Austria: Ukrainians with temporary protection can get a regular residence permit without leaving the country

In brief

• The amendment was published on 15 October 2026 in the Austrian Federal Law Gazette (BGBl. II No. 304/2026) and applies from the end of that day, in practice from 16 October.
• A new § 4a allows people with temporary protection to apply for any residence permit under the NAG, provided they waive their displaced-person status in writing.
• The waiver takes effect only when the new permit is issued. While the application is pending, the person remains lawfully in Austria.
• Temporary protection for displaced persons from Ukraine in Austria has been extended to 4 March 2028 by a decision of the Council of the EU.
• The conditions of the permits themselves have not been relaxed: income, housing and insurance are required, and for some permits also language skills and a fee.

What exactly changed on 16 October

The change was made not to the NAG itself but to the government regulation on displaced persons (Vertriebenen-Verordnung), which has applied since 2022 on the basis of § 62 of the Asylum Act. The Main Committee of the National Council approved the amendment on 15 October 2026, and it was published the same day. Under the amendment, the new rules take effect at the end of the day of publication. So applications under the new rules can be filed from 16 October.

The main novelty is § 4a. It has four parts. First, a person with a temporary right of residence may apply for a residence permit under the NAG if they waive their displaced-person status in writing and irrevocably, for the case that the permit is granted. The waiver takes effect when the residence permit is issued and can only be made before the decision. Second, once the permit is issued, the immigration authority informs the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum (BFA). Third, lawful stay immediately before the permit is issued counts as settlement under the NAG, unless the person was granted a permit for temporary stay. Fourth, anyone who applies before their protection ends remains lawfully in the country until the final decision.

The last point closes an old problem. Under the general rule in § 21 NAG, a first application for a residence permit is filed at an embassy abroad and the applicant waits for the decision there. There are exceptions, for example for people who entered without a visa, but even then an in-country application does not give the right to stay beyond the permitted period. For people with temporary protection, this conflict has now been removed by an explicit rule.

What this means for you. If you have temporary protection in Austria and meet the conditions of a regular residence permit, you no longer need to travel to an embassy to apply. You apply in Austria, keep your status, and the switch happens on the day the permit is issued.

How it worked before: one special route

From 1 October 2024 displaced persons from Ukraine had one special route: the Red-White-Red Card plus (Rot-Weiß-Rot - Karte plus). It is set out in § 41a(7b) NAG: the card may be issued if the person meets the general requirements of the Act and there is a written notice from the regional office of the public employment service AMS. According to the official migration.gv.at portal, this requires at least 12 months of work with income above the marginal employment threshold and completion of module 1 of the integration agreement. Family members can receive a permit together with the applicant.

This route worked but did not suit everyone: students, freelancers, people with gaps in employment, and those who wanted to bring their family on other grounds. According to Ukrainian press reports, before the amendment displaced persons had practically no other way to obtain a regular residence permit without leaving. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, according to the parliamentary press service, said that around 11,000 Ukrainians already hold a permit under the NAG.

The special Card plus route remains, and next to it there is now a general door: a person can choose the permit whose conditions they meet. This matters for families where one spouse works and the other studies or runs a business, and for people who do not have enough work history for the Card plus.

What this means for you. If you have already worked for 12 months and completed module 1, the Card plus route remains the clearest. If not, it is now worth looking at other permits rather than waiting to build up the work history.

Who can apply

The new rule applies to people with a temporary right of residence under §§ 1 or 3 of the regulation. These are Ukrainian citizens displaced by the war from 24 February 2022, third-country nationals and stateless persons who held protection status in Ukraine before the war, and their family members: spouses or registered partners, minor unmarried children and other close relatives who lived together with and depended on the main applicant. It also covers Ukrainians whose previous Austrian permit expired and who cannot return.

It does not cover people who fall under the exclusion grounds of the EU temporary protection directive or who already received temporary protection in another EU state. This is also part of the 15 October amendment. New applicants for protection face one more condition: compliance with any military obligations under Ukrainian law. According to the Austrian Interior Ministry, this does not apply to those who held protection on or before 30 July 2026 and have not lost it.

Timing also matters. Lawful stay during the procedure is preserved if the application is filed before the temporary right of residence ends. At present that is 4 March 2028, but the right can end earlier, for example if the centre of life moves abroad or after a long absence from Austria.

What this means for you. If you hold a valid displaced-person card in Austria and have not received protection in another EU country, the new rule applies to you. Check that you have had no long absences that could have interrupted your status.

Which permits you can apply for

§ 4a does not limit the list: it covers any residence permit under the NAG. In practice, people with temporary protection are most often interested in five options. The Red-White-Red Card is for skilled workers under a points system, with a specific employer and confirmation from the employment service. The Red-White-Red Card plus gives free access to the labour market, including through the special route for displaced persons. The EU Blue Card is for specialists with a university degree and a salary at or above a threshold that is reviewed every year. Family permits apply where a person with a suitable status already lives in Austria. And there is a settlement permit without the right to work for people with their own income, covered on our page about Austrian residence for financially independent people.

Each permit has its own conditions, and the amendment does not change them. For example, the EU Blue Card requires a recognised degree, and the card for skilled workers requires points for education, experience, language and age. This often calls for recognition of education, which takes time.

Family is a separate question. If the head of the family receives an NAG permit while the spouse and children keep temporary protection, the family will have different statuses for a while. That is lawful, but I would advise planning the switch for the whole family at once. How family reunification works and which documents are needed for each family member is covered in our guide to residence for families.

What this means for you. Choose the permit first, then collect the documents. The documents for an EU Blue Card and for a permit without the right to work are different, and redoing a file costs more than planning it correctly once.

Conditions: income, housing, insurance, language, fee

The general NAG requirements for all permits are a valid passport, housing considered usual for a family of that size, health insurance covering all risks and proof that the person covers their own living costs and will not rely on social assistance. Income is assessed against the reference rates in the General Social Insurance Act (§ 293 ASVG), which are updated every year. It is best to check the exact amount at the date of filing with the immigration authority of your province.

Family members need German at A1 level for a first application. Extending the Card plus for a longer period requires completion of module 1 of the integration agreement. The Card plus is usually issued for one year, and for three years after two years of lawful residence and completion of module 1.

The fee for issuing the Red-White-Red Card plus, according to the official migration.gv.at portal, is EUR 218. For other permits, the amount should be checked at the date of filing; translations, legalisation, certificates and advice come on top of the fee. How we calculate full costs and timelines is described in our article on costs and timelines.

Applications are filed with the immigration authority at the place of residence. In Vienna this is MA 35; in other provinces it is the provincial government, the district authority or the municipal office, depending on the type of permit. Documents are submitted in person, with originals and copies. Documents not in German or English must be translated.

What this means for you. If your income is irregular or your housing is registered as temporary accommodation, sort this out before you apply. A refusal on the permit conditions will not cost you your protection, but it will cost you months.

Documents: what to prepare in advance

This is the most common cause of delays, and it is my field, so I will go into more detail. Ukrainian documents for an Austrian immigration authority almost always need to be translated into German and sometimes legalised. Ukraine and Austria are both parties to the Hague Convention, so an apostille is usually enough instead of consular legalisation. Which documents need an apostille is decided by the authority that accepts the application.

What is usually needed: birth certificate, marriage or divorce certificate, children's birth certificates, a criminal record certificate, diplomas with transcripts, employment records and proof of income. Duplicate civil registry certificates are often needed because people left with old forms or without originals. A criminal record certificate has a limited validity, so it is ordered closer to the filing date.

Translations are best done by a sworn translator accepted by the Austrian authority. We handle sworn translation and the apostille as one order, to avoid the situation where the translation is ready, the apostille is added afterwards and the translation has to be redone. If documents need to be recovered, the BRIDGES documents service works out the sequence of steps for the specific situation.

One more point. The written waiver of displaced-person status is also a document. The wording must state clearly that the waiver applies for the case that the permit is granted. The waiver is irrevocable, so sign it only when you are confident about the chosen permit and the document file.

What this means for you. Start by checking what you already have, and order missing certificates from Ukraine straight away. Recovering documents remotely takes longer than the filing itself.

How many people this affects

According to the Austrian parliamentary press service, 147,022 people have been covered by the regulation since the start of the war, around a third of them children. As of 1 August 2026, 91,559 people held valid displaced-person status, of whom 25,600 received basic care. The government estimates the cost of extending protection to the federal budget at EUR 174.5 million.

Across the EU, almost 4.4 million people benefit from temporary protection, according to Eurostat data cited by the Ukrainian Ministry of Social Policy. Austria is not the first country looking for a way to move them onto regular permits. We have written about how Sweden is changing the rules for families of EU long-term residents, and different states are solving a similar problem in their own way.

In parliament, the amendment was supported by the governing coalition and the Greens, while the Freedom Party voted against. Its MPs called the switch to the NAG a pull factor. A Green MP asked what would happen to a person whose NAG permit later ends after they have already given up displaced-person status. No answer was given during the session.

What this means for you. The new rule concerns tens of thousands of people, so in the first months immigration authorities may work more slowly than usual. Allow extra time for the decision.

What happens after March 2028

A Council of the EU decision of 30 July 2026 extended temporary protection to 4 March 2028. This extension already goes beyond the original time frame of the directive, and what comes next has not yet been decided at EU level. In 2025 the Council of the EU recommended that states prepare a coordinated transition from temporary protection to other statuses. The Austrian Interior Ministry explicitly links the new rule to that recommendation.

Hence the main practical conclusion. A regular residence permit does not depend on the extension of protection at EU level. In addition, according to Minister Karner, after five years of residence under the NAG a person can obtain EU long-term resident status, the equivalent of permanent residence. The rule that the period before the permit is issued counts as settlement under the NAG may help reach that period, but how the authorities will count the years will become clear in practice. We wrote in detail about the options after 2028 in the article on temporary protection for Ukrainians after 2028.

Tax is also worth keeping in mind. Switching to a regular residence permit does not in itself change tax residence, which depends on where your centre of life is and how many days you spend in the country. There is a separate explainer on tax residence.

What this means for you. If you plan to stay in Austria after 2028, switching to an NAG permit now removes your dependence on EU decisions. If you plan to return to Ukraine or move to another country, there is no need to rush an irrevocable waiver.

Risks and open questions

1. The waiver is irrevocable. Once the permit is issued, you cannot return to displaced-person status in Austria. If you later fail to renew the NAG permit, you will need another legal basis, and the rule gives no guarantees for that scenario.
2. Permit conditions are checked in full. Income, housing and insurance are assessed under the general rules. Basic care and temporary accommodation do not prove income and housing under the NAG.
3. Different statuses within a family. If one family member receives a permit, the others keep their status until they receive their own. This needs to be considered for travel and for children's paperwork.
4. Quotas. Some settlement permits in Austria are subject to annual quotas. The amendment does not remove them.
5. Timelines. The rule sets no processing times. In the first months authorities will receive a large flow of applications.

If you are comparing Austria with neighbouring countries, Hungary, for example, has a different work permit system; we described it in the article on the Hungarian work permit, and general information is on the Hungary page. For high-earning specialists there are other countries with dedicated talent residence permits.

What to do now

If you are not sure which permit to choose, start with an online consultation: we will review your situation and the document list. The travel options of a Ukrainian passport are in the passport index, and all residence and citizenship programmes are on the BRIDGES home page.

How this article was prepared

This article is based on the text of the Austrian federal government regulation amending the Vertriebenen-Verordnung (BGBl. II No. 304/2026, published on 15 October 2026) and the consolidated version of that regulation in the Austrian legal information system RIS; on §§ 21 and 41a of the NAG as in force from 7 August 2026; on the Austrian parliamentary press service report on the session of the National Council Main Committee of 15 October 2026; on the Austrian Interior Ministry release of 30 September 2026 and its pages on registration and residence of displaced persons; on the official portals oesterreich.gv.at and migration.gv.at; and on Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/1912 of 30 July 2026. Information on how things worked before the amendment partly comes from Ukrainian press reports of 23 October 2026. The fee is given for the Red-White-Red Card plus according to migration.gv.at. This article does not replace advice on your own case.