Red-White-Red Card for Start-up Founders
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Aufenthaltstitel „Rot-Weiß-Rot – Karte“ (Start-up-GründerInnen) as of 2026-08-12[1][9][11] NAG § 8 Abs. 1 Z 1 names the title; AuslBG § 24 Abs. 2 names the category. |
|---|---|
| Official name (English) | Red-White-Red Card for Start-up Founders as of 2026-08-12[4] Official English name used by the administering portal. |
| Legal basis | NAG § 41 Abs. 2 Z 5 in conjunction with AuslBG § 24 Abs. 2 and Abs. 3 and Anlage D AuslBG as of 2026-08-12[1][9] |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-08-12[11] |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EEA, EFTA as of 2026-08-12[2][3] |
|---|---|
| Minimum age | Not applicable as of 2026-08-12[4] No minimum age is set for this route. Age enters only as a bonus criterion in the points test: migration.gv.at awards 10 points for an age of up to 35 years, out of a required minimum of 50. |
| 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[9] |
|---|---|
| Renewable | Not established from a qualifying source |
| Work rights | self-employment only as of 2026-08-12[4][11] NAG § 8 Abs. 1 Z 1 and the portal: fixed-term settlement and the pursuit of the self-employed occupation. 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[10][11] Five years of uninterrupted actual settlement under NAG § 45 Abs. 1; this is a settlement title under NAG § 8 Abs. 1 Z 1. |
|---|---|
| How this time counts toward citizenship | 1 as of 2026-08-12[12] 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 | EUR 30,000 as of 2026-08-12[1][4] AuslBG § 24 Abs. 2 Z 5: capital for the company to be founded of at least EUR 30,000, of which at least half must be equity. migration.gv.at states the same as 'capital for the company to be founded amounting to EUR 30,000 minimum with an equity share of at least 50%'. The equity split is a condition on this amount and has no field of its own. |
|---|---|
| Business plan required | Yes as of 2026-08-12[1][4] AuslBG § 24 Abs. 2 Z 3: a coherent business plan for the establishment and operation of the company. |
| Endorsement required | Yes as of 2026-08-12[1] AuslBG § 24 Abs. 3: expert opinion of the provincial office of the Public Employment Service within three weeks, after hearing the provincial directorate. |
| Innovation criterion | Yes as of 2026-08-12[1][4] AuslBG § 24 Abs. 2 Z 2: the applicant must, within a newly founded company, develop and bring to market innovative products, services, processes or technologies. |
| Jobs to be created | Not applicable as of 2026-08-12[1] No job-creation condition applies at the application stage. Two full-time employees are required only for the later change of purpose to a Red-White-Red Card plus under AuslBG § 24 Abs. 4, carried in permit.renewal_requirements. |
| Own means requirement | Not applicable as of 2026-08-12[3][9] NAG § 41 Abs. 2 excludes § 11 Abs. 2 Z 2 and Z 4 for this card, so the accommodation condition and the § 293 ASVG subsistence condition do not apply. |
Process
| Where to apply from | either as of 2026-08-12[4] First application at the competent Austrian representation abroad, or directly with the competent residence authority in Austria after lawful entry and during a lawful stay. |
|---|---|
| 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[11] NAG § 8 Abs. 1 Z 2: the Red-White-Red Card plus carries 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.
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 | 12 |
|---|---|
| of which official (tier 1) | 12 |
| 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] Start-up Founders — Red-White-Red Card: conditions, points table, 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 § 45 — Aufenthaltstitel „Daueraufenthalt – EU“
Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes (RIS), Bundeskanzleramt · statute · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-12 - [11] 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 - [12] 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