If you are a key employee (manager, specialist and trainee employee with a university degree) who enters Austria in the framework of an intra-corporate transfer from a third country, you will be issued a residence permit as an intra-corporate transfer (‘ICT’), provided you meet the legal requirements. As a transferee, you must have been employed within the same company group for at least nine uninterrupted months immediately prior to the transfer in the case of managers and specialists, and for at least six uninterrupted months in the case of trainee employees.

Key Workers are:

• managers: directors of the branch or of a department thereof;
• specialists: skilled workers possessing specialised knowledge essential to the branch with a high level of qualification or specific technical knowledge;
• trainee employees: university graduates whose career development is to be promoted or who undergo an industry-specific, technical or methodological training.

Requirements are:

• temporary employment in the company of at least nine months or, for trainees, at least six months preceding the transfer;
• submission of a work contract also providing the necessity of the temporary transfer;
• proof of a genuine economic activity of the company.

Direct transfer from a third country to Austria

You will receive a residence permit as an intra-corporate transferee (‘ICT’) that will be issued for no longer than three years or, for trainees, for no longer than one year.

Transfer from another EU member state to Austria (‘mobile ICT’)

If you are already a holder of a residence permit ‘ICT’ of another EU member state and your activity in Austria is to exceed 90 days, you will receive a residence permit for mobile intra-corporate transferees (long-term ‘mobile ICT’).

For an activity of less than 90 days the provisions for posting of workers by EEA and Swiss companies applySearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN••• (short-term ‘mobile ICT’). As a short-term ‘mobile ICT’ you do not need a specific residence permit for Austria.