Residence Title – Family Member
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Aufenthaltstitel „Familienangehöriger“ as of 2026-08-12[8][9] NAG § 8 Abs. 1 Z 8 and § 47 Abs. 2 name the title. |
|---|---|
| Official name (English) | Residence Title – Family Member as of 2026-08-12[1] Translation of the official German designation as the administering portal uses it. Marked as a translation. |
| Legal basis | NAG § 47 Abs. 1 und 2 as of 2026-08-12[1][8] |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-08-12[9] |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EEA, EFTA as of 2026-08-12[1][2] |
|---|---|
| Minimum age | 21 as of 2026-08-12[1] Spouses and registered partners must have completed their 21st year at the time of application; the condition does not reach minor children. |
| Criminal-record condition | No as of 2026-08-12[3][4] Austrian residence law imposes no clean-criminal-record condition as such. NAG § 11 Abs. 1 lists the mandatory grounds of refusal and none of them is a conviction in general: the only conviction-based ground is Z 6, a final penalty in the last twelve months for circumventing border control or unlawful entry. A criminal record can still defeat an application through the public-interest test in NAG § 11 Abs. 2 Z 1, which is why migration.gv.at records that many authorities ask for a police-record extract not older than three months with a first application. So the answer here is "no" in a narrow sense: a clean record is not a condition of this permit, but a conviction can still cost an applicant the permit. |
Permit terms
| Initial duration | 12 months as of 2026-08-12[6] NAG § 20 Abs. 1: twelve months, § 47 specifying no longer period. NAG § 20 Abs. 1a's three-year issuance reaches titles under § 8 Abs. 1 Z 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10, which includes the „Familienangehöriger“ title at Z 8, where Module 1 of the integration agreement is fulfilled and the holder has been continuously lawfully settled for two years. |
|---|---|
| How the initial term is set | fixed |
| Renewable | Not established from a qualifying source |
| Work rights | full as of 2026-08-12[1] migration.gv.at: the „Rot-Weiß-Rot – Karte plus“ and the „Familienangehöriger“ title both entitle the holder to fixed-term settlement and unrestricted access to the labour market. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
Requirements
| Who can sponsor | citizen as of 2026-08-12[1][8] NAG § 47 Abs. 1 defines the sponsor as an Austrian, EEA or Swiss citizen permanently resident in Austria who has not exercised their Union-law or EC–Switzerland free-movement right of residence for more than three months. The vocabulary has no value for a non-national bloc citizen who has not exercised free movement, so 'citizen' is recorded and the wider class is stated here: an EEA or Swiss citizen who has exercised free movement falls under the Union-law regime in NAG §§ 51 to 57 instead, which is outside this record. |
|---|---|
| Eligible relations | spouse, registered partner, minor child as of 2026-08-12[1][8] migration.gv.at's definition of family member under the NAG: spouses, registered partners and minor unmarried children including adopted and step-children. Spouses and registered partners must have completed their 21st year at the time of application. |
| Sponsor income requirement | 1 × equalisation supplement reference rate per month as of 2026-08-12[1][4] |
| Sponsor accommodation requirement | Yes as of 2026-08-12[1][4] NAG § 11 Abs. 2 Z 2; the family-reunification titles are not among the titles the administering portal lists as exempt from the accommodation condition. |
| Pre-entry language test | Yes as of 2026-08-12[1] migration.gv.at: on a first application for a „Rot-Weiß-Rot – Karte plus“, „Familienangehöriger“, „Niederlassungsbewilligung – Angehöriger“, „Niederlassungsbewilligung“ or „Niederlassungsbewilligung – ausgenommen Erwerbstätigkeit“, family members must evidence German at CEFR A1 before entry („Deutsch vor Zuzug“), by a diploma no older than one year at the time it is produced. Persons who have not completed their 14th year at the time of application are exempt, as are persons for whom the evidence cannot reasonably be required on physical or mental health grounds, certified by a public medical officer. |
Process
| Where to apply from | either as of 2026-08-12[1] First applications abroad as a rule, with categories of family member permitted to file in Austria and an in-country route where departure is demonstrably impossible or unreasonable. |
|---|---|
| Statutory processing time | Recorded at the source, but not reducible to a single value as of 2026-08-12[1] Six months for a decision on an application, stated generally by migration.gv.at. No clock specific to this title was found; recorded not_expressible rather than as a fact about this route. |
| Fees | |
| Quota |
Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Not established from a qualifying source |
|---|
Your next step
Read the requirements above considering your own situation: the income multiple, the absence limits, who you can bring. Check the country record for the reference figure those amounts are calculated from, and for anything that has changed recently.
The next step is your own case. That assessment is legal work. Create profile for our assistance in this.
Profile benefits
- A 30-minute call with our consultant, who reads your profile first.
- An offer for legal support built around your case, covering the whole process.
Verification
| Sources cited | 11 |
|---|---|
| of which official (tier 1) | 11 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2026-08-12 |
| Newest as-of date | 2026-08-12 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-17 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Familienzusammenführung — family reunification: definition of family member, which title each sponsor category yields, the quota rule, 'Deutsch vor Zuzug' A1 requirement, 2026 equalisation supplement reference rates, fees
migration.gv.at — joint portal of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection and the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-12 · Archived copy - [2] Permanent immigration — Red-White-Red Card groups and general requirements for issuing residence permits (incl. the equalisation supplement reference rate from 1 January 2026)
migration.gv.at — joint portal of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection and the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-12 - [3] Temporärer Aufenthalt — the Aufenthaltsbewilligung (temporary residence permission) catalogue: general conditions, 2026 equalisation supplement reference rates including the reduced rates for pupils and students, labour-market access for pupils and students
migration.gv.at — joint portal of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection and the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-12 · Archived copy - [4] NAG § 11 — Allgemeine Voraussetzungen für einen Aufenthaltstitel (incl. Abs. 5: subsistence measured against the § 293 ASVG reference rates)
Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes (RIS), Bundeskanzleramt · statute · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-12 - [5] NAG § 13 — Niederlassungsverordnung (the annual quota ordinance and the exhaustive list of quota-bound residence titles)
Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes (RIS), Bundeskanzleramt · statute · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-12 - [6] NAG § 20 — Gültigkeitsdauer von Aufenthaltstiteln (12-month default, three-year issue after Module 1, five-year long-term-resident document, EEA absence rule)
Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes (RIS), Bundeskanzleramt · statute · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-12 - [7] NAG § 45 — Aufenthaltstitel „Daueraufenthalt – EU“
Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes (RIS), Bundeskanzleramt · statute · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-12 - [8] NAG § 47 — Aufenthaltstitel „Familienangehöriger“ und „Niederlassungsbewilligung – Angehöriger“ (version in force from 7 August 2026)
Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes (RIS), Bundeskanzleramt · statute · Tier 1 · Published 2026-08-07 · Accessed 2026-08-12 - [9] Niederlassungs- und Aufenthaltsgesetz (NAG) § 8 — Arten und Form der Aufenthaltstitel (consolidated federal law, version in force on the access date)
Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes (RIS), Bundeskanzleramt · statute · Tier 1 · Published 2026-08-07 · Accessed 2026-08-12 - [10] „Blaue Karte EU“ – Antrag — EU Blue Card application: conditions, validity, employer change, eight-week statutory decision period, EUR 218 application fee
oesterreich.gv.at — Austrian federal digital-services portal (content responsibility: Federal Ministry of the Interior) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-08-07 · Accessed 2026-08-12 - [11] Staatsbürgerschaftsgesetz 1985 (StbG) § 10 — Verleihung (ten years' lawful residence, five of them settled; renunciation rule; constitutional discretionary limb in Abs. 6)
Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes (RIS), Bundeskanzleramt · statute · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-12