Intra-corporate transferees: the ICT permit for a posting in a group
The residence permit “ICT” is for a manager, specialist or graduate trainee posted by a non-EU employer to an Austrian entity of the same group — a temporary permit, not settlement.
It is issued under § 58 of the Settlement and Residence Act (Niederlassungs- und Aufenthaltsgesetz, NAG), with the admission conditions in § 2(13), § 18a and § 20f of the Act Governing the Employment of Foreign Nationals (Ausländerbeschäftigungsgesetz, AuslBG). After 3 years in the EU (1 year for a trainee) you leave for a third country unless another Austrian title has been granted. “ICT” here means intra-corporate transferee, not information technology.
| Official name | Aufenthaltsbewilligung – Unternehmensintern transferierter Arbeitnehmer („ICT“) (residence permit “ICT” — intra-corporate transferee) |
|---|---|
| Who it is for | Managers, specialists and graduate trainees posted by a non-EU employer to an Austrian entity of its group |
| Main requirement | 9 months in the group (6 for a trainee) immediately before, a contract with a return guarantee, and Austrian pay and conditions |
| Right to work | For the host entity named in the application, in the approved function; work at its clients’ sites under a contract for work is covered |
| Validity | Renewable up to 3 years in the EU (1 year for a trainee), then more than 4 months outside before a new ICT permit |
The legal basis
Summary of § 58 and § 58a NAG, with § 2(13), § 18a and § 20f AuslBG — not the statutory wording
Under § 58(1) NAG a third-country national is to be issued a residence permit “ICT” if he/she meets the general requirements of the Act except the proof of accommodation, and the Public Employment Service (Arbeitsmarktservice, AMS) has confirmed under § 20f(1) AuslBG that § 18a(1) AuslBG is satisfied:
- he/she is a manager, a specialist or a trainee with a university degree (§ 2(13) AuslBG), transferred from a non-EU employer to an Austrian group entity, employed in the group without interruption for at least 9 months as a manager or specialist, or 6 as a trainee, immediately before the transfer;
- a contract with the foreign employer and, where needed, an assignment letter, with proof of a return to a group entity in a third country afterwards;
- the Austrian pay and working conditions of §§ 3–5 of the Act against wage and social dumping (Lohn- und Sozialdumping-Bekämpfungsgesetz, LSD-BG) and the social-insurance rules are observed;
- the post is in the host entity, and not one hit by strike or lock-out;
- a regulated profession has its admission;
- the host has not repeatedly employed foreign nationals in breach of the AuslBG or § 29 LSD-BG in the 12 months before filing;
- the host was not founded mainly to ease transferees’ entry, and employer and host carry on a genuine business and are not in insolvency.
The host declares in writing that the stated conditions will be observed and may file in Austria; the transferee files abroad. The AMS confirms within 4 weeks (§ 20f(1) AuslBG) and the decision within 8 weeks in all (§ 58(2) NAG); the fee is €218 since 1 January 2026 — how the file is assembled and filed.
The conditions above are set out in § 58 and § 58a NAG, with § 2(13), § 18a and § 20f AuslBG: § 58 NAG, § 58a NAG, § 18a AuslBG, § 20f AuslBG. 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 transfer within the group, in one of three functions
A manager heads the host entity or a department of it; a specialist holds knowledge essential to the host’s business, at a high level of qualification; a trainee holds a university degree and is being developed in the group. All three are posted, not recruited: the contract stays with the sending company outside the EU, and staff of a placement or labour-leasing agency are not transferees.
9 months in the group — 6 for a trainee — immediately before
The AMS counts back from the date of the transfer; the statute requires the months without interruption, in the same undertaking or group, and the transferee shows the qualification and experience the function needs — for a trainee, the degree. What proves it — the contract, the assignment letter with the return declaration, the trainee contract and degree, the specialist’s qualification and references — is listed in § 8(1) NAG-DV and on the documents page.
Austrian pay and conditions — no separate salary threshold
The ICT permit has no euro floor: § 18a(1)(3) AuslBG requires the Austrian pay and working conditions the LSD-BG prescribes, and Austrian social insurance. Only accommodation is waived; you still show means at the reference rate, €1,308.39 a month for a single person and €2,064.12 for a couple in 2026, with rent above the free-station allowance of €386.43 counted against it.
3 years in the EU, then out — the 7 August 2026 rules do not apply
The ceiling counts ICT time anywhere in the EU. Reaching it means leaving for a third country, and a new ICT or mobile ICT permit needs more than 4 months outside first (§ 58(5), § 11(2)(7) NAG). The 45-day provisional start on a change of employer does not apply to this permit (§ 26(4) NAG), and the AMS’s 6-month job-search period under § 20d(7) AuslBG covers Red-White-Red Card, Blue Card, artist, cross-border-worker and family-permit holders, not ICT holders: a transfer that ends early ends the permit’s purpose. Whether the residence authority’s own non-withdrawal rule (§ 28(5a) NAG), which excludes only §§ 59 and 62, reaches an ICT holder is not settled by the text.
ICT permit or Red-White-Red Card?
| Residence permit “ICT” | Red-White-Red Card | |
|---|---|---|
| Who employs you | The sending company outside the EU | The Austrian company, on a local contract |
| The test | Function, 9 or 6 months in the group, Austrian pay under the LSD-BG | Points, a salary floor or the shortage list, by category |
| How long | Up to 3 years in the EU, then more than 4 months outside | 24 months, then the Red-White-Red Card plus |
| Towards permanent residence | Half, and only if followed directly by a settlement title | In full |
If the Austrian entity hires you itself, you may apply for a Red-White-Red Card or, at €55,678 or more a year in 2026, an EU Blue Card as a change of purpose (§ 26 NAG), on that card’s ordinary conditions; once granted, it lifts the obligation to leave at the ceiling (§ 58(5) NAG).
Mobile ICT: a transfer from another EU state
A holder of another member state’s residence permit “ICT” may be posted to the group’s Austrian entity for up to 90 days in any 180 without an Austrian permit (EU posting confirmation, § 18(13) AuslBG). For longer, the residence permit “mobile ICT” (§ 58a NAG) applies: the same conditions minus the prior-employment period, filed — in Austria if need be — at least 20 days before the start with a complete file, with a provisional start if no decision is served in time (§ 20f(2) AuslBG).
Your family on an ICT permit
Your spouse or registered partner — both at least 21 — and unmarried children under 18 may be granted a derived residence permit “Family Reunification” (Familiengemeinschaft, § 69 NAG) if they meet the general requirements themselves — means at the couple rate of €2,064.12 plus €201.88 per child in 2026, health insurance and, unlike you, proof of accommodation. It is decided within the same 8 weeks (§ 69(3) NAG), valid only as long as yours; no German before entry, no quota. Work needs an AMS authorisation for a named employer, after a limited labour-market test (§ 20f(4) AuslBG). The family routes, in full.
What the application turns on
The prior-employment period and the return declaration, read against the contract. The AMS counts the 9 months (6 for a trainee) from the sending employer’s records; a transfer dated before the period is complete fails. Then the function: a manager whose contract shows no management responsibility, or a specialist whose knowledge is not essential to the host’s business or not at a high level of qualification, is refused on the definition.
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 your transfer is within the group
- Your employment contract with the sending company and, where separate, the assignment letter, including the employer’s declaration that you can return to an establishment of the same company or group outside the EU when the transfer ends (§ 8(1)(a) NAG-DV).
- Proof of prior employment in the company or group immediately before the transfer: 9 months for managers and specialists, 6 for trainees (§ 18a(1) AuslBG).
- For a manager: the management function, from the contract. For a specialist: the qualification and the experience — a degree or an equivalent specialist training, plus a work reference and a confirmation of employment. For a trainee: the trainee contract and a university degree.
- Where the post is a regulated profession in Austria, the admission to it.
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.
That you can support yourself
- Payslips, a salary confirmation, an employment contract or a binding pre-contract; pension statements; confirmations of other regular benefits (§ 7(1)(6) NAG-DV).
- The test is net of regular outgoings: rent, loan instalments, maintenance paid to people outside the household and garnishments are deducted, except for the first €386.43 a month (the free-station allowance for 2026). What is left has to reach €1,308.39 for a single person, €2,064.12 for a couple and €201.88 for each child — or twice those amounts for the settlement permit without work. A student or pupil under 24 who comes alone is assessed at €722.58 a month, and at €1,308.39 from the 24th birthday.
- Savings can stand in for income on a fixed-term title, apportioned over the twelve months of its validity, if their origin is shown and they are accessible from Austria. Bank statements over several months, not a single balance.
- Where the Act allows it — for a student, a pupil, an artist or a volunteer, and always for a dependant of an Austrian and for the other relatives or durable partner of an EU citizen under § 56 NAG — a declaration of liability (Haftungserklärung) by a third party, certified by an Austrian notary or court and valid for at least five years (§ 2(1)(15), § 11(6) NAG). It is not admissible for the settlement permit without work, the two cards or their families.
- Not required for the Red-White-Red Card or the EU Blue Card: the salary in the employer’s declaration is the means.
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
EU Blue Card
The EU Blue Card is the route when the Austrian entity employs you itself, at €55,678 a year or more in 2026, with a three-year degree: a settlement title with EU mobility and a family that works without asking, where the ICT permit ends after 3 years.
The Red-White-Red Card
The Red-White-Red Card is the route for a transfer meant to last: a local contract with the Austrian company, 24 months that count in full towards permanent residence, and the card plus after them. Granted before the ceiling, it removes the obligation to leave (§ 58(5) NAG).