Moving to Austria: your first 90 days

Can you just move to Austria?

It depends on your passport.

EU citizens do not need a visa and may stay for three months. After that they need to be employed or self-employed in Austria, or have enough resources and comprehensive health insurance, and they request a registration certificate within four months of arriving (oesterreich.gv.at, read 7 Oct 2026). In Vienna the immigration department, MA 35, issues it, and EU citizens make an appointment to apply in person (StartWien, read 7 Oct 2026).

Citizens of other countries need a residence permit for a stay of more than six months (migration.gv.at). For people who come for a job, the main route is the Red-White-Red Card. The Ministry of the Interior’s site lists these categories: very highly qualified workers, skilled workers in shortage occupations, other key workers, graduates of Austrian universities, regular workers in tourism, agriculture and forestry, self-employed key workers and start-up founders. The EU Blue Card is a separate route, and the Red-White-Red Card plus covers family members.

How the points work depends on the category. For skilled workers in shortage occupations, applicants need at least 55 of 90 points: up to 30 for qualification, 20 for work experience, 25 for language skills and 15 for age. They need a binding job offer. The application goes either to the Austrian embassy or consulate, or, after legal entry, to the residence authority in Austria, and the applicant or the employer may file it. The card is generally issued for 24 months (migration.gv.at, read 7 Oct 2026).

The EU Blue Card needs a degree of at least three years and a binding job offer, with a minimum gross annual salary of EUR 55,678 in 2026, and is issued for 24 months (migration.gv.at). The Red-White-Red Card plus gives family members unlimited labour market access (migration.gv.at).

How many people take these routes? The Interior Ministry counted 19,472 first Red-White-Red Cards plus without a quota and 3,464 with one in 2025, and 631 first EU Blue Cards (Interior Ministry, 2025 statistics). The plus card includes family members. In all, Austria had 161,932 arrivals from abroad in 2025, 9.3% fewer than in 2024, and net migration of 30,742 (Statistics Austria, read 7 Oct 2026). At the end of 2025, 12,623 Red-White-Red Cards were valid, 8,631 of them for shortage occupations, together with 143,264 Cards plus and 1,621 Blue Cards (same Interior Ministry statistics). Every fourth person living in Austria has a migration background: 2,553,600 people in 2025, of whom 1,901,200 were born abroad (Statistics Austria, read 7 Oct 2026).

Who may help with a permit?

We found no official source on who may give immigration advice in Austria, so this guide does not say. In practice firms differ. Santa Fe’s Vienna office says legal services are provided only by lawyers admitted to the Austrian Bar with whom it cooperates (Santa Fe, read 7 Oct 2026), and STEP Vienna says it works with partner solicitors (STEP Vienna, read 7 Oct 2026). Ask any firm who does the legal part.

Can you move to Austria without a job offer?

It depends on the route. An EU citizen may stay beyond three months with enough resources and comprehensive health insurance, or while in education with the same cover, as well as in work (oesterreich.gv.at). For third-country nationals, two routes above need a binding job offer: the Red-White-Red Card for skilled workers in shortage occupations and the EU Blue Card. Other categories on the ministry’s list, such as self-employed key workers and start-up founders, do not start from an employer’s offer. Each has its own conditions, and the general rules also ask for adequate income, health insurance and a clean security record (migration.gv.at). Check the category page for your case before you plan around it.

What do you do in the first days?

Register your address. You have three days after moving into a flat or house at the latest. The Meldezettel is signed by you and by the owner, manager or main tenant, and you hand it in at a registration service centre (Meldeservicestelle) of a district office in Vienna. The first registration is free (City of Vienna, read 7 Oct 2026). When you leave, you deregister up to three days before or three days after the move.

Check your health insurance. Everyone who lives in Vienna needs it. Employees are insured through their employer with the Austrian Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK), and the e-card is your proof of cover (StartWien, read 7 Oct 2026). Self-employed people register with the SVS, and people without a job who cannot be co-insured may insure themselves voluntarily.

The other steps, and which ones an agency can take over, are in settling-in services in Austria.

How hard is it to find a flat in Vienna?

Plan for a rental market. Statistics Austria says more than three quarters of Vienna households rent, the highest share of any province (Statistics Austria, Wohnen 2025). The City of Vienna names three kinds of rental: private flats, municipal and subsidised flats, and cooperative flats. Municipal flats need two years of continuous residence, among other conditions, and cooperative flats often ask for an upfront financing contribution (StartWien, read 7 Oct 2026). So a newcomer mostly looks at the private market.

What does it cost? In 2025, rent including running costs averaged EUR 10.6 per m2 in Vienna, with EUR 694.3 a month per flat, against EUR 10.2 per m2 for Austria. Private rentals across Austria averaged EUR 12.1 per m2, municipal flats EUR 8.2 and cooperative flats EUR 8.8 (Statistics Austria, 2025). New leases cost more: tenancy agreements of under two years cost EUR 12.4 per m2, and those of 30 years or more EUR 6.5 (Statistics Austria press release, 10 Jun 2026). These are averages of existing tenancies, not asking rents.

Two rules decide what you pay and what you can challenge. Under tenancy law, flats in multi-unit buildings put up before 9 May 1945 and not comprehensively renovated fall under rent ceilings, and non-subsidised new buildings do not (oesterreich.gv.at, read 7 Oct 2026). And for broker contracts since 1 July 2023 (Chamber of Labour), a tenant pays the commission only if the tenant commissioned the broker, which is usually not the case (oesterreich.gv.at, read 7 Oct 2026). The search itself is in how to find an apartment in Vienna, Austria.

What does the move cost?

We found no official total, so here are the parts we can source. For scale, at the Austrian private-rental average of EUR 12.1 per m2, a 60 m2 flat would cost about EUR 726 a month including running costs. That is our arithmetic; we have no private-rent figure for Vienna alone. Agency prices for home search and settling-in are in what a relocation agency costs in Austria. Few Austrian agencies publish a price.

Where can a relocation agency help, and where not?

An agency does tasks for you. It does not change the rules.

• Home search. Shortlisting, viewings, the lease. It cannot promise a flat.
• Registration and settling in. Agencies list the Meldezettel, bank, phone and insurance steps. You still sign your own forms.
• Permits. Organisation, yes. Legal advice through a lawyer.
• School search. Compulsory schooling starts in September after a child’s sixth birthday and lasts nine school years (StartWien, read 7 Oct 2026).

There is a free alternative for the basics. The Vienna Business Agency offers cost-free, confidential and independent consultations on relocating, living and working in Vienna, covering childcare, schools, taxes, residence permits and housing, in person and online (Vienna Business Agency, read 7 Oct 2026). It names no agencies. How to pick one is in how to choose a relocation agency in Austria.

A 90-day plan

1. Before you move. Check the permit route for your passport. Ask your employer what it handles. Start the flat search.
2. Day 1. Collect the keys and have the Meldezettel signed by the owner, manager or main tenant.
3. Days 1 to 3. Hand in the Meldezettel at the registration service centre.
4. Week 1. Confirm your health insurance and your e-card with your employer.
5. Month 1. EU citizens: book the MA 35 appointment for the registration certificate, which you must request within four months. Others: collect your permit.
6. Months 2 and 3. Sort school or childcare places. Check anything your employer or landlord has not.

What we could not source

We did not find the fine for registering late, the rules on exchanging a foreign driving licence, the rules on opening a bank account, or who may give immigration advice, because the legal database RIS was unavailable on 7 October 2026 and the official pages we could open did not cover them. We found no source on the size of a rental deposit. We did not research Graz or Salzburg rents, and we found no private-rent figure for Vienna alone.

Ready to compare agencies? Tell us what you need and we pass your request to one agency that fits. The Austria page lists the agencies with an office there.