In general, third country nationals, who intend to work and live in Austria for a period exceeding six months, must achieve a certain minimum number of ‘points’ in a special Federal system, which awards points according to special qualifications and skills, work experience, language skills and age of the nationals.

However, for certain occupational groups, the generally required minimum number of points is reduced to facilitate the immigration of well-qualified key workers to Austria. A list of privileged occupational groups is issued every year by the competent Federal Ministry. For 2020 the following occupational groups are privileged for immigration to Austria:

• graduate engineers, especially in mechanical engineering, heavy current engineering, data processing, light current engineering and communications engineering and economics;
• social scientists;
• economists;
• scientific statisticians;
• chartered accountants;
• medical doctors.