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AUSTRIAN CITIZENSHIP

IN NUMBERS: Who are the new Austrian citizens in 2024?

The number of people receiving Austrian citizenship through naturalisation processes is slowing down. Here's a look at some stats about the new citizens and where they are from originally.

Published: 16 February 2024 16:55 CET
IN NUMBERS: Who are the new Austrian citizens in 2024?
Austrian citizenship usually requires a ten-year mandatory residence period - but there are ways to shorten that. Photo by Ante Hamersmit on Unsplash

In 2023, Austrian citizenship was granted to 19,939 people, including more than 8,000 living abroad, according to Statistik Austria. The number was 3.2 percent lower in total than last year.

“The trend of rising naturalisation figures did not continue in 2023. The decline is mainly due to the fact that naturalisations of victims of National Socialism and their descendants fell by 17.7 percent”, said Tobias Thomas, Director General of Statistics Austria.

Austria’s naturalisation rate (ratio of naturalisations to the number of non-Austrian citizens living in Austria) is relatively low compared to the rest of Europe and continues at 0.7 percent. This is because the naturalisation process is not easy in the country – people generally need to be residents for ten years, pay high fees (around €2,000) and give up any other citizenship they hold.

READ ALSO: Will my children get an Austrian passport if born in Austria?

The hurdles are rarely worth it for EU citizens who can live and work in Austria. This is shown in the Statistik Austria data.

Who are the new Austrian citizens?

Only 9 percent of the naturalisations were from people from EU states. The highest proportion of new Austrians held Israeli citizenship (21.4 percent). They are followed by people from Syria (9.4 percent) and the United States (8.2 percent). 

Other nationalities include Turkey (5.7 percent), United Kingdom (5.6 percent), Bosnia and Herzegovina (4 percent), and Afghanistan (4 percent). Nine percent of the naturalisations were of people from EU states and 4.4 percent of people from African countries.

The majority of the people naturalising as Austrians that were from the United Kingdom, the United States or Israel resided abroad – most of them were naturalised via the new process for restitution of Austrian citizenship to victims of the Nazi regime and their descendants. In these cases, people are allowed to keep their other citizenship. 

READ ALSO: Austria improves nationality law for descendants of Nazi victims

About half of the people naturalising (50.2 percent) were women, and a third were under 18 years old. 

In seven federal provinces, more people were naturalised in the year 2023 than the previous year. The relative increases were highest in Burgenland (44.9 percent to 297 naturalisations), followed by Styria (43.8 percent to 1,309), Upper Austria (36.1 percent to 1,808), Lower Austria (33.4 percent to 2,031), Tyrol (18.6 percent to 913), Salzburg (8.8 percent to 530) and Vorarlberg (4.6 percent to 677). 

Fewer naturalisations compared to the year 2022 were reported in Carinthia (−21.4 percent to 434) and Vienna (−12.9 percent to 3,899).

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AUSTRIAN CITIZENSHIP

How does Austria’s citizenship application fee compare to other countries?

Becoming Austrian via naturalisation is a lengthy and expensive process. But how do the fees in Austria compare to other countries in Europe?

Published: 5 June 2024 10:56 CEST
How does Austria's citizenship application fee compare to other countries?

Austrian citizenship through naturalisation is a notoriously difficult process. In most cases, the applicant needs to have lived in Austria for at least six (sometimes ten or more) years to be able to apply. They also need to be able to “support themselves” (which means they should have a stable source of income or financial support), have a high level of German, pass an exam, and pay the fees. The expensive fees.

In Austria, you need to be prepared to pay the initial application fee of €130 and then €1,100 to €1,500 if citizenship is granted. This does not include costs for certified translations, certificates, or the issuance of documents such as a passport.

Becoming Austrian is not cheap, and the payable fees are some of the highest in Europe, according to research done by The Local Denmark, where the Danish government is raising the cost of applying for citizenship to 6,000 kroner from 4,000 kroner (around €800 and €530, respectively). 

READ ALSO: How much do you need to earn to qualify for citizenship in Austria?

For a comparative perspective, France’s application fee is just €55, while in Spain, it is €104 and in Italy, €250. In Norway, the fee is lower than in its neighbour Denmark, at 2,500 Norwegian kroner (around €250). In Sweden, the fee is 1,500 kronor or €130, the cheapest of the three Scandinavian countries.

Germany’s citizenship application fee is €255. However, extensive changes to German citizenship rules are expected to be announced in the coming weeks, so this is expected to change. 

Although Austria figures at the top of the list of countries detailed above, other countries (not covered by The Local) do have similarly high citizenship fees. These include the Netherlands (€925), Ireland (€175 on application, €950 if approved) and the UK, which has a £1,630 (around €1.900) application fee.

In Switzerland, applicants need to pay local, regional, and federal fees, which vary depending on cantons. In certain regions, costs could surpass CHF 3,000 (around €3,100).

Please note that the fees and requirements mentioned in this article are accurate at the time of writing, but they may be subject to change.

It’s always best to check with the official government websites for the most up-to-date information.

READ NEXT: Five surprising Austrian citizenship rules you should know about

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