Austria Start-up Visa

The applicant must prove capital for the company to be founded of at least EUR 30,000, with an equity share of at least 50%.

That figure is only the entry condition: the applicant must also score at least 50 points out of a maximum of 85.

The scale awards up to 30 points for qualifications, up to 10 for work experience at one point per half-year, up to 15 for language skills, and up to 30 in bonus points.

There are three bonus items of 10 points each: evidence of additional investment capital of at least EUR 50,000; admission to a business incubator in Austria or funding by an Austrian start-up funding agency; and being aged 35 or under

The Red-White-Red Card for start-up founders, and its four substantive conditions sit outside the points table.

First, the applicant must establish a company in order to develop and launch on the market products, services, processing methods or technologies that are innovative.

Second, a consistent business plan must be submitted for establishing and running that company.

Third, and least cited though heaviest in terms of control: the applicant must personally exert controlling influence on the management of the newly set-up company. Not invest and hire a manager - exert control personally. Fourth is capital, and its figure belongs to the capital-threshold cell of this table.

The first three are proved by three separate kinds of document, and one of the three carries an exception worth knowing. Controlling influence is proved by the articles of association of the company, except for one-person companies.

The innovative character is proved by the business plan together with documents evidencing the innovational character of the products, services, processing methods and technologies.

And where the intended self-employed activity needs a trade authorisation, in German a Gewerbeberechtigung, it must be produced if already held.

One step after approval that few descriptions mention: the Austrian representation informs the applicant, and anyone subject to a visa requirement must then apply for a visa D to enter Austria, purely in order to collect the residence card from the residence authority. The card is not sent to the place where the application was filed.

On how hard the points table is, the ministry publishes a worked example, and it repays reading because it reaches 54 against a bar of 50 - four points clear.

The person in the example holds a master's degree in engineering, is 29, has two years of experience, English at B2, and can prove EUR 60,000 of funding: 20 points for the qualification, 10 for age, 4 for experience, 10 for language, 10 as the capital bonus.

A file that strong still clears the bar by only four points, on a scale whose maximum is 85.

The authority's page publishes no processing time for the procedure as a whole.

It publishes exactly one, and that one belongs to a different body:

The residence authority forwards the file to the public employment service, which issues within three weeks an expertise on the macroeconomic benefit of the intended professional activity, looking in particular at the transfer of investment capital into Austria and at the creation and securing of jobs.

Those three weeks are therefore the clock of one leg, not of the file. Only on a positive opinion does the residence authority issue the card, and then only if the general requirements are met, health insurance among them. The authority does not say how long the leg before those three weeks runs, nor the leg after it.

After the application is accepted there is a further leg with no clock at all: anyone subject to a visa requirement must obtain a visa D to enter Austria and collect the card. The page gives no timeframe for that step, and it sits with yet another authority.

Against that, the page sets three clocks the applicant must watch, and they are not of the same order, which is where they get confused: the photograph must be no older than six months; the language certificate should be no older than five years; and for the criminal record extract the authority recommends no more than three months.

The extract is the shortest of the three, so it is usually the document that expires before the file is finished.

The card is issued for a maximum of twenty-four months and entitles the holder to fixed-term settlement and the pursuit of a self-employed occupation — self-employment only.

To take up an employed occupation the holder must change the purpose of residence, in German Zweckwechsel, to another Red-White-Red Card category for Very Highly Qualified Workers, Other Key Workers or Skilled Workers in Shortage Occupations.

The holder must then meet that category own requirements, achieve its required number of points and produce a legally binding offer of employment.

After the first two years the founder is awarded a Red-White-Red Card plus provided all legal requirements are met, and it is the plus card that opens unlimited labour market access, that is both self-employment and gainful employment not limited to a specific employer.

On where to file, the application is lodged personally with the competent Austrian representation in the home country or country of residence.

After legal entry and during legal stay it may be submitted directly with the competent residence authority in Austria, and an application submitted in person during that period itself entitles the applicant to remain in Austria even if the visa-free period or the visa has expired.

Which residence authority is competent varies by province, and this is an easy door to get wrong:

In Lower Austria it is the Office of the Lower Austrian Provincial Government; in all other federal states the District Administration; in statutory cities the City Council; in Vienna MA 35; and in Graz the Office of the Styrian Provincial Government.

Family members under the Settlement and Residence Act are spouses, registered partners, and unmarried minor children including adoptive and step-children. Spouses and registered partners must be twenty-one or older when applying; children need only be under eighteen at the time of application.

Family members of Red-White-Red Card holders obtain the Red-White-Red Card plus, which grants free access to the labour market and requires no further permission under the Act Governing the Employment of Foreign Nationals — so the accompanying family may work more freely than the founder.

Family members of Red-White-Red Card and EU Blue Card holders face no quota requirement, whereas the number of other family reunification titles issued each year is limited.

But the duration of the family card is not independent, it depends on the validity of the sponsor permit, tying it to the founder twenty-four-month cycle.

The general requirements are a fixed and regular income sufficient to live without resorting to welfare aid, which in 2026 stands at EUR 1,308.39 for singles, EUR 2,064.12 for married couples and a further EUR 201.88 for each child.

Health insurance covering all risks and providing benefits in Austria, though family members of Red-White-Red Card holders are usually co-insured with their sponsor; and adequate accommodation according to local standards, evidenced by legal title to it.

Language is the easiest point to trip on. Family members must provide evidence of German at A1 level before immigration at the first application, by a diploma from one of the recognised institutions, and the diploma must not be older than one year.

The exemption list covers families of Red-White-Red Card holders for Very Highly Qualified Workers, of EU Blue Card holders and of researchers — it does not cover families of start-up founders.

The only further exemptions are for persons not yet fourteen at the time of application and for those who cannot reasonably be expected to provide evidence on grounds of physical or mental health, supported by a medical report from a doctor appointed by an Austrian consular representation

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the Austria passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a Austria passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Austria passport reaches 201 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

The Austrian migration portal publishes the tax chapter itself, and that chapter describes the general system only, setting out no special regime for start-up founders.

Personal income tax under the Income Tax Act is progressive from 0 to 50 per cent, charged on taxable income received in a calendar year, and the calendar year is the same as the business year.

The Act lists types of income separately, among them income from self-employed work and income from trade and craft activities — the two a founder falls into.

The heavier charge, however, sits on the legal-person side. Legal persons, that is companies, pay no income tax but pay corporation tax at 27.5 per cent; businesses additionally pay municipal tax to the municipality in which the business is located.

Value added tax currently runs at 10 to 20 per cent, and there are also real estate transfer tax, vehicle tax and capital gains tax.

On social insurance, the new self-employed under the GSVG pay pension insurance at 18.5 per cent and sickness insurance at 7.65 per cent, below the 22.8 per cent pension rate for employed workers but a fixed charge nonetheless.

One procedural detail the authority stresses — the income tax declaration must be submitted, while the annual tax assessment may be carried out, and in many cases the annual assessment results in part of the tax paid being refunded. Austria has double taxation agreements with all EU Member States and many other countries

The application fee is EUR 218.

That is the only sum this page prices; the costlier part is producing the documents, because the page sets a rule that applies to the whole file: originals and copies of every document must be submitted, and any document not available in German or English must be accompanied by a translation into one of those two languages.

The authority may also require legalised versions for review purposes.

The criminal record extract is the item most often undercounted, because the number of extracts needed is a function of where the applicant has lived.

The authority takes the extract from the country of nationality, and where the person has lived in another country for more than six months before their stay in Austria, an extract from that country is needed too.

The page recommends that an extract be no more than three months old.

The remaining documents attach to individual scoring items and to individual substantive conditions. Health insurance must cover all risks, being compulsory insurance or an equivalent policy.

The qualification item takes a certificate or diploma; where the case rests instead on special know-how or skills, it takes a testimonial plus a training report and a work certificate.

A tertiary degree needs one document more: something reflecting the status of the institution itself - not only proof that the programme was completed, but proof of what the place awarding it is. Experience takes a testimonial and a work certificate.

Language takes an internationally recognised diploma or a course certificate. Capital takes evidence of investment capital including available equity.

And anyone claiming the bonus for an incubator or a funding agency needs a contract with that institution.

The photograph must measure 45x35 mm and be no older than six months. And the page leaves open a clause every budget has to allow for: the authority may also require other documents on a case by case basis.