Red-White-Red Card Application Support | Austria

The Categories That Exist in 2026

Austria's Red-White-Red Card system currently has seven non-family applicant categories, each aimed at a different profile. A related but separate title, the EU Blue Card, also exists and is not covered on this page.

• Very Highly Qualified Workers — a points test covering qualifications, experience, language skills and age, aimed at senior or highly paid applicants.
• Skilled Workers in Shortage Occupations — for applicants with a job offer in an occupation on Austria's shortage-occupation list.
• Other Key Workers — for applicants with a job offer paying at least the flat statutory minimum for this category.
• Graduates of Austrian Universities and Colleges of Higher Education — for graduates of an Austrian institution taking up employment matching their qualification.
• Regular Workers in Tourism, Agriculture and Forestry — a narrower route requiring a binding job offer at legal or collective-agreement rates.
• Self-employed Key Workers — for applicants transferring substantial investment capital into an Austrian business they run themselves.
• Start-up Founders — for applicants founding and running a new company, assessed on capital, a business plan and a points test.

Each category is assessed on its own criteria — there is no single "Red-White-Red Card test" that applies across all seven, which is the first place a self-prepared application usually goes wrong. The first-issue card is generally valid for 24 months, tied to the named employer or purpose (12 months for Very Highly Qualified Workers). Most categories lead to a Red-White-Red Card plus after 21 months of qualifying employment within the preceding 24, removing the employer tie.

Very Highly Qualified Workers: the Points Test

The Very Highly Qualified Workers category is Austria's most demanding Red-White-Red Card points test, scored out of 100 across five criteria groups.

These salary bands score points; they are not a minimum-salary rule. Very Highly Qualified Workers have no fixed salary threshold of their own — remuneration only needs to match the applicant's qualification (see the 2026 thresholds below for the categories that do carry a fixed figure).

Start-up Founders: Capital and Points

The Start-up Founder category requires EUR 30,000 minimum capital invested in the new company, with the founder holding at least 50% of the equity, plus a consistent business plan for establishing and running that company and a points test.

A related category, Self-employed Key Workers, is often confused with this one: it requires EUR 100,000 capital, carries no points system, and is instead assessed on macroeconomic benefit — job creation, technology transfer or regional significance — confirmed by the Public Employment Service (AMS). Both are sometimes marketed as a route to an Austrian "golden visa." They are not one; see our honest breakdown of Austria's investor-residence routes for what that label actually covers.

2026 Salary Thresholds by Category

The 2026 salary rule is different for every Red-White-Red Card category — there is no single threshold that applies across the system.

Two corrections matter here. First, a PDF still ranking in search results states 2011 salary figures as if they were current; those figures are fifteen years out of date and should not be used for a 2026 application. Second, older sources describe the Other Key Workers threshold as age-tiered, with a lower figure under age 30 and a higher one above it — that structure no longer exists. The 2026 rule for this category is a single flat figure, EUR 3,465 gross per month, with no age distinction.

Where Applications Fail

Red-White-Red Card applications fail for a small number of recurring reasons, most of them avoidable with the right preparation.

• Points miscounted against the wrong table. Each category has its own scoring system; applying the Very Highly Qualified Workers bands to a Start-up Founder file, or vice versa, produces a number that means nothing to the assessing authority.
• Salary measured against the wrong rule. Confusing the flat 2026 figure for Other Key Workers with the no-fixed-figure test for Graduates or Skilled Workers in Shortage Occupations — or citing a stale figure — is one of the most common preparation errors.
• A foreign qualification not recognised in the form the points system needs. A degree or vocational qualification that scores points on paper still has to be presented, and where relevant recognised, in the way the assessing authority expects.
• Incomplete or inconsistent employer documentation. The binding job offer, the remuneration statement, or — for Start-up Founders — the business plan has to match what the rest of the file claims; gaps between the two are a common cause of delay or refusal.
• The Public Employment Service not confirming admission conditions. The AMS reviews the employer's offer and the occupation against the applicable rules as part of the process; if that confirmation does not go through, the application does not proceed regardless of the applicant's own points.

What Happens on Refusal

A negative decision on a Red-White-Red Card application can be appealed to the Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht).

The reported appeal window is four weeks from notification of the refusal. Within that period the issuing office can revise its own decision, which it may do for up to ten weeks; failing that, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht decides the appeal, typically within three months of receiving it. We were not able to verify the exact statutory paragraph behind these figures against the primary legislation during this review — treat the timeline above as the reported rule rather than a pinpoint citation, and confirm the precise deadlines for your specific case before relying on them.

Processing Times and Official Fees

Austria's settlement authority has eight weeks to decide a complete Red-White-Red Card application.

File at least eight weeks before the intended start of employment. The application fee is EUR 218, stated identically across the Other Key Workers, Regular Workers, Self-employed Key Worker, Start-up Founder and Red-White-Red Card plus categories. Within that eight-week window, the regional office of the Public Employment Service (AMS) has an internal four-week deadline to confirm that the labour-market conditions for the post are met.

What We Do

Our Red-White-Red Card support starts with an eligibility review, not a completed application form.

1. Eligibility and category review — identifying which of the seven categories fits, and calculating an indicative points score where the category is points-based.
2. Document preparation — collecting, translating and, where required, arranging recognition of qualifications, employer documents and the business plan for Start-up Founder applications.
3. Application compilation and submission — assembling the file to the standard the settlement authority and the AMS expect, filed with enough lead time before the eight-week decision period starts.
4. Liaison during the decision period — responding to requests from the settlement authority or the AMS while the file is under review.
5. Refusal handling — advising on the appeal route to the Bundesverwaltungsgericht if a negative decision is issued.

Most clients instructing us are outside Austria at the time of application. We coordinate directly with the Austrian employer or, for Start-up Founder and Self-employed Key Worker applications, with the applicant's own new company, so the file can be prepared and filed without the applicant needing to be in Austria before the decision is made. This service sits alongside our broader corporate services in Austria, including Austrian company formation for applicants who need a company in place first.