Settlement Permit – Gainful Employment Excepted
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | „Niederlassungsbewilligung – ausgenommen Erwerbstätigkeit“ as of 2026-08-12[8][10] NAG § 8 Abs. 1 Z 5. |
|---|---|
| Official name (English) | Settlement Permit – Gainful Employment Excepted as of 2026-08-12[2] The portal uses 'settlement permit – gainful employment excepted' and describes the addressees as third-country nationals wishing to settle in Austria without gainful employment, for example pensioners and financially independent individuals. |
| Legal basis | NAG § 44 as of 2026-08-12[8] § 44 Abs. 1 is the general limb. § 44 Abs. 2 is a separate limb for persons retiring immediately after a stay as a holder of privileges and immunities (§ 5 ASG), which requires neither a quota place nor the doubled income test; that limb is not separately recorded. |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-08-12[10] NAG § 8 Abs. 1 Z 5: fixed-term settlement without the exercise of any gainful activity. |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EEA, EFTA as of 2026-08-12[2][3] |
|---|---|
| Criminal-record condition | No as of 2026-08-12[4][5] 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[2][7] NAG § 20 Abs. 1, with the same two exceptions as the other twelve-month titles; the portal states that the residence title allows time-limited settlement without labour-market access and is generally issued for one year. |
|---|---|
| Renewable | Yes as of 2026-08-12[2][7] NAG § 20 Abs. 1a provides for a three-year issue on the stated conditions; the portal describes the same progression. |
| Renewal duration | 3 years as of 2026-08-12[2][7] NAG § 20 Abs. 1a: three years where Module 1 of the Integration Agreement is fulfilled and the person has been lawfully settled without interruption for the previous two years. § 8 Abs. 1 Z 5 is within the list of titles this applies to. |
| Work rights | none as of 2026-08-12[2][10] NAG § 8 Abs. 1 Z 5: fixed-term settlement without the exercise of any gainful activity. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Yes as of 2026-08-12[2][9][10] NAG § 45 Abs. 1: after five years of uninterrupted actual settlement; the portal states that after five years of lawful residence without interruption the „Daueraufenthalt – EU“ title may be applied for. |
|---|---|
| How this time counts toward citizenship | 1 as of 2026-08-12[11] StbG § 10 Abs. 1 Z 1 counts lawful residence in the federal territory, of which at least five years must have been as a settled person (niedergelassen). All four routes in this record are settlement titles under NAG § 8 Abs. 1, so time on them counts in full toward both limbs. Recorded because the counting rule is explicit in the statute, per schema §6.4. |
Requirements
| Minimum income | 2 × equalisation supplement reference rate per month as of 2026-08-12[2][8] |
|---|---|
| Qualifying income types | pension, dividends, interest, savings drawdown as of 2026-08-12[2][5] |
| Work prohibited | Yes as of 2026-08-12[2][10] NAG § 8 Abs. 1 Z 5: the title entitles the holder to fixed-term settlement without the exercise of any gainful activity. |
Process
| Where to apply from | from abroad only as of 2026-08-12[2] |
|---|---|
| Fees |
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| Quota |
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Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Not established from a qualifying source |
|---|---|
| Eligible relations | Not established from a qualifying source |
| Family may apply at the same time | Not established from a qualifying source |
| Family members' work rights | 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.
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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] Integrationsgesetz (IntG) § 7 — Integrationsvereinbarung: Modul 1 (A2) and Modul 2 (B1)
Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes (RIS), Bundeskanzleramt · statute · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-12 - [2] Other forms of settlement — settlement permit gainful employment excepted, researchers, artists, special cases, long-term resident EU; general requirements and fees
migration.gv.at (Federal Ministry of the Interior and partner ministries) · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-12 - [3] 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 - [4] 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 - [5] 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 - [6] 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 - [7] 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 - [8] NAG § 44 — „Niederlassungsbewilligung – ausgenommen Erwerbstätigkeit“
Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes (RIS), Bundeskanzleramt · statute · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-12 - [9] NAG § 45 — Aufenthaltstitel „Daueraufenthalt – EU“
Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes (RIS), Bundeskanzleramt · statute · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-12 - [10] 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 - [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