Residence permit for researchers
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Titre de sejour pour « chercheur » as of 2026-06-12[2] Art. 64(2) names the title 'titre de sejour pour «chercheur»'. |
|---|---|
| Official name (English) | Residence permit for researchers as of 2023-07-10[1] Guichet's own English rendering. |
| Legal basis | Loi modifiee du 29 aout 2008 sur la libre circulation des personnes et l'immigration, art. 63 to 67-3 as of 2026-06-12[2] Art. 63 sets the conditions and exclusions; art. 64 the procedure and the permit's term; art. 65 the accreditation of research organisations; art. 66 the hosting agreement and the organisation's financial undertaking; art. 67 to 67-3 intra-EU mobility of researchers and their family members. |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-06-12[2] Art. 64(2) issues a 'titre de sejour' under art. 40. |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EU, EEA, EFTA as of 2023-07-10[1] Guichet: the route is for 'a third-country national (i.e. a national from a country which is not an EU Member State or a country treated as such – Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland)'. |
|---|---|
| Criminal-record condition | Yes as of 2023-07-10[1] Guichet's renewal document list requires a recent extract from the Luxembourg criminal record. Art. 63 states no criminal-record condition of its own; the public-order test sits in art. 34. |
Permit terms
| Initial duration | 1 year as of 2026-06-12[1][2] Art. 64(2): the permit is 'valable pour la duree d'un an, sinon pour la duree de l'activite de recherche'. Guichet says the same. No bound marker is set: one year is the ordinary term and the research activity's own length is an alternative, not a ceiling. Researchers under an EU or multilateral mobility programme receive at least two years, or the length of the hosting agreement or employment contract if shorter. |
|---|---|
| Renewable | Yes as of 2026-06-12[1][2] Art. 64(2): renewable as long as the conditions of grant remain met. |
| Work rights | own activity only as of 2026-06-12[2] |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Yes as of 2023-07-10[1] Guichet: 'After 5 years of lawful and uninterrupted stay on t[he territory]…' – the researcher page carries the same five-year long-term-residence pointer as the other third-country routes, and art. 80(1)'s qualifying period does not exclude researchers. |
|---|
Requirements
| Job offer required | Yes as of 2026-06-12[1][2] Art. 63(1): the applicant must present a hosting agreement (convention d'accueil) signed with a research organisation accredited under art. 65, together with the organisation's financial undertaking under art. 66(4). Employment contracts count as hosting agreements as long as the art. 66 conditions are met. |
|---|---|
| Qualification requirement | degree as of 2026-06-12[2] Art. 63(1): the applicant must hold a qualification entered in the register of qualifications, higher-education section, under art. 68 of the amended Law of 28 October 2016, corresponding to level 7 or 8 of the Luxembourg qualifications framework – i.e. master's or doctoral level. Guichet renders this as 'a higher education diploma giving access to doctorate programmes'. |
| Employer sponsorship | Yes as of 2026-06-12[1][2] Art. 65 requires the research organisation to be accredited in advance – accreditation is granted for a maximum of five years, or three where the organisation was recently created – and art. 66(4) makes it issue a named undertaking to cover the researcher's stay and return costs, with financial responsibility running until two months after the hosting agreement ends. |
| Own means requirement | 1 × monthly social minimum wage for skilled workers aged 18 and over per month as of 2026-06-12[1][2] |
| Job-search route | No as of 2026-06-12[2] |
Process
| Where to apply from | from abroad only as of 2023-07-10[1] Guichet describes the standard two-step procedure – a temporary authorisation to stay applied for from the third country of residence, then the residence permit after arrival. Art. 63(1) itself names no place of filing. |
|---|---|
| Statutory processing time | up to 60 days as of 2026-06-12[2] Art. 64(1): the minister notifies his decision in writing 'le plus rapidement possible et au plus tard dans les soixante jours suivant la date de l'introduction de la demande complete'. The period is suspended while requested additional information is outstanding. |
| Fees |
|
Physical presence
| maximum consecutive absence | 6 months · to keep the permit as of 2023-07-10[1] |
|---|
Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Yes as of 2026-06-12[1][2] Art. 71(b) names the researcher of art. 64 among those whose art. 70(1) family members may accompany them on entry or join later, provided the sponsor meets art. 69(1) points 1 to 3. Guichet's family-reunification page confirms that a sponsor holding a 'researcher' permit is exempt from the minimum-prior-residence condition. |
|---|---|
| Eligible relations | spouse, registered partner, minor child as of 2026-06-12[2] Art. 70(1) via art. 71(b). |
| Family members' work rights | full as of 2026-06-12[2] Art. 74(2). |
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 | 2 |
|---|---|
| of which official (tier 1) | 2 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2023-07-10 |
| Newest as-of date | 2026-06-12 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-17 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Applying for a residence permit for third-country researchers
Guichet.lu – State Information and Press Service, Luxembourg · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2023-07-10 · Accessed 2026-08-14 - [2] Version consolidée applicable au 12/06/2026 : Loi du 29 août 2008 portant sur la libre circulation des personnes et l'immigration
Journal officiel du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg (Legilux) · statute · Tier 1 · Published 2026-06-12 · Accessed 2026-08-14