Family reunion is ruled through several articles of the Austrian Aliens Act (Fremdengesetz, FrG).

Entitled to family reunion are family members reuniting with non-EEA citizens who settled permanently in Austria before January 1, 2003 under a special family reunion quota. Family members in this category are spouses, and minor unmarried children, including adopted and step children; they are entitled to join their parents in Austria only if their application was filed before the children reached the age of 15. Special family reunion is the reunion with key (self-) employed personnel and private purpose residents.

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Family reunion is ruled through several articles of the Austrian Aliens Act (Fremdengesetz, FrG).

Entitled to family reunion are family members reuniting with non-EEA citizens who settled permanently in Austria before January 1, 2003 under a special family reunion quota. Family members in this category are spouses, and minor unmarried children, including adopted and step children; they are entitled to join their parents in Austria only if their application was filed before the children reached the age of 15. Special family reunion is the reunion with key (self-) employed personnel and private purpose residents.

Family members under this category are spouses and minor unmarried children (until the age of 18), including adopted and step children. Their applications are dealt with under the same quota as the employed personnel and private purpose residents.

Requirements are: a level of income above social assistance minimum, legal entitlement to adequate housing, a health certificate, signing of the „integration agreement (IA)“ introduced by the reform of 2002, and no criminal record. The “IA” requires immigrants who have arrived in Austria since 1st January 1998 and newcomers to acquire a basic knowledge of German within certain periods of time. Non-fulfillment (in time) of the “IA” may lead to a range of different sanctions, in the worst case to expulsion.

Since July 1, 1993 immigration for the purpose of family reunion is subject to annual quotas. Family members have the right to obtain a residence permit provided they fulfill the above-mentioned requirements and a space in the annual quota can be allotted. If all requirements are met and a permanent residence permit cannot be granted due to exhaustion of the quota the application is put on hold until the following year when a new quota is available. This leads to a waiting list system with a considerable backlog of applications. The waiting periods for family members due to the quota system differ from federal province to federal province. According to the present system there is no guarantee that these periods do not exceed 3 years. According to the decree on Permanent Residence Permits (PRP) for 2003 the immigration quota was reduced from 8.280 in 2002 to 8.070 PRPs . The quota for family reunification remained the same as in 2002, which is 5,490 PRPs. (FrG, articles 20, 21, 22).

No minimum residency period is required with regard to the already resident person.

Equal access to education is guaranteed to reunited family members in Austria. Access to employment is subject to the restrictions of the Foreigners‘ Employment Act (AuslBG) requiring a separate work permit under the additional quota system (described under „admission for economic purposes“). According to the AuslBG and implementation guidelines (“Durchführungserlass”), a work permit may be issued to an employer for family members who have progressed in their integration process („fortgeschritten integriert“). This means in practice that s/he has been living in Austria for at least 1 year and either has fulfilled the „IA“ or is exempt from it, or if the family member has an obligation to provide maintenance – especially in the case of single parents - or has been guaranteed naturalization.

Immigrants who have resided in Austria for more than 5 years on a permanent basis and who are able to substantiate regular means of existence from (self-) employment are now entitled to the new "long-term permanent residence permit - EC" or Certificate of Residency (CR) which also includes the unlimited right to work in Austria. The CR will be issued as a card and will be valid for 10 years.

Family members of such persons are also entitled to the CR provided they have been living in Austria for 5 years. Persons who are or were of school age in Austria are entitled to get it after 5 years of permanent residence. (FrG, article 24).

Family members who have not (yet) access to the CR may have access to other forms of work permission, namely the Certificate of exemption (“Befreiungsschein”) for young immigrants.

Persons who completed their last year of compulsory schooling in Austria and have a permanent residence permit (“Niederlassungsbewilligung”) are since 1 January 2003 entitled to the issue of a certificate of exemption. At least one parent must also have been gainfully employed in Austria for at least 3 of the last 5 years; the latter requirement does not apply if the parent is deceased.

Spouses enjoy access to autonomous status after 4 years of residence at the latest (FrG, article 20.1). This is the case earlier if they are able to obtain a work permit. Children enjoy autonomous status after they reach full age provided they have legal access to the labour market.

Analysis provided by: Antonella C. Attardo PhD (History of Law), Italy.

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