Highly qualified employment title for a third-country national with qualifying education or recent ICT experience, a matching six-month offer and the 2026 salary floor.
Austria
Austria sits in Central Europe. Its immigration system runs 53 distinct routes — led by work, family and residence-based status, each set out in official law. 49 of them cite an official government source, shown on the route with the date we last read it. Who actually qualifies depends on your full profile.
- Immigration routes
- 53across 13 route categories, each set out in official law
- Source-cited routes
- 49 of 53cite an official government source, with the date we last read it
- Largest category
- Work16 of the 53 routes — see them under Work below
- Region
- Central Europe
- Capital
- Vienna
- Population
- 9,208,163
- Official language
- German
- Currency
- EUR
- Time zone
- UTC+01:00
Immigration routes
All 53 routes, grouped by purpose — 49 of 53 cite an official government source directly. Any route below without one says so on the route.
Work
16 routes
Six-month Visa D for a very highly qualified third-country national who scores at least seventy points and does not yet have an Austrian job offer.
Temporary project-specific route for a specially qualified worker employed exclusively on a defined company project for its implementation period.
Employer-specific title for a third-country graduate of qualifying Austrian higher education who obtains a qualification-matched offer within the graduate job-search period.
Employer-specific title for a third-country key worker meeting the 2026 salary floor, labour-market test and fifty-five-point minimum.
Permanent-employment route for a registered regular seasonal worker with sufficient recent work in the same sector, German A1 and an offer from the relevant employer.
Employer-specific title for a third-country national trained in a current Austrian shortage occupation, with a binding adequately paid offer and at least fifty-five points.
Employer-specific residence and work title for a very highly qualified third-country national with at least seventy points and a matching adequately paid Austrian job offer.
Purpose-specific residence permission for a qualifying employee of an employer located in an Austrian border district.
Direct intra-corporate transfer from a third country for a manager, specialist or graduate trainee temporarily assigned to an Austrian branch of the same company or group.
Long-term intra-corporate mobility to Austria exceeding ninety days for a manager, specialist or trainee who already holds an ICT permit from another EU Member State.
Residence title for a third-country worker posted to Austria by a foreign employer for more than six months to perform a temporary assignment.
Temporary residence for dependent employment that is exempt from the ordinary Act Governing Employment of Foreign Nationals, including qualifying special cases.
Time-limited tourism, agriculture or forestry work supported by an employer-filed AMS seasonal employment permit and the appropriate Visa C or D.
Settlement for a qualifying special case of dependent employment, such as a foreign media correspondent, university professor or teacher at an international school.
Short-term dependent work, self-employment, seasonal work or a qualifying traineeship supported by the employment-law documents applicable to the activity.
Business & self-employment
3 routes
Self-employment title for a third-country national whose Austrian activity creates macroeconomic benefit beyond the business's own operating benefit.
Founder route for an innovative Austrian company supported by a coherent business plan, controlling management influence, minimum capital and at least fifty points.
Temporary residence for a third-country national contracted to perform specified self-employed services in Austria for more than six months.
Talent & merit
3 routes
Research mobility to Austria for a researcher already resident in another EU Member State under the EU research framework.
Settlement for a third-country national whose dependent or self-employed activity consists primarily of artistic creation.
Research settlement for a third-country national admitted by a certified research facility or an exempt qualifying institution such as a university.
Study
2 routes
Temporary residence for a pupil at a qualifying public, public-law private or certified non-academic institution, including listed nursing training.
Temporary residence for qualifying regular or extraordinary higher education, a qualifying university course or legally required post-study training.
Family
9 routes
Family settlement for a third-country spouse, registered partner or unmarried minor child of an Austrian national.
Embassy-filed family reunification for the spouse and unmarried minor children of a recognized refugee, or parents and minor siblings of a person who was a minor when applying for asylum.
Family reunification route for family members of a beneficiary of subsidiary protection after the statutory waiting period and additional requirements.
Family settlement for the spouse, registered partner or unmarried minor child of a qualifying Red-White-Red, Blue Card, long-term, Plus, self-employed, researcher or listed special-employment sponsor.
Temporary family permit for the spouse, registered partner or unmarried minor child of a qualifying ICT, mobile ICT, researcher-mobility, special-employment or student sponsor.
Settlement for an extended dependant of an Austrian national, including a maintained direct ascendant, qualifying long-term partner or other listed relative.
Non-working family settlement for qualifying family members of certain settlement or gainful-employment-excepted permit holders.
Quota-dependent family settlement for a qualifying spouse, partner or minor child of a holder of a settlement, dependant, artist or listed special-employment settlement permit.
Settlement for a third-country long-term partner or extended relative of an Austrian, EEA or Swiss sponsor exercising EU-law residence in Austria.
Independent means
1 route
Quota-limited settlement without work for a financially independent third-country national, including pensioners, who meets enhanced 2026 income levels.
Residence-based status
7 routes
Permanent EU-law residence certification after five years of continuous lawful residence in Austria as an EEA or Swiss citizen.
Long-term status for a third-country national with five years of uninterrupted qualifying residence, general residence conditions and Integration Agreement Module 2.
Permanent EU-law residence card for a third-country family member after five years of continuous lawful residence with the qualifying mobile sponsor.
Conversion for a Red-White-Red Card or Austrian EU Blue Card holder who worked under the qualifying conditions for at least twenty-one of the preceding twenty-four months.
Conversion for a scientist or researcher who has held the Austrian Researcher settlement title for at least two years.
Downstream settlement permit for a self-employed key worker after the initial Red-White-Red Card period, provided the legal conditions continue to be met.
One-time renewal for a third-country graduate who completed qualifying Austrian studies or compulsory post-study training and meets the general residence conditions.
Free movement
3 routes
Registration for an EEA or Swiss citizen staying in Austria for more than three months as a worker, self-employed person, self-sufficient person or student.
Derived residence registration for an EEA or Swiss family member accompanying or joining an EEA, Swiss or qualifying Austrian sponsor exercising EU free-movement rights.
Residence card for a third-country spouse, registered partner, qualifying descendant or dependent ascendant accompanying or joining an EEA, Swiss or qualifying Austrian sponsor exercising EU-law residence.
Youth mobility
1 route
Youth-mobility visa for a citizen of an Austrian working-holiday partner country who is normally aged 18 to 30 and meets the country-specific agreement.
Cultural, religious & volunteer
2 routes
One-year non-renewable stay for unpaid social service with a non-partisan charitable non-profit organization outside the foreign-employment act.
Temporary residence for work with an organization in the framework of the European Voluntary Service.
Short stay & visit
2 routes
Documented family visit, course participation or another non-residence purpose lasting more than ninety days but no more than six months.
Tourism, business or private visit for up to ninety days in any rolling 180-day period, with a visa required according to nationality.
Humanitarian protection
3 routes
In-person protection claim in Austria by a person seeking recognition as a refugee or, if refugee status is not granted, subsidiary protection against a real risk of serious harm.
Exceptional residence framework for cases involving private and family life, prolonged qualifying stay or other humanitarian circumstances assessed under Austrian law.
Temporary protection in Austria for people displaced from Ukraine who fall within the protected groups under Austria's displaced-person regime.
Transit
1 route
Airport-transit permission for nationals who require a visa to remain in the international transit zone during an Austrian stopover.
Official sources
- OeAD students and researchersGovernment
- RIS InformationsangeboteGovernment
- [NSO] Statistics AustriaGovernment
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