Immigration

Austria | New government program 2025-2029

Summary

Following the longest post-election period after World War II and failing twice to reach a coalition, a three-party coalition (ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS) has finally been formed after national elections were held on September 29th, 2024 in Austria. The parties announced a 200-page government program placing significant emphasis on addressing illegal immigration and implementing stricter asylum policies, reducing asylum applications “to zero”. Furthermore, the program contains the intention to simplify skilled labour migration and posted worker notifications and to tighten, but nevertheless “modernize” citizenship rules.

The detail

On February 27, 2025, Austria’s centre-right People’s Party (ÖVP), centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and the liberal NEOS reached a final agreement to form a three-party coalition government, to be sworn in on March 3, 2025. A central element of the new government program shall be to foster skilled worker migration and streamline citizenship rules; below are some of the key policy changes.

Securing skilled workers & RWR Card adaptations

• Evaluation of the RWR card (Red-White-Red Card – a residence and work permit for skilled workers from non-EU countries) through an interministerial strategy committee to accelerate process times and identify target countries for the recruitment of skilled workers;
• Increase the number of RWR cards issued annually to at least 15,000 by 2027;
• Evaluate the shortage occupation list;
• Digitalization and acceleration of the application process by introducing online application possibilities;
• Expansion of the RWR Card to allow the personnel leasing of third country nationals in particular shortage occupations;
• RWR Card for adult apprentices – create conditions at the sectoral and company level to retain apprentices in Austria in the long term;
• Simplification and unification of the recognition of qualifications;
• Examination of the German “Western Balkan regulation” allowing for  privileged access to work permissions for citizens of the West Balkan countries.

Deregulation regarding posted workers

• Introduction of electronic declarations with exemptions for sensitive sectors (e.g. construction);
• Creating further exceptions for short business trips;
• Simplifying issuance of A1 forms;
• Simplification of Posted Worker Notification forms (e.g. ZKO 3 and ZKO 4 forms).

Control authorities shall work more efficiently by controlling industries that are more risk-exposed. Effective sanctions are to be introduced to combat the thwarting of controls and underpayment. This shall be combined with improving the enforcement of penalties issued to companies abroad.

“Modernizing” Citizenship procedures

The government intends to tighten up citizenship rules while at the same time reducing bureaucracy, and is introducing the following measures:

• German language skills at B2 level shall be a must;
• Positive completion of the integration program shall be mandatory (understanding of democracy, basic European values and gender equality);
• Minor administrative offenses shall no longer be an obstacle to the procedure;
• People in “essential occupations” shall be privileged regarding the self-sufficiency assessment, considering the applicable collective agreement;
• Reduce bureaucracy when proving sufficient income;
• Increase digitalization;
• Evaluation of government fees.

What this means

The newly formed Austrian government intends to introduce more simplified and streamlined policies when it comes to skilled worker migration or the path to Austrian citizenship. This shall offer significant advantages for companies and attract more non-EU skilled talent to meet Austria’s high labour market needs. It will be necessary to review any upcoming legislative proposals closely to understand whether these will indeed meet the goal to simplify procedures.

Contact us

For a deeper discussion on the above, please reach out to your Vialto Partners point of contact, or alternatively:

Valentina Arnez
Partner, Attorney at Law (Arnez Rechtsanwalts GmbH*)

Antonia Lehne
Manager (Arnez Rechtsanwalts GmbH*) & Immigration Expert

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