Austria’s Red-White-Red Card is a points-based permit to live and work in Austria. It is not a lottery and not a visa you buy: Austria’s public employment service (the AMS) scores your qualifications, experience, languages and age, and an authority in Austria decides. Here is how it works for someone applying from Pakistan, as of October 2026.
The four routes most applicants use
Austria’s migration platform lists seven Red-White-Red Card categories. Three of them matter to most applicants abroad, and the EU Blue Card sits alongside them:
| Route | Points | Job offer first? | Pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Very highly qualified workers | 70 of 100 | Not to start — a six-month job-seeker visa | Pay that is adequate for the job |
| Skilled workers in shortage occupations | 55 of 90 | Yes, a binding offer | At least the collective-agreement minimum |
| Other key workers | 55 of 90 | Yes, and the job must pass a labour market test | €3,465 a month gross in 2026, plus special payments |
| EU Blue Card (the sister permit) | No points | Yes, and a labour market test | €55,678 a year gross in 2026 |
The other categories — graduates of Austrian universities, self-employed key workers, start-up founders, and regular seasonal workers in tourism and farming — suit far fewer people applying from Pakistan.
Very highly qualified: you can come to look for work
If you reach 70 points, you can ask for a six-month job-seeker visa instead of coming with a job. You apply in person at the Austrian Embassy in Islamabad, and the AMS has to confirm your points. You will need proof of accommodation in Austria, full health insurance and money to live on. If you find a job that matches your qualifications before the visa runs out, you apply for the card from inside Austria.
The points are front-loaded towards young graduates in technical fields. A four-year degree scores 20, or 30 in mathematics, IT, the natural sciences or technology. A PhD scores 40. Under 35 adds 20 points for age. Each half-year of work experience adds one point, and German or English at A2 adds 10. So, on paper, a 29-year-old with a four-year BS in computer science, five years’ experience and an English certificate at A2 or above scores 30 + 10 + 20 + 10 = 70 — exactly the line. Make the same person 35, or give them a non-technical degree, and they fall short.
Shortage occupations: trades, engineers, nurses
This route needs a binding job offer in an occupation on Austria’s shortage list, a completed qualification in that occupation, and 55 points. Each year’s list is set by regulation. The 2026 nationwide list has 64 occupations — down from 81 in 2025 — with more on separate lists for individual provinces. It includes electricians and electrical engineers, IT engineers, mechanical engineers, welders, mechanics, plumbers, cooks, nurses and doctors.
The qualification carries 30 of the 90 points, and that is where many Pakistani applicants fall short: the AMS scores completed training in the occupation, shown on paper, not years of learning on the job. With it, the numbers can work — a 32-year-old electrician with a completed diploma, six years’ experience and English at B1 scores 30 + 12 + 10 + 10 = 62, before any German. German at B1 is worth 15 points on this route, more than English.
Doctors and nurses: all health professions are regulated in Austria. Being on the shortage list does not let you work as one — you need your qualification formally recognised first. The government’s recognition portal tells you whether your profession is regulated and who recognises it. For most other jobs, no formal recognition is needed; the AMS checks the documents you submit.
Other key workers: a salary floor and a labour market test
If your occupation is not on the list, this route asks for 55 points, a gross salary of at least €3,465 a month in 2026 plus Austria’s usual special payments, and a labour market test: the AMS checks that no equally qualified jobseeker registered with it can fill the post. For both this route and shortage occupations, Austria’s migration platform says language certificates may be up to five years old, and that the authority does not ask for proof of accommodation or of funds when it issues the card.
What changed in August 2026
An amendment to Austria’s residence and foreign-employment laws, passed by Parliament in May and June and published as Federal Law Gazette BGBl. I No. 81/2026, brought Austria into line with the EU’s revised Single Permit Directive. Two changes matter to cardholders:
- Changing employer. For the first two years the card ties you to one employer, and a new job still needs approval. But once you have applied, you can start the new job provisionally after 45 days. The AMS can pause that clock only if you are the one holding up the check.
- Losing your job. The AMS must now give you at least six months from the start of unemployment to find work before it tells the residence authority you no longer meet the card’s conditions — nine months if you can show your former employer exploited you.
After 21 months of qualifying work within 24, you can move to the Red-White-Red Card plus, which lets you work for any employer or for yourself. Your spouse and unmarried children under 18 can join you on a Red-White-Red Card plus of their own. On their first application they need German at A1, except for families of very highly qualified workers and EU Blue Card holders.
How applying from Pakistan works
- In person, before you travel. A first application is lodged at the Austrian Embassy in Islamabad — not at VFS Global, not at another Schengen country’s embassy, and not at an honorary consulate — or by your employer at the authority in Austria. You wait for the decision in Pakistan.
- Appointments by email. The embassy books Red-White-Red Card appointments by email to its consulate, using its request form. It warns that demand is very high and the wait can be long.
- The embassy doesn’t decide. It checks the file and sends it to the provincial authority where you will live. The law gives that authority eight weeks to decide; the embassy cannot give updates or speed it up. If you are approved, it contacts you, and you have three months to apply for the entry visa that lets you travel and collect the card.
- Pakistani documents. The embassy verifies documents issued by Pakistani authorities through a separate service, lodged at application centres in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi and booked through VFS Global. The embassy says documents in English don’t need a German translation; ask its consulate about anything else. For the Pakistani side of the process — HEC, IBCC and MOFA — see our post on MOFA’s new online attestation.
- The fee for the card application is €218 (from 1 January 2026), paid in rupees at the embassy’s monthly rate.
A warning from the embassy
The Austrian Embassy says false information about it is circulating in Google search results, including a fraudulent phone number and misleading appointment offers. Its real number is +92 51 8770 700, and it states that it does not work with intermediaries or agencies. So nobody — us included — can get you an embassy appointment sooner or influence the decision. What honest advice can do is check your points, your qualification documents and your job offer before you spend months in the queue. If someone promises a “guaranteed” Austrian work visa, walk away: the AMS scores your documents and an Austrian authority decides.