Austria
The European points system where English alone still scores
Austria's Red-White-Red Card is points-based, and its Very Highly Qualified category scores German or English. Seventy points with no job offer buys six months to find one.
- Typical timeline
- Settlement after 5 years; RWR Card plus at 21 months
What makes Austria unusual
Two things, and both are rare in Europe.
English alone can score. Austria publishes four separate points grids. Three of them require German. The fourth — Very Highly Qualified Workers — scores language as *"German or English"*, and that is the published wording, not an interpretation. It is the only realistic entry point into the Austrian system from India, and it is the reason this country is on our list at all.
Seventy points with no job offer gets you a visa. Not a permit to work, but a six-month residence visa to come and look. Very few destinations anywhere offer a qualified person the chance to arrive and search. Germany's Opportunity Card is the other well-known one, and Austria's threshold rewards seniority where Germany's rewards recognition.
The grid
Seventy points of a hundred. A degree of at least four years scores 20, or 30 if it is in maths, informatics, natural sciences or technology — which covers most engineering and IT applicants. A doctorate or habilitation scores 40 and replaces those, rather than adding to them.
Work experience earns a point per half-year up to 20, so seven years is 14. Six months worked in Austria adds 10. Age is generous to 35 and tapers to 45. Language at A2 in German or English is worth 10, and A2 is a low bar.
Senior-management salary, research and innovation activity, and recognised awards carry up to 70 points between them. Our calculator does not ask about those, so it reports a floor.
Getting to settlement
The Red-White-Red Card runs 24 months and is tied to a named employer. After employment for 21 of 24 months it becomes the RWR Card plus, which removes the employer tie, subject to German at A2. Daueraufenthalt-EU — long-term residence — comes after five uninterrupted years, with German at B1.
So English gets you in. German is what keeps you.
Where it goes wrong
Applying under the wrong grid. The shortage-occupation and key-worker categories look easier on paper and require German, and the shortage lists are re-issued annually by ordinance, so last year's advice is often wrong.
Who Austria suits
A graduate in engineering, IT or a natural science, under 40, with several years of experience and English but no German. That profile scores close to the threshold on qualification, experience, age and language alone — and the job-seeker visa means a job offer is not needed to start.
Programmes we handle for Austria
Red-White-Red Card — Very Highly Qualified
Austria's points-based route. Seventy points with no job offer buys a six-month visa to find one, and English alone can score.
- Typical time
- —
- Government fee
- —
- Pass mark
- 70 of 100
What decides a Austria application, beyond points
Most applications do not fail on a score. They fail on one of these — and none of them is something a points total can make up for.
Which Red-White-Red Card points grid should I apply under?
Austria publishes several, and they are not interchangeable. Most require German; the Very Highly Qualified grid accepts English, which is why it is the one we score for candidates without German. If you do have German, a shortage-occupation grid may be easier — but its occupation list is reissued annually by ordinance, so it must be checked against the current one.