EU Blue Card
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Enotno dovoljenje zaradi visokokvalificirane zaposlitve – modra karta EU as of 2026-08-25[4][10] The statutory name is used. Article 39 of ZTuj-2 is headed 'dovoljenje za začasno prebivanje zaradi visokokvalificirane zaposlitve – modra karta EU' and the Ministry's page heading is the single-permit form of the same name. The Employment Service uses the short form 'modra karta EU'. |
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| Official name (English) | EU Blue Card as of 2026-08-25[4] The EU-wide name of the instrument; Slovenia publishes no other English form. |
| Legal basis | Zakon o tujcih (ZTuj-2), 39. in 40. člen, prvi odstavek 39. člena kot ga je nadomestil 16. člen ZTuj-2I (Uradni list RS, št. 32/25); Zakon o zaposlovanju, samozaposlovanju in delu tujcev (ZZSDT), 20. člen, prvi odstavek kot ga je nadomestil 8. člen ZZSDT-E (Uradni list RS, št. 32/25) as of 2026-08-25[4][10][11] Article 39(1) as replaced by ZTuj-2I article 16 conditions the Blue Card on a valid travel document, health insurance covering at least emergency care in Slovenia, the competent authority's consent under the law governing the employment of foreigners where consent is required, and the absence of the refusal grounds in indents 5, 6, 10, 11, 12 and 14 of article 55(1). The substantive test is therefore in ZZSDT: article 20(1) as replaced by ZZSDT-E article 8 requires at least high professional qualifications and an employment contract signed by the employer for at least six months guaranteeing pay of at least the average annual gross salary in Slovenia last published in the Official Gazette. Both amending acts were read in full. |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-08-25[4] Issued as a single permit for residence and highly qualified employment; the card records the permit type as modra karta EU. |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EU, EEA as of 2026-08-25[2][5] |
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| Minimum age | Not established from a qualifying source Not established. Neither ZTuj-2 article 39 as amended, nor ZZSDT article 20 as amended, nor either portal states an age condition. |
| Criminal-record condition | Recorded at the source, but not reducible to a single value |
Permit terms
| Initial duration | up to 2 years as of 2026-08-25[1][4] Issued for three months longer than the employment contract, but for not more than two years. ZTuj-2I article 16 adds that where the travel document expires sooner, the Blue Card is issued for the validity of the travel document. |
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| How the initial term is set | matches the contract |
| Renewable | Yes as of 2026-08-25[1][4] |
| Renewal duration | up to 3 years as of 2026-08-25[1][4] Extended for up to three years; where the contract is shorter than three years, for the contract term plus three months. |
| Work rights | employment only as of 2026-08-25[4][10][11] Highly qualified employment. In the first year of the Blue Card the holder is tied to the employer and needs the Employment Service's consent to change employer or post; after the first year the change may be made without prior approval, on written notice to the administrative unit. ZZSDT-E article 8 also adds a new paragraph 9 allowing a Blue Card holder, after one year of employment, to carry on a self-employed or independent professional activity as a supplementary activity. The Employment Service's own page still says the tie runs for the first TWO years; that wording is what both May 2025 amending acts replaced. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Yes as of 2026-08-25[6] Time on a Blue Card is time on a temporary residence permit and counts in full towards the five years article 52 of ZTuj-2 requires. |
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Requirements
| Job offer required | Yes as of 2026-08-25[11] ZZSDT article 20(1) point 2 as replaced: an employment contract signed by the employer for at least six months must be attached. |
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| Salary threshold |
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| Labour-market test | Yes as of 2026-08-25[1] The Employment Service lists the absence of a suitable registered unemployed person as a condition of consent to a Blue Card, of consent to an EU Blue Card already issued in another member state, and of consent to a change of employer. It is not listed as a condition for changing post with the same employer. |
| Qualification requirement | degree, equivalent experience, regulated profession as of 2026-08-25[1][4][11] ZZSDT article 20(1) point 1 as replaced: at least high professional qualifications. The Employment Service requires the education to be proved by a decision or opinion of the competent Slovenian recognition or evaluation body; for a holder coming from another member state it requires a decision of the body competent for recognition of professional qualifications where the profession is regulated, and high professional qualifications where it is not and the person was employed under two years in the first member state. All three limbs of the vocabulary are therefore live on this route. |
| Employer sponsorship | Yes as of 2026-08-25[1] The employer signs the contract and the consent is issued against it; in the first year the employer is also the party whose change requires fresh consent. |
| Own means requirement | 1 × basic amount of minimum income per month as of 2026-08-25[4] Article 33(3) of ZTuj-2: a foreigner must have sufficient means of subsistence for the period of residence, monthly at least in the amount of the basic minimum income in the Republic of Slovenia. This is the general condition carried by every temporary residence permit in the Act and the Ministry's page for this permit repeats it; it is not a condition special to this route. |
| Paid in-country | Yes as of 2026-08-25[11] |
| Job-search route | No as of 2026-08-25[11] Issued against a signed contract. A three-month job-search entitlement does attach to it in one situation only, and it is not a variant of this permit: article 40(6) as replaced by ZTuj-2I article 17 requires the authority, where an extension was refused solely because the employer had unpaid social-security contributions or was under an employment ban, to issue the holder a certificate permitting residence to look for new highly qualified employment for three months, or six months if the holder had been employed in Slovenia for at least two years before the refusal. |
Process
| Where to apply from | either as of 2026-08-25[10] Article 40(1) as amended by ZTuj-2I article 17: the foreigner may file the first application under article 34(3), and a new third sentence adds that the employer may file it either at a Slovenian diplomatic mission or consular post abroad or at the competent authority in Slovenia. |
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| Statutory processing time | Not established from a qualifying source Not established for the permit. The Employment Service must decide on its consent within 15 days of receiving the request; no statutory period for the administrative unit's own decision was reached. |
| Fees |
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| Quota |
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Physical presence
| registration only | to keep the permit as of 2026-08-25[2] A foreigner issued a temporary residence permit must register their temporary residence with the administrative unit within eight days of entering the country, of being served the document, or of taking up residence. No minimum day count in Slovenia was found as a condition of keeping any permit; the day counts that exist attach to permanent residence and are recorded on the country block. |
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Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Yes as of 2026-08-25[4][10] Article 47(1) of ZTuj-2 recognises the right to family reunification for holders of a temporary residence permit; seasonal workers and daily cross-border migrants are excluded by the same paragraph. |
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| Eligible relations | spouse, registered partner, unmarried partner, minor child, adult dependent child, parent as of 2026-08-25[7][9] Article 47(3) of ZTuj-2 defines family members as the spouse, the partner in a registered or civil partnership or a partner with whom the foreigner lives in a long-lasting life community; the foreigner's minor unmarried children; the minor unmarried children of that spouse or partner; the parents of a minor foreigner with whom the foreigner lived in a family community before coming to Slovenia; and adult unmarried children and parents of the foreigner or of the spouse or partner whom the foreigner or the spouse or partner is obliged to support under the law of their state of nationality. |
| Family may apply at the same time | Yes as of 2026-08-25[4][10] The fourth sentence of article 47(1) of ZTuj-2, as replaced by article 29 of ZTuj-2I, names this permit's holder among those who may reunite family members without any limit tied to the length of their residence in Slovenia or to the validity of their permit. The Ministry's page states it in terms: the one-year prior-residence condition does not apply to Blue Card holders, and the family application may be filed at the same time as the Blue Card application. Article 47(6) as replaced by ZTuj-2I article 29 issues and extends the family member's permit for the same period as the Blue Card. |
| Family members' work rights | full as of 2026-08-25[3] The Ministry states it twice on the family-member page: family members of EU Blue Card holders have the right to enter the labour market in Slovenia, and the permit itself allows access to it. This is the one family-member permit in the Slovenian estate that carries labour-market access without a further authorisation. |
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.
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Verification
| Sources cited | 11 |
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| of which official (tier 1) | 11 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2026-08-25 |
| Newest as-of date | 2026-08-25 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-26 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Modra karta EU za visokokvalificirano zaposlitev tujcev
Zavod Republike Slovenije za zaposlovanje · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-25 - [2] Entry and residence
Ministrstvo za notranje zadeve in javno upravo (GOV.SI) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-06-12 · Accessed 2026-08-25 · Archived copy - [3] Dovoljenje za začasno prebivanje družinskega člana imetnika modre karte EU
Ministrstvo za notranje zadeve in javno upravo · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2026-08-12 · Accessed 2026-08-25 - [4] Enotno dovoljenje zaradi visokokvalificirane zaposlitve – Modra karta EU
Ministrstvo za notranje zadeve in javno upravo · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2026-08-12 · Accessed 2026-08-25 - [5] Dovoljenje za prebivanje na podlagi dela (kazalo)
Ministrstvo za notranje zadeve in javno upravo · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2026-01-15 · Accessed 2026-08-25 - [6] Dovoljenje za stalno prebivanje
Ministrstvo za notranje zadeve in javno upravo · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2026-08-12 · Accessed 2026-08-25 - [7] Združitev družine in pravica do celovitosti družine
Ministrstvo za notranje zadeve in javno upravo · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2026-08-13 · Accessed 2026-08-25 - [8] Enotna dovoljenja (eBDP) – Stroški
Ministrstvo za notranje zadeve in javno upravo (SPOT) · fee schedule · Tier 1 · Published 2024-03-27 · Accessed 2026-08-25 · Archived copy - [9] Zakon o tujcih (uradno prečiščeno besedilo) (ZTuj-2-UPB15)
Uradni list Republike Slovenije · statute · Tier 1 · Published 2025-06-24 · Accessed 2026-08-25 · Archived copy - [10] Zakon o spremembah in dopolnitvah Zakona o tujcih (ZTuj-2I)
Državni zbor Republike Slovenije / Uradni list Republike Slovenije · gazette · Tier 1 · Published 2025-05-06 · Accessed 2026-08-25 - [11] Zakon o spremembah in dopolnitvah Zakona o zaposlovanju, samozaposlovanju in delu tujcev (ZZSDT-E)
Uradni list Republike Slovenije · gazette · Tier 1 · Published 2025-05-06 · Accessed 2026-08-25