Austria

No. Austria operates no citizenship-by-investment scheme. What exists instead is §10(6) StbG, a constitutional provision that lets the Federal Cabinet waive the ordinary requirements when a foreign national has rendered, and is expected to keep rendering, extraordinary achievements in the Republic's special interest. The Interior Ministry states plainly that mere monetary flows are not sufficient. Passive investment in real estate, government bonds or bank deposits explicitly does not qualify. Practitioners report active direct business investment from roughly EUR 10m with genuine job creation, or contributions from about EUR 4m in science, arts or sport. But the achievement, not the sum, is the legal test. Paying guarantees nothing.

Far fewer than the industry implies. An official parliamentary answer dated 21 May 2024 confirms that 21 people received citizenship under §10(6) in 2022 and 40 in 2023, against 25,095 total Austrian naturalisations in 2025. The figure of 30–60 per year, often quoted by the industry, actually reflects the 2005–2009 era, when the peak was 60 in 2008, not the present day. Austria does not routinely publish the annual §10(6) count. No official figure covering 2024 or 2025 exists, so the newest data available is already stale.

No. The residence requirement is precisely what §10(6) waives, which makes this the only EU citizenship obtainable without living there. The ordinary German-language requirement is waived as well. The Council of Ministers decides in non-public session roughly twice a year, with the file submitted through one of the nine Länder governments. The whole process typically runs 1–3 years. But it is discretionary, not purchasable. The Administrative Court has held that confirmation should be granted only in very rare cases, and there is no appeal.

It depends entirely on the route. Under §10(6), grantees are exempt from renouncing their existing citizenship. This inversion of Austria's usual rule is the single most valuable feature of that route. For everyone else, ordinary naturalisation requires renouncing your existing citizenship within two years. And §27 StbG is just as strict in the other direction. Voluntarily acquiring any foreign citizenship causes automatic loss of Austrian citizenship ex lege, unless a Beibehaltungsbewilligung (retention permit) was issued before acquisition. So Austria is, in general, a single-citizenship country, except for the merit route.

Yes, the Settlement Permit excluding Gainful Employment (Niederlassungsbewilligung – ausgenommen Erwerbstätigkeit), often called the Privatier permit, is available. But it is emphatically not a golden visa. There is no investment component. You must instead show regular monthly income of double the ASVG §293 reference rate, roughly EUR 2,616.78 for a single applicant and EUR 4,128.24 for a couple in 2026, plus about EUR 201.88 per child. The scarce resource is a quota place. The Niederlassungsverordnung 2026 sets around 5,616 quota places nationally, and only about 285 of those are reported for Privatiers. Applications for the 2026 quota had to be booked in a one-week window, 1–8 December 2025. Miss the window, and you wait a year.

No. The Privatier permit bars any gainful employment, and this expressly includes remote work for a foreign employer. That restriction catches many applicants by surprise. The permit is designed for financially independent families and retirees living on stable pension or investment income, not for digital nomads. If you want to work, the Red-White-Red Card is the route to take instead.

Salary thresholds rose for 2026. From 1 January 2026, the EU Blue Card salary threshold must be met in every pay period rather than averaged across the year. That is a real trap for bonus-weighted packages. The Other Key Workers minimum rose to EUR 3,465 gross per month, up from EUR 3,225 in 2025, and the Blue Card threshold is EUR 55,678 gross for 2026. The points system also weights age heavily, so applicants over 45 lose most of the age points. Unlike §10(6), this route is rules-based and appealable. Its start-up founder category, 50 of 85 points, with an innovative plan, funding and a support letter, is the most relevant for entrepreneurial families.

Austria taxes residents on worldwide income at up to 55% on income over EUR 1,000,000, with a 27.5% flat KESt on securities, dividends and interest and a 30% flat ImmoESt on real estate gains regardless of holding period. There is no wealth tax and no inheritance tax, the latter abolished in 2008, though both re-entered concrete parliamentary debate in late 2025 and 2026 with no bill enacted as of July 2026. Austria also has full CFC rules and an exit tax. Austrian residence is a serious tax event, not a flag-planting exercise.

No, whatever some industry marketing suggests. The names and professions of §10(6) grantees are published in the Council of Ministers' resolution protocols, so this is not a discreet, secret arrangement. Confirmation comes from the Federal Cabinet, but conferral remains with the relevant Land government under §39 StbG, meaning two political bodies must align. Anyone quoting a fixed price and a success rate is selling certainty the statute does not provide.