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Flag of Austria

Austria

Red-White-Red Card (Self-employed Key Worker)

PR: Yesno programmeUTC+2

No dedicated nomad visa. The figures below describe what the row records; there may be nothing to apply for right now. Always check the official page before acting.

The requirements

Programme status
No dedicated nomad visa
Minimum monthly income
No fixed amount
Required savings
None
Annual total
No fixed amount
Initial duration
24 months, then a settlement permit
Family allowed
Yes
Apply online
No, in person or by post

No income threshold at all: the test is macroeconomic benefit, judged case by case by the AMS.

How this figure is set: The law asks for "sufficient means" and sets no figure. Formula: No income test. AMS assesses 'macroeconomic benefit going beyond its own operational benefit': EUR 100,000 investment capital transferred to Austria, creation of new or preservation of existing jobs, transfer of technology or know-how, or considerable importance to the region.

Income confidence: high · checked 2026-09-16
Legal basis: NAG s. 24 in conjunction with AuslBG s. 12a (self-employed key worker); migration.gv.at, self-employed key workers.

Does this lead to permanent residence?

Direct pathway. Daueraufenthalt - EU after 5 years' continuous settlement (NAG s.45); Red-White-Red Card years count.

NAG s. 45 (Daueraufenthalt - EU), as set out on the federal portal oesterreich.gv.at: the applicant must have been 'in den letzten funf Jahren ununterbrochen zur Niederlassung in Osterreich berechtigt' and must have fulfilled Modul 2 of the Integrationsvereinbarung. The portal lists the 'Rot-Weiss-Rot - Karte' and the 'Rot-Weiss-Rot - Karte plus' among the residence titles whose years count towards those five, so the permit itself is on the ordinary route to permanent residence rather than a dead end. The intermediate step is on migration.gv.at: a self-employed key worker holds the card for 24 months and is then issued a Niederlassungsbewilligung, extended to three years once two years' total settlement is complete.

Pathway confidence: high · checked 2026-09-16

Where it is

Vienna sits at 48.21° N, 16.37° E.

Austria picked out on a world map

Open in Google Maps ↗A map of Vienna. This is the only link here that leaves the site.

Your position is worked out on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Time zone

  • UTC+2 Vienna (Europe/Vienna)

The country

Region
Europe · Central Europe
Capital
Vienna
Currency
EUR
Schengen area
Yes

Next door

5 of the 7 countries Austria shares a land border with are covered here.

All of them are in the Schengen area, as Austria is. For a visitor that is one clock, not several: the 90 days in any 180 are spent across all of it.

What it costs to live there

$2,719 per person, per month. That is what one resident of Austria spends in an average month with housing included — not what a newcomer renting at market rates will spend, which is higher, and furthest above it in the cheapest countries.

Vienna
$1,866 / month incl. rent
of which rent $978

City figures are crowdsourced from livingcost.net, not official: one person's monthly spending plus the rent of a one-bedroom flat outside the centre. They are here because a national average cannot show the spread between a capital and the places people actually move to. Checked 2026-09-20.

Cost of living confidence: high · checked 2026-09-20
World Bank national accounts, reference year 2025: households and NPISHs final consumption expenditure (NE.CON.PRVT.CD, current US$) divided by population (SP.POP.TOTL) and by twelve. This is what one resident spends in an average month with housing included, since national accounts count the imputed rent of owner-occupiers. It is an average over the whole population, not a visitor's budget, so a newly arrived remote worker renting at market rates will spend more - see the city figures for what that looks like.

Languages

  • German official
  • Bavarian widely spoken
  • English widely spoken
  • French common in cities
  • Italian common in cities

Shares of the population from Unicode CLDR: official, then anything spoken by a quarter of the country, an eighth, or a fiftieth. It answers "will I be understood", not "how good is their English".

How to apply

There is no live application for Austria in this dataset. What the row records about residence: Daueraufenthalt - EU after 5 years' continuous settlement (NAG s.45); Red-White-Red Card years count.

migration.gv.at, self-employed key workers ↗

No digital nomad visa and never has been. The nearest route is the Red-White-Red Card for self-employed key workers, which asks for a business plan rather than a pay slip: the AMS has to find macroeconomic benefit beyond your own operation, through a transfer of at least EUR 100,000, new or preserved jobs, a transfer of technology or knowledge, or importance to the region. There is no points system for this category and no income figure anywhere in it, so a remote salary on its own does not qualify however large it is. The ministry does publish the paperwork - passport, a 45x35mm photo under six months old, all-risk health insurance, a business plan with a market and competitive analysis, evidence of the capital transfer and the jobs, proof of qualification, and company agreements or a Gewerbeberechtigung where one applies - but it is the paperwork for a settlement permit, not for a nomad visa, so it is not listed here as one.

A starting point, not advice. Figures are converted to US dollars at open-market rates; official thresholds are set in local currency. Sources: official source ↗. Data checked . Compiled by .