Where the degree itself is in doubt, an evaluation by ENIC NARIC Austria, the national recognition information centre, can be obtained in addition; allow time for it before filing.
How long you have worked, and where
- A work reference (Dienstzeugnis) and a confirmation of employment (Arbeitsbestätigung) from each employer (§ 9 NAG-DV) — one describing the work, the other confirming the dates. Both are needed; a CV proves nothing on its own.
- For the very highly qualified: last year’s tax assessment or salary confirmation together with the employer’s confirmation of a senior position, where the salary points are claimed, and proof that the company is listed on a stock exchange or a positive statement on its business from the competent Austrian foreign-trade office (§ 9(1)(3) NAG-DV) — the salary points exist only for a senior position at such a company; publications, an institution’s confirmation or a patent-register extract for research points; the award certificate for an award.
- Experience counts by the half-year, and experience gained in Austria counts double in the shortage-occupation and other-key-worker tables. The dates on the confirmations are what the AMS adds up.
That you are insured against all risks in Austria
- For an employee: the employment contract usually does it — compulsory insurance with the ÖGK starts with the job, and the ordinance asks for a policy only where no compulsory insurance will exist (§ 7(1)(5) NAG-DV). The official migration portal (migration.gv.at) nonetheless lists evidence of health insurance among the documents for every application, so a confirmation from the employer or the insurer is worth including.
- For everyone else: a private policy that matches statutory cover — all risks, no waiting period for treatment, valid in Austria. Travel insurance does not qualify. Vienna publishes a list of accepted insurers and a clause the policy has to carry.
- Voluntary self-insurance with the ÖGK is an alternative for someone already registered at an address in Austria: €565.25 a month in 2026 at the full rate (reducible on application), and €78.84 a month for students. At the full rate it pays for treatment as a rule only after a waiting period — three months under § 124(1) ASVG, extendable to six by the insurer’s statutes; oesterreich.gv.at gives six months — and the authority accepts it only once it pays: until then a private policy has to bridge the gap.
Whether anything in your record stands in the way
- The general list of documents in § 7 NAG-DV does not include a certificate of good conduct. The authority assesses the public-order ground on what it holds and can ask for what it needs, and in practice the representations abroad and many authorities — Vienna for every first application — ask for a police clearance certificate from your country of nationality, and from any country you lived in for more than six months before coming to Austria, not older than three months; whether it has to be legalised is for the authority to say. Obtaining one before you file, and keeping it current, avoids a delay at the point where the file is otherwise complete.
- A conviction is not in itself a bar — with the exceptions in § 11(1) NAG: a conviction in the last twelve months for unlawful entry or evading border control, an entry ban or residence ban, and a recent return decision are absolute bars. Otherwise what the authority weighs is whether your stay would endanger public order or security (§ 11(4) NAG). That is a question for a lawyer before it is a question for a form.
Who your family are
- Your marriage certificate or registered-partnership certificate, and the birth certificates of the children who are applying, with an apostille or consular legalisation, and a German translation, where the authority asks for them (§ 7(1)(3), § 6(3)–(4) NAG-DV) — for civil-status certificates it usually does.
- Your partner’s passport and, for a third-country sponsor, his/her residence title; for an Austrian sponsor, the proof of citizenship; for an EU citizen, the registration certificate. For the NAG family titles — “Family Member”, the Red-White-Red Card plus and the § 69 permit — both spouses have to be at least 21 on the day of application, and a child under 18 (§ 2(1)(9) NAG); the family of an EU citizen follows the wider free-movement definition instead.
- For the settlement permit “Dependant” (§ 47(3) NAG) — parents, a durable partner, other dependent relatives of an Austrian — the sponsor’s declaration of liability in every case, even where the dependant has means of his/her own, certified by an Austrian notary or court and valid for at least five years. For “Family Member” and the Red-White-Red Card plus no declaration of liability is admissible: the family shows its own or household income.
How this route differs from the ones next to it
Other key workers
The Red-White-Red Card for other key workers is the route when the degree or the salary is missing: no degree, a floor of €3,465 gross a month in 2026 and a points test of 55 of 90 — but your family shows German at A1 before entry.
Very highly qualified workers
The card for the very highly qualified suits someone with 70 of 100 points — a senior salary history, research, awards — and no job offer yet: a six-month job-seeker visa, no labour-market test, the same German exemption for the family. Where offer and salary already exist, the Blue Card is the simpler file.