Red-White-Red Card for Self-employed Key Workers
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Aufenthaltstitel „Rot-Weiß-Rot – Karte“ (selbständige Schlüsselkraft) as of 2026-08-12[1][9][12] NAG § 8 Abs. 1 Z 1 names the title; AuslBG § 24 Abs. 1 names the category (selbständige Schlüsselkräfte). The statute has no single composite name for the limb. |
|---|---|
| Official name (English) | Red-White-Red Card for Self-employed Key Workers as of 2026-08-12[3][4] Official English name used by the administering portal. |
| Legal basis | NAG § 41 Abs. 2 Z 4 in conjunction with AuslBG § 24 Abs. 1 and Abs. 3 as of 2026-08-12[1][9] NAG § 41 Abs. 2 Z 4 issues the card where an expert opinion (Gutachten) of the provincial office of the Public Employment Service under AuslBG § 24 Abs. 1 in conjunction with Abs. 3 is on file. |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-08-12[12] NAG § 8 Abs. 1 Z 1: an Aufenthaltstitel entitling the holder to fixed-term settlement and to the gainful activity covered by the AuslBG opinion. |
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[5][6] 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 | 2 years as of 2026-08-12[4][9] NAG § 41 Abs. 5: the Red-White-Red Card is to be issued for a period of two years. The shorter-contract rule in the second sentence of § 41 Abs. 5 applies only to the employed limbs (Abs. 1 and Abs. 2 Z 1 to 3a), not to this one, so the two years are a fixed grant. |
|---|---|
| Renewable | Not established from a qualifying source |
| Work rights | self-employment only as of 2026-08-12[4][12] NAG § 8 Abs. 1 Z 1 limits the card to the gainful activity for which the AuslBG opinion was issued; the portal states it entitles the holder to the self-employed occupation described in the application. Taking up employment requires a change of purpose to another Red-White-Red Card category. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Yes as of 2026-08-12[11][12] NAG § 45 Abs. 1 grants the „Daueraufenthalt – EU“ title after five years of uninterrupted actual settlement; NAG § 8 Abs. 1 Z 1 makes this card a settlement title. |
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| How this time counts toward citizenship | 1 as of 2026-08-12[13] 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 capital | Recorded at the source, but not reducible to a single value as of 2026-08-12[1][4] |
|---|---|
| Business plan required | Yes as of 2026-08-12[4] The portal lists among the documents to be submitted for the assessment of macroeconomic benefit 'documents which allow an analysis and evaluation of the market and competitive situation and the headquarter location, including a detailed description and the objectives of the intended professional undertaking ("business plan")'. |
| Endorsement required | Yes as of 2026-08-12[1][9] AuslBG § 24 Abs. 3: the provincial office of the Public Employment Service must issue, within three weeks and after hearing the provincial directorate, the expert opinion required in the residence procedure under NAG § 41. |
| Innovation criterion | No as of 2026-08-12[1] AuslBG § 24 Abs. 1 sets a macroeconomic-benefit test with no innovation criterion; the innovation test belongs to the start-up founder limb in Abs. 2, recorded separately as at-rwr-card-start-up-founder. |
| Jobs to be created | Recorded at the source, but not reducible to a single value as of 2026-08-12[1] |
| Own means requirement | Not applicable as of 2026-08-12[3][9] NAG § 41 Abs. 2 expressly excludes § 11 Abs. 2 Z 2 and Z 4 from the general requirements for this card, so neither the accommodation condition nor the § 11 Abs. 5 subsistence condition measured against the § 293 ASVG rates applies. migration.gv.at states the same: no proof of income under the Settlement and Residence Act is required for a Red-White-Red Card. |
Process
| Where to apply from | either as of 2026-08-12[4] The portal directs first applications to the competent Austrian representation abroad, and adds that after lawful entry and during a lawful stay the application may be filed directly with the competent residence authority in Austria. |
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| Statutory processing time | Recorded at the source, but not reducible to a single value as of 2026-08-12[1][9] |
| Fees |
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| Quota |
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Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Yes as of 2026-08-12[3] |
|---|---|
| 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 | full as of 2026-08-12[12] NAG § 8 Abs. 1 Z 2: the „Rot-Weiß-Rot – Karte plus“ entitles the holder to fixed-term settlement and to both self-employed and employed activity under AuslBG § 17, i.e. unrestricted labour-market access. |
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 | 13 |
|---|---|
| of which official (tier 1) | 13 |
| 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] Ausländerbeschäftigungsgesetz (AuslBG) § 24 — Selbständige Schlüsselkräfte und Start-up-GründerInnen
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] Self-employed Key Workers — Red-White-Red Card: conditions, documents, procedure, fees
migration.gv.at (Federal Ministry of the Interior and partner ministries) · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-12 - [5] 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 - [6] 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 - [7] 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 - [8] 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 - [9] NAG § 41 — Aufenthaltstitel „Rot-Weiß-Rot – Karte“ (version in force from 7 August 2026)
Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes (RIS), Bundeskanzleramt · statute · Tier 1 · Published 2026-08-07 · Accessed 2026-08-12 - [10] NAG § 43 — „Niederlassungsbewilligung“
Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes (RIS), Bundeskanzleramt · statute · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-12 - [11] NAG § 45 — Aufenthaltstitel „Daueraufenthalt – EU“
Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes (RIS), Bundeskanzleramt · statute · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-12 - [12] 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 - [13] 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