Country-wide policy
A First Application Is Made Abroad and Decided Abroad, With a Short List of People Who May Stay
Section 21(1) of the Niederlassungs- und Aufenthaltsgesetz sets the default for every residence title in the Act: a first application is lodged at the Austrian representation with territorial competence, and the decision is awaited outside Austria. Section 21(2) then lists who may apply from inside instead. The list includes family members of Austrians, EEA nationals and Swiss nationals who live permanently in Austria; people within six months of losing Austrian, Swiss or EEA nationality; children within six months of birth; applicants for a researcher permit, a Blaue Karte EU or a student permit; and - the entry that touches most people in this corpus - anyone entitled to enter without a visa, who may apply during a lawful stay.
Topics it changes
- Residency on passive income
- Residency as a retiree
- Residency through work
- Residency as a student
- Residency through investment
- Residency through marriage
What it requires
- A first application at the Austrian embassy or consulate with territorial competence, unless one of the exceptions in § 21(2) applies
- Remaining outside Austria while the application is decided, in the default case
At a glance
- The default
- Apply abroad and wait abroad
NAG § 21 Abs. 1, which states both halves in two sentences.
- Visa-free nationals
- May apply inside Austria during a lawful stay
NAG § 21 Abs. 2 Z 5.
- Family of Austrians, EEA and Swiss nationals
- May apply inside Austria after a lawful entry
NAG § 21 Abs. 2 Z 1, where the sponsor lives permanently in Austria and has not used a free-movement right of more than three months.
- Students and Blue Card applicants
- May apply inside Austria
NAG § 21 Abs. 2 Z 6, which also covers researchers and volunteers.
- Overstaying the visa-free period
- Bars the title outright
NAG § 11 Abs. 1 Z 5 makes an overrun of the permitted visa-free or visa-based stay a mandatory ground of refusal in connection with § 21 Abs. 6.
What the law says
«Erstanträge sind vor der Einreise in das Bundesgebiet bei der örtlich zuständigen Berufsvertretungsbehörde im Ausland einzubringen. Die Entscheidung ist im Ausland abzuwarten.»The rule, and the part people miss: not only the lodging but the waiting is abroad.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Austria's consolidated federal law, served from ris.bka.gv.at at two stable address forms. A whole law is GeltendeFassung.wxe?Abfrage=Bundesnormen&Gesetzesnummer=<n>, and a single provision is NormDokument.wxe with the same Gesetzesnummer plus &Paragraf=<n>. The whole-law page prints its own date on its face as "Fassung vom <dd.mm.yyyy>", generated on request, so the consolidation date is whatever day you read it; the single-provision page says "tagesaktuelle Fassung" instead and adds the list of every earlier version of that provision with the amending BGBl number. Each law's front matter lists every amending act in order. There is a companion OGD search interface at data.bka.gv.at/ris/api/v2.6/Bundesrecht which returns the Gesetzesnummer for a title and is how an instrument is located rather than guessed at.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The consolidations are unofficial: the authentic text is the one published in the Bundesgesetzblatt, and for that the BgblAuth collection is the source, not this one. Every provision is rendered twice on the same page - once with its abbreviations ("§ 53 Abs. 2 Z 5") and once with them spelled out ("Paragraph 53, Absatz 2, Ziffer 5,") - which is an accessibility rendering and not a drafting feature, so a quotation that spans the join will contain the same sentence twice and a quotation must be taken from one rendering. Numbered list items carry the same doubling ("- 1. Ziffer eins"), so a quotation crossing an item boundary carries that furniture with it. It may not be cited for Land law at all: the nine Laender publish separately, and naturalisation fees and much of what a resident actually meets are Land matters. It carries no case law; that is a different RIS application (Judikatur) not read here. A Verordnung is only here if it is in force today - a Gesetzesnummer whose ordinance has expired answers GeltendeFassung with a 404, which looks exactly like an address that never existed.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Fremde, die zur visumfreien Einreise berechtigt sind, nach rechtmäßiger Einreise und während ihres rechtmäßigen Aufenthalts;»The exception that turns on the visa annexes. It is why the same Union list that decides a holiday also decides where a residence application is made.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Austria's consolidated federal law, served from ris.bka.gv.at at two stable address forms. A whole law is GeltendeFassung.wxe?Abfrage=Bundesnormen&Gesetzesnummer=<n>, and a single provision is NormDokument.wxe with the same Gesetzesnummer plus &Paragraf=<n>. The whole-law page prints its own date on its face as "Fassung vom <dd.mm.yyyy>", generated on request, so the consolidation date is whatever day you read it; the single-provision page says "tagesaktuelle Fassung" instead and adds the list of every earlier version of that provision with the amending BGBl number. Each law's front matter lists every amending act in order. There is a companion OGD search interface at data.bka.gv.at/ris/api/v2.6/Bundesrecht which returns the Gesetzesnummer for a title and is how an instrument is located rather than guessed at.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The consolidations are unofficial: the authentic text is the one published in the Bundesgesetzblatt, and for that the BgblAuth collection is the source, not this one. Every provision is rendered twice on the same page - once with its abbreviations ("§ 53 Abs. 2 Z 5") and once with them spelled out ("Paragraph 53, Absatz 2, Ziffer 5,") - which is an accessibility rendering and not a drafting feature, so a quotation that spans the join will contain the same sentence twice and a quotation must be taken from one rendering. Numbered list items carry the same doubling ("- 1. Ziffer eins"), so a quotation crossing an item boundary carries that furniture with it. It may not be cited for Land law at all: the nine Laender publish separately, and naturalisation fees and much of what a resident actually meets are Land matters. It carries no case law; that is a different RIS application (Judikatur) not read here. A Verordnung is only here if it is in force today - a Gesetzesnummer whose ordinance has expired answers GeltendeFassung with a 404, which looks exactly like an address that never existed.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
Applying from inside is permission to lodge, not permission to stay while it is decided. The lawful stay has its own end date and the application does not extend it.
The exceptions are a closed list in § 21 Abs. 2. Being already in Austria for some other reason is not one of them.