Austria Residence Permit for Financially Independent People in 2026: The Complete Guide

People often ask me for “the Austrian golden visa”. There isn’t one. Austria does not sell residence for property or a deposit. What it does have is a permit for people who can live on their own money without working in the country, and it is one of the strictest in Europe. Below is how it works, checked on 27 October 2026 against oesterreich.gv.at, migration.gv.at and the BRIDGES Austria page.

What the permit is

The official name is “Niederlassungsbewilligung, ausgenommen Erwerbstätigkeit”, a settlement permit excluding gainful employment. In Austria people simply call it the Privatier permit. It is based on § 44 of the Settlement and Residence Act (NAG) and is meant for people who move to Austria to live there, not to keep a second address.

The five conditions

Condition	What the official pages say
Quota place	needed for most applicants; places are allocated in order of filing
Income	at least twice the ASVG reference rates after running costs: EUR 2,616.78 a month single, EUR 4,128.24 couple, plus EUR 403.76 per child (1 January 2026)
German	level A1 with the first application
Health insurance	covering all risks in Austria
Housing	a legal right to customary accommodation: a lease, a pre-lease or ownership

Income can be a pension, profits from a business abroad, income from assets, savings or shareholdings. The figure is measured after your regular costs, so rent in Austria matters. I go through the money in detail in the income and costs guide.

The quota is the real bottleneck

Each year the federal government sets how many quota permits each province may issue. The Interior Ministry explains that places are allocated first come, first served from the start of the year. In its statement of 10 December 2025 on the draft settlement regulation, the City of Vienna wrote that 130 places for Vienna were planned and that in recent years they were reserved within the first minutes of the first working day. I could not verify the quota numbers for 2026, so I do not quote them. In practice a file has to be complete before January, and BRIDGES also plans filings for early January.

What you cannot do

You cannot work. The permit excludes employment and self-employment in Austria. If you later want to work, you need a different permit, and BRIDGES notes that a change usually means a new quota place too. For employees, Austria has the Red-White-Red Card, a points system with an employer and a job offer, which is a different story.

How long it lasts and what comes next

The Interior Ministry says the permit is usually issued for 12 months, and you extend it from three months before expiry at the earliest and on the expiry day at the latest. Within two years you must complete Module 1 of the integration agreement (German A2). After five years of uninterrupted settlement you can apply for “Daueraufenthalt EU”, the long-term status with access to the labour market, if you have Module 2 (B1). Citizenship normally takes 10 years. The details are in my citizenship and tax guide.

Who it suits

From my experience, Austria works for people with a stable, provable passive income, real plans to live there and the patience to learn German before moving. It does not suit someone who wants a backup residence card without moving, or a family that needs to work locally. For those cases BRIDGES often suggests other countries, for example Hungary, where there is no quota and no language test. The comparison is in Austria vs Spain, Portugal, Greece and Hungary.

Where to go next

• How to file, step by step: application, quota and documents
• Spouse and children: the family guide
• The official fee for the application is EUR 218 per oesterreich.gv.at. Other costs are in the cost guide.