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Germany or Austria: Where is it easier to get an EU Blue Card?

The EU Blue Card is a common way for skilled non-EU workers to come to European countries like Germany and Austria. But where is it easier to get one?

Published: 9 March 2023 10:59 CET

The EU Blue Card is a valuable option to move to either Germany or Austria for work. Photo by Christin HUME via Unsplash

Though obvious friends with a deeply linked history, Germany and Austria are competing against each other in the global race for skilled workers. Germany needs as many as 400,000 new skilled workers a year to plug its labour market gap. There are over 100,000 vacancies in Austria – a country of just nine million people.

What eligibility rules for an EU Blue Card are there in each country?

In Germany, nationals from countries that need a visa to enter, which includes most non-EU countries, first need to apply for a visa that will allow them to take up gainful employment – which could include a jobseeker’s visa.

After that, they can make an appointment at their local immigration office to obtain an EU Blue Card. If someone is a national of a country that doesn’t need a visa to enter Germany, such as an EU/EFTA state or a handful of non-EU countries like the USA, Canada, Japan and the UK, they can apply for their EU Blue Card after arriving in Germany.

For many EU Blue Card applicants in Germany, they’ll need to have:

A university degree linked to their job
A job offer with a proposed salary of at least €56,400 a year

However, the salary requirement drops to €43,992 annually if the applicant is filling a job in a profession experiencing a particular shortage in Germany. These include doctors, engineers, IT specialists, mathematicians and natural scientists.

A key factor here is whether someone looking to get an EU Blue Card is a national of a country that needs a jobseeker visa to enter Germany in the first place. People from these countries (which includes most non-EU countries) may have a slightly tougher time. That’s because, in addition to fulfilling the requirements of an EU Blue Card, they’ll need to have a few extra things to get the German jobseeker visa. These are:

proof of German language skills (typically B1 level)
proof of ability to pay living costs

Additionally, people older than 45 and coming to Germany for the first time on a work visa need an offer with an annual salary of at least €46,530.

The German city of Munich.

The German city of Munich. Photo by ian kelsall on Unsplash

Another thing to keep in mind is that the German government is currently trying to push through a reform of the immigration laws, which aims to make it easier for skilled workers from abroad to enter the country. As part of this reform, the rules for IT professionals are set to be relaxed so that people with career experience or skills can be accepted for a Blue Card without a university degree.

By contrast, as things stand at the moment, Austria’s EU Blue Card salary requirements are slightly easier, even if other factors remain the same. You can also apply for it at an Austrian mission abroad before arriving. You’re eligible for an EU Blue Card in Austria if:

You have a university degree which matches your job OR
If applying to the IT industry, you have three years of relevant experience, as long as you’ve earned those in the last seven years.
A job offer with a proposed gross salary of at least €45,595 a year

So, Austria’s overall annual salary requirement is more than €10,000 lower than Germany’s – unless the applicant is in a skilled profession the German labour market is particularly short of. In that case, their salary requirement for an EU Blue Card in Germany is around €1,500 less than in Austria – but only for those professions.

However, one key factor in Austria is that the company offering the job needs to prove that there are currently no Austrian residents unemployed and registered with the employment agency AMS that could fit that particular position.

According to the Austrian authorities, one of the main requirements is that “the labour market test (Arbeitsmarktprüfung) shows that there is no equally qualified worker registered as a jobseeker with the Public Employment Service (AMS) available for the job.” This could be particularly tricky to prove.

What privileges exist for those are already hold an EU Blue Card?

Other than the obvious right to live and work in the country for at least two years, EU Blue Card holders in Germany are typically eligible for permanent residence much earlier than normal.

While a regular applicant is eligible after at least five years in Germany, EU Blue Card holders can apply for permanent residency after 33 months – or just under three years. Blue Card holders who demonstrate good German language skills – such as by passing a certified language test – can get permanent residence after 21 months, or just under two years in Germany.

EU Blue Card holders in Austria can apply to stay longer than two years with another special card – the Red-White-Red Card Plus. Germany, by contrast, makes permanent residence available quickly. (Photo by Pixabay / Pexels)

After 21 months of working in Austria under an EU Blue Card, you can apply for a Red-White-Red Card Plus. This card gives you unlimited access to the Austrian labour market and the right to stay with similar conditions to those enjoyed by permanent residency holders in Germany. However, it runs out in Austria after a year.

After two years of legal residence in Austria and completion of an integration module, you can get a Red-White-Red Card Plus that’s valid for three years. It takes people five years of residence in Austria to qualify for permanent residency, so a Blue Card and then a Red-White-Red Card Plus can potentially give someone a path to permanent residency in Austria. However, the path requires more bureaucratic steps than in Germany.

The eligibility versus rewards trade-off

Ultimately, an EU Blue Card is a bit harder to get in Germany than in Austria for non-EU skilled workers in most professions, when it comes to the minimum salary requirement being higher. However, Austrian companies need to prove that a candidate offers something no other unemployed person in Austria can offer.

That said, those who do get the EU Blue Card in Germany have an easier, more guaranteed path to permanent residence in Germany, much sooner than in Austria.

We should note though, that both countries have other types of work visas for people who don’t qualify for the EU Blue Card.

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EXPLAINED: What I was asked about in my German citizenship test

If you’re anything like me, sitting any kind of exam always feels daunting, even if it’s one you’ve heard isn’t too difficult to pass.

The silent rooms, the ticking clocks, the invigilator at the front of the room – the whole experience takes me back to my school years, conjuring up memories of being the person who struggled to finish in time and who inevitably failed to notice those ten extra questions on the back of the exam.

Luckily, though, the German citizenship test isn’t too much like exams I’ve taken in the past. Though the stakes are admittedly high, the pressure somehow felt much, much lower.

For starters, you don’t have to worry about getting an impressive grade in your German citizenship test – though of course it’s nice to do well. Your results are either a “pass” or a “fail”, and the bar to hit in order to pass is a 50 percent success rate.

That means that, out of 33 questions in total, you only have to get 17 right in order to pass the test. And to make things even simpler, the questions are multiple choice – so if you’re really stuck, you still have a chance of striking lucky if you tick any of the four potential answers.

So when I arrived to sit my citizenship test in Berlin’s Treptow-Köpenick district on Thursday, the nerves weren’t too overwhelming. In fact, my biggest worry was that I had forgotten some minor administrative hurdle and would be sent home with a stern expression and told to rebook in six months’ time.

Thankfully, after showing my passport and putting my initials on a little attendance form, I was allowed into the exam room at the Volkshochschule – and then it was simply a case of listening to some simple instructions, shutting away my phone in my backpack and waiting to take the test.

Before the exam started, the invigilator let us know that we’d all be given a different selection of questions, so there was no point in trying to see what anyone else was doing.

That said, there are common themes – and questions – that tend to come up time and time again. Here’s how my exam went down.

What you need to know for the German citizenship test

From taking a few practice exams before sitting the citizenship test, I’d say my experience was pretty typical in terms of difficulty and the make-up of the questions and topics that crop up.

The test consists of 33 questions that are picked from a catalogue of 310. Of these, 30 questions will be about Germany in general – anything from politics to day-to-day life – and these will be picked from 300 possible questions on an array of different themes.

New German citizens gather for a naturalisation ceremony in Frankfurt am Main. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Frank Molter

The final three questions will be related to the federal state you live in – in my case, Berlin. These are picked from a possible 10, so this part is pretty easy to prep for.

Of course, it can be nerve-wracking not knowing what’s going to come up, but if you do enough practice questions you’ll realise that there are only really a limited number of topics that are covered. These are the main ones.

General Knowledge

Whether it’s the national anthem or Germany’s crest, having a basic knowledge of Germany’s national symbols and constitution is important for passing the citizenship test.

For instance, you might get asked to name the colours of the flag (in order), say who wrote the lyrics to the national anthem, or identify a picture of the Reichstag or the Bundesadler. You might also have some questions about the former eastern and western states.

Alternatively, you could also be asked about certain national holidays in Germany and a few of the cultural traditions behind them.

In my case, the questions weren’t too tricky for someone who’s lived in Germany for a little while. Here are five of the key ones I was asked:

What animal is on the German crest? (Eagle)
Which religion has shaped European and German culture? (Christianity)
What is ‘Pfingsten’? (A Christian public holiday)
For which celebration do people in Germany wear colourful costumes and masks? (Rosenmontag)
Which of the following states was previously in the DDR? (Thuringia)

History

Possibly the most daunting topic on the test, you can probably expect to get at least five or so questions relating to German history. But there’s no need to panic, since you’re not going to be asked to name the birthplace and birth year of some lesser-know monarch like König Otto.

In fact, from my experience, you can pretty much assume that most history questions will be related either to Nazi-era Germany, the Second World War or the DDR years. Here are a few of the questions that came up up for me:

What year did Adolf Hitler come to power in Germany? (1933)
What year was the Berlin Wall built? (1961)
What did the word “Monday demonstration” mean in Germany in 1989? (Demonstrations every Monday against the DDR regime.)
What did the term “Iron Curtain” refer to? (The Warsaw Pact against the West)
Who was the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany? (Konrad Adenauer)

If any of these seem tricky, it’s worth remembering that they are multiple choice questions, so you may see an answer that rings a bell. And, in the worst-case scenario, you may not do as well on this part of the test and simply need to find your 17 correct answers elsewhere.

Society and the Constitution

This part of the test generally involves various ways of asking whether Germany is a democracy and what kind of rights are enshrined in the Basic Law, such as the right to free speech and thought (Meinungsfreiheit) or the right to choose your own faith and religion.

You might also be asked questions that are designed to check whether you’re on board with some basic assumptions about, for example, the right to protest or the equal rights of different ethnicities or genders.

A woman takes her German citizenship. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Lino Mirgeler

Here are a few of the questions that came up in my test:

Which of these rights is NOT enshrined in the Basic Law? (The right for everyone to have the same amount of money)
What is compatible with the German Basic Law? (Financial penalties / fines)
Two friends want to go to a public swimming pool in Germany. Both have dark skin and are therefore not allowed in. Which right is violated in this situation? (The right to be treated equally)

Daily Life

Anyone who’s lived in Germany for long enough to be applying for citizenship probably understands that life here involves doing things a certain way, and knowing that way can save you a lot of trouble in the long run.

That’s probably enough reason to freshen up your knowledge of admin and the more bureaucratic aspects of daily life before taking the citizenship test.

That said, you don’t have to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of every possible Amt there is to know about – and let’s face it, the majority of Germans don’t either. But it’s good to have a basic idea of the social security system, for example, or where to go if you need to register an address or claim a certain type of benefits.

Here are a few of the questions I was asked on this topic:

Where do you have to go first in Germany if you want to get married? (Standesamt)
What does the Career Information Center BIZ at the Federal Employment Agency in Germany help with? (Finding a job)
What do eligible citizens in Germany get before an election? (A voting slip from the municipality)

I was also shown four pictures of voting slips with various numbers of ticks in the first and second candidate boxes and asked to pick which of them would be accepted in a federal election. As you can imagine, the slip with one candidate ticked on each side of the ballot was correct.

Politics

Out of all the topics on the citizenship test, this is one that tends to crop up the most in various shapes and sizes – and you should be aware that you may not just be asked about national politics, but also about the federal states and even the EU as well.

If you read The Local regularly, you’re probably pretty clued up on this already – and you’re bound to know, for instance, that the current German chancellor is called Olaf Scholz.

The German flag flies in front of the dome of the Reichstag in Berlin. Photo: picture alliance / Soeren Stache/dpa | Soeren Stache

Otherwise, it’s a good idea to brush up a little on how the politic system works – i.e. how the chancellor and president are elected, the difference between the Bundesrat and Bundestag, and what state elections are called – if this is a weak area for you.

Here’s a selection of the slightly nerdy political questions that cropped up for me:

Who is responsible for electing the chancellor of Germany? (Bundestag)
What does the abbreviation CSU mean in Germany? (Christian Social Union)
What do you call members of parliament elected by the citizens? (Abgeordnete / Deputies)
In Germany, a change of government in a federal state can have an impact on the
federal policy. How? (Governing becomes harder if the government lose a majority in the Bundesrat)
Germany is a founding member of what? (The European Union)

Berlin

As mentioned, every citizenship test involves three questions related to the state you live in, which will mostly be basic questions about the state symbols, flags and political system.

The three questions I was asked about Berlin were as follows:

What colours are on the Berlin flag? (red and white)
What do you call the head of the government in Berlin? (Governing mayor)
The state parliament in Berlin is elected for how many years? (5)

I certainly didn’t know the answer to every single question on my test, but having a full hour gave me a good amount of time to check everything over – and I still l was left with more than half the time to spare.

So, take your time, brush up a few of your weak areas and don’t fret if there’s something you don’t know. There’s always a chance to find those 17 right answers elsewhere in the test.

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