Your first 90 days: Austria

This is the act everything else starts from: at a police registration point they record your details, check your passport and hand you a registration slip (Registrierungsbeleg) — without it there is no card, no basic welfare support and no health cover. You do not apply for asylum: temporary protection follows from the law, not from an application. Since the 2026 extension, new grants are also checked against Ukrainian military-service obligations, so bring proof of a lawful exit and ask at the counter which evidence they accept.

Where to go

Erfassungsstelle der Polizei

What to bring

Passport, birth and marriage certificates, any other identity documents. Registration goes ahead even if some of them are missing.

Everyone living in Austria, children included, must register their accommodation with the registration authority: the person providing the accommodation signs the Meldezettel form and you receive a confirmation (Meldebestätigung). That confirmation is asked for everywhere afterwards — your card is posted to this address, and without it there is no basic welfare support, no bank account and no school place. Registration is free, and failing to register is an administrative offence fined up to 726 euro, and up to 2,180 euro for a repeat offence.

Within three days of moving into the accommodation (§ 3 Meldegesetz).

Where to go

Meldebehörde (Gemeindeamt oder Magistrat)

What to bring

A travel document or your current status card, a record showing your name, date and place of birth and nationality, and the completed Meldezettel signed by the person providing the accommodation.

Grundversorgung covers accommodation, food and health insurance, plus pocket money and help with clothing and school supplies; you apply after the police registration, using the registration slip. The amounts, the conditions and the limit on your own earnings are set by each province separately within the agreement between the federation and the provinces (Art. 15a B-VG) — there is no single Austrian figure, so ask the basic welfare office of your own province. In some provinces, Vienna among them, being registered as a jobseeker with the AMS is a further condition.

Where to go

Landesgrundversorgungsstelle

What to bring

The police registration slip (Registrierungsbeleg), your registration confirmation (Meldebestätigung) and identity documents for every family member in the application.

On 31 May 2025 the automatic insurance for displaced people under § 9 ASVG lapsed: holding the card alone no longer insures you. Three routes are left — cover through Grundversorgung and co-insurance with a working family member both start immediately, while voluntary self-insurance with the ÖGK only pays for treatment after six months, unless you had other statutory cover before it. Under Grundversorgung you are issued a paper substitute instead of the plastic e-card (e-card-Ersatzbeleg), and a child is admitted to school even without valid insurance.

Where to go

Österreichische Gesundheitskasse (ÖGK)

Compulsory schooling applies to Ukrainian children on exactly the same terms as to Austrian ones, whatever their nationality, and runs for nine school years. You enrol the child in person at the primary school for your address: the head teacher assesses school readiness, and a child with no German is enrolled anyway and placed in a German support class (Deutschförderklasse). The school year starts on the first Monday in September in Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland and on the second Monday in the other provinces, while the document list and the enrolment window are set by your province’s education directorate.

Where to go

Bildungsdirektion des Bundeslandes

What to bring

The list is set by your province’s education directorate, so ask the school or the directorate. Bring the child too — the head teacher meets them in person.

You do not apply for the card (Ausweis für Vertriebene), the one everyone calls the blue card: the BFA posts it to the address in the registration register — which is why registering your address comes first. It is free of charge and only documents a residence right that exists by law rather than because of the card. If the card does not arrive, the reason is almost always an unregistered or out-of-date address.

Where to go

Bundesamt für Fremdenwesen und Asyl (BFA)

Since 21 April 2023 holders of the displaced person’s card are exempt from the Aliens Employment Act: access to the labour market is free, you may take a job at once, and the employer needs no AMS permit (Beschäftigungsbewilligung). The AMS is the public employment service: at the first visit they record your education and experience, and after that they offer vacancies, German courses and retraining. In some provinces, Vienna among them, being registered with the AMS is also a condition of basic welfare support.

Where to go

Arbeitsmarktservice (AMS)

What to bring

Your displaced person’s card (Ausweis für Vertriebene) and your registration confirmation (Meldebestätigung).

As soon as you take a job and have income, you must tell your province’s basic welfare office, the person providing your accommodation, or your regional support service. Earnings reduce the payments under rules each province sets for itself, while fully insured work gives you health cover through the employer instead. Saying nothing is the worst option: what was overpaid is reclaimed later.

Where to go

Landesgrundversorgungsstelle

The Austrian Integration Fund (ÖIF) offers people displaced from Ukraine aged 15 and over free German courses from A1 to C1 across the country, and sprachportal.at runs dozens of free online classes every week. Courses from A2 upwards end with an official ÖIF certificate. Start at once: an A1 certificate is one of the conditions for moving to a regular residence permit, and it is the one that takes longest to earn.

Where to go

Österreichischer Integrationsfonds (ÖIF)

What to bring

Your displaced person’s card (Ausweis für Vertriebene) and your registration confirmation (Meldebestätigung).

Since 1 July 2024 the duty to stay in education or training until 18 (AusBildung bis 18) applies to young people from Ukraine as well. Once compulsory schooling ends, a teenager must attend a secondary or vocational school, be in an apprenticeship, or take a recognised course — an AMS course or a German course counts too. The coordination office in your province helps find the option, and its website has pages in Ukrainian.

Where to go

Koordinierungsstelle AusBildung bis 18

For regulated professions — doctor, nurse, teacher, lawyer — recognition is a condition of being allowed to work in the field at all; for everything else an assessment (Bewertung) is usually enough, describing what your qualification is worth without binding anyone. Start not at the recognising authority but at the free multilingual AST counselling service: they work out which route you need, arrange the certified translations and forward the documents. There is no single document list — it depends on the profession and the authority, and a certified translation can be ordered from a Ukrainian-speaking translator in our directory.

Where to go

Anlaufstelle für Personen mit im Ausland erworbenen Qualifikationen (AST)

What to bring

Diplomas and their transcripts, certified translations, identity documents and a CV.

The Annual Leave Act (Urlaubsgesetz, § 2) gives at least 30 working days a year — 25 days on a five-day week — and public holidays come on top of that. In the first six months of your first working year the entitlement builds up in proportion to the time served, and from the day six months are up the whole year’s entitlement is due at once. The Chamber of Labour (AK) advises on leave and employment contracts free of charge.

Where to go

Arbeiterkammer (AK)

In employment your employer withholds wage tax every month, so there is nothing you must file separately — but the annual employee assessment (Arbeitnehmerveranlagung) often returns part of what was paid, especially if you did not work the whole year. Anyone working for themselves has their own deadlines and files themselves. Our calendar shows the Austrian dates, and Finanzamt Österreich takes filings through FinanzOnline.

Where to go

Finanzamt Österreich

Temporary protection for people displaced from Ukraine has now been extended for the fifth time — to 4 March 2028. The residence right holds by law, whatever date is printed on your card, and the BFA issues a new card with the extended validity automatically, with no application. What follows March 2028 is not yet settled, so the next step is worth planning early.

Where to go

Bundesamt für Fremdenwesen und Asyl (BFA)

This is the question people ask at exactly this point, and the honest answer is not yet. Since 1 October 2024 a displaced person may move to a regular residence permit, but it takes at least 12 months of fully insured work within the last 24 months, an A1 German certificate and secured means of subsistence — and anyone receiving Grundversorgung does not meet that last condition. Periods of work can be added together, the rule has no end date, and the card costs 218 euro and is valid for one year, or three years after two years of settlement with Module 1 of the integration agreement fulfilled.

Where to go

Niederlassungsbehörde (Bezirkshauptmannschaft oder Magistrat)

What to bring

A valid travel document, an A1 German certificate, and proof of fully insured work, accommodation, income and health insurance.