Look inside
The plan for Austria, from the inside
These are all 32 steps of the Austria journey, exactly as they appear in your personal plan — with the lead time and the costs next to them. Not a brochure: this is the file that feeds the platform. Pick another country below if you're heading elsewhere.
For which country?
Every country has its own steps, its own order and its own clocks. Switch as often as you like.
- Steps
- 32
- Phases
- 5
- Official sources
- 58
- Only for your situation
- 9
Phase 1
5 steps
Orientation
Austria asks no permit but punctuality: three days for your registration, one month for your car, four months for your residence document — and that last clock already starts at the border. Whoever knows the deadlines is settled in weeks; whoever misses them pays fines fixed by law.
- 1.1
Understand the system: three clocks, one order
- Lead time
- reading step
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 1.2
The car: do the sum before you decide
- Lead time
- an evening of calculating
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 1.3
Get a picture of what it's going to cost
- Lead time
- 1-2 hours with the calculator
- Costs
- none
- 1.4
Take the decision together
- Lead time
- no fixed time; take your time for it
- Costs
- none
- 1.6
Choose your target date
- Lead time
- five minutes, below
- Costs
- none
Phase 2
11 steps
Closing the Netherlands
The familiar list, with the friendliest pension rules of the whole site: the 1970 treaty assigns your occupational pension exclusively to Austria — without threshold, without withholding tax, and without renegotiation in sight. Whoever leaves on a pension wants this worked out properly once.
- 2.1
Arrange your healthcare: the basic insurance stops on moving day
- Lead time
- start 2-3 months before departure; the CAK application takes ± 4 weeks
- Costs
- workers none; pensioners the CAK contribution
2 official sources
- 2.2
AOW and pension: the friendliest treaty on the site
- Lead time
- an afternoon of research, and one conversation with a tax adviser
- Costs
- the tax adviser's conversation
2 official sources
- 2.3
The tax wrap-up: M return and the protective assessment
- Lead time
- the return comes after the emigration year; preparing can be done now
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 2.4
Stop allowances and child benefit
- Lead time
- an hour, online
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 2.5
Deregister with the municipality
- Lead time
- possible from 5 days before departure, up to and including departure day
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 2.6
DigiD, bank and your vote: keep the lines with the Netherlands
- Lead time
- an afternoon
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 2.7
Documents: multilingual extracts, no apostille — and no translation agency
- Lead time
- 1-2 weeks for applying for extracts
- Costs
- fees per extract
2 official sources
- 2.8
Partner comes along without a job of their own
- Lead time
- an evening together, then a few things to arrange
- Costs
- none — the consequences are in the article
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 2.9
Living partly in the Netherlands: the eight-month rule
- Lead time
- one decision, before you commit to anything else
- Costs
- none
4 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 2.10
The house in the Netherlands: sell, rent out or keep
- Lead time
- one conversation with the mortgage lender and one with a tax adviser
- Costs
- advisory hours; when renting out possibly an interest surcharge from the bank
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 2.11
Children staying in the Netherlands: DUO, healthcare and the house
- Lead time
- an evening, and after that one report a year
- Costs
- none
1 official source
Only if this applies to you
Phase 3
3 steps
Move
The shortest removal drive of the non-neighbouring countries — nine hundred to twelve hundred kilometres, one vignette — but with two sharp edges: the car gets only one month after arrival, and the dog has to be in the national register within a month.
- 3.1
Plan the drive: one vignette, no customs
- Lead time
- quotes 2-4 weeks ahead; driving yourself is always possible
- Costs
- see the cost indication
2 official sources
- 3.2
The car: prepare the export for the one month
- Lead time
- collect the papers now; the export only around moving day
- Costs
- see the cost indication
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 3.3
The pet: EU passport, and the dog into the register
- Lead time
- vet visit 2-3 weeks before departure
- Costs
- vet check; registration free, dog tax per municipality
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
Phase 4
6 steps
Registration in Austria
The chain here is strict in reverse: the registration itself is free and done in ten minutes, but it has to happen within three days of moving in — with your landlord's signature — and everything that comes after hangs on it: your e-card, your digital identity, your bank account and the residence document with its four-month clock that's already running.
- 4.1
Find your home: know the rules of the game before you sign
- Lead time
- count on weeks; the market is tight in the cities
- Costs
- deposit and first month, see the cost indication
2 official sources
- 4.2
The Meldezettel: three days, one signature
- Lead time
- the clock is three days after moving into the home
- Costs
- free
2 official sources
- 4.3
Social insurance: your employer arranges it before day one
- Lead time
- the registration is before your first working day; the e-card follows by post
- Costs
- none; the annual service fee is € 25
2 official sources
- 4.4
ID Austria: the digital key, by appointment
- Lead time
- appointment at police, Finanzamt or municipality; active straight away
- Costs
- free
2 official sources
- 4.5
The Anmeldebescheinigung: the clock was already running
- Lead time
- application by appointment; with a complete file often ready straight away
- Costs
- € 44 per person
2 official sources
- 4.6
Bank account: with the Meldezettel it's done in no time
- Lead time
- 1-2 weeks
- Costs
- none
1 official source
Phase 5
7 steps
Arrival
You exist — now the systems turn, and one clock is still ticking hard: the car has to go through the chain within the month. After that Austria becomes generous: fourteen months' salary of which two at six per cent, child benefit with five years' retroactive effect, and a healthcare system where the GP is free — provided you know the panel doctors.
- 5.1
Re-registering the car: through the chain within the month
- Lead time
- a few weeks; start in your first week
- Costs
- ± € 350-400 plus the NoVA, see the cost indication
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 5.2
Work: fourteen salaries, and the collective agreement is your minimum wage
- Lead time
- reading step at the first contract
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 5.3
Get to know the healthcare system: panel doctor or private doctor
- Lead time
- reading step
- Costs
- see the text
2 official sources
- 5.4
Family: the Familienbeihilfe works five years back
- Lead time
- apply via FinanzOnline as soon as you live there
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 5.5
Tax: know your brackets and your Familienbonus
- Lead time
- reading step; the return runs via FinanzOnline
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 5.6
The winter: tyres, chains and the mountain
- Lead time
- arrange before 1 November
- Costs
- winter tyres; Alpenverein ± € 75 a year
2 official sources
- 5.7
The small print: ORF, energy and your driving licence
- Lead time
- reading step, and two ten-minute arrangements
- Costs
- see the text
2 official sources
9 of these steps aren't always there. They appear only when your answers call them up — a pet, a car, children staying behind. That's the difference between a plan and a checklist in which you have to work out yourself what applies.
Look inside
This is what one step of your plan looks like
Not a brochure but the real thing: this is one of the steps of the Austria journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan — with the deadlines, the counters and the sources.
Step 4.5 of your plan
The Anmeldebescheinigung: the clock was already running
- Lead time
- application by appointment; with a complete file often ready straight away
- Costs
- € 44 per person
Within four months of your entry — so the clock was already running during your house hunt — you apply at the Bezirkshauptmannschaft (in Vienna: the MA 35) for the Anmeldebescheinigung: the document that records your EU right of residence. Workers show a contract or payslip; the non-active show means (guideline: about € 1,308 a month for a single person) plus healthcare cover. The fees are € 44 as of 2026 — not the € 15 the whole internet still mentions — and applying late costs € 50 to € 250. The reassurance: the notorious Viennese backlogs have been cleared for EU cases; with a complete file you nowadays often get the document handed over straight away at the counter. Your right of residence itself is never in question — this paper only confirms it.
This is step 4.5 of 32. The other 31 are ready for you — each with the same sources, the same counters and a planning that watches your dates.
And what you don't see here
This page shows the content. What a page can't show is the work the platform does for you afterwards:
- The clocks that start running the moment you begin, and a nudge at the moment something is asked of you — not earlier.
- Your documents in one place, with their expiry dates watched, so nothing lapses while you wait for something else.
- The ticking off, together with your partner on the same journey.
- The steps that drop out or appear based on your answers, so your plan holds only what really applies to you.
Ready to start on Austria?
All 32 steps, set to your situation and with the deadlines watched. € 199 once, no subscription.
The departure guide
Five mails, and you see your whole journey
Not ready to start yet? Then we'll send you the departure guide for Austria: five mails in a week and a half, with the order, the pitfalls and the real costs. After that one question about where your plans stand, and beyond that only a short update when something in Austria really changes — at most one a month, no newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
Ready to begin?
Thirty-six journeys are fully ready — Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Canada, Panama, United States, Suriname, China, Dubai, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, Turkey, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand: your step-by-step plan, your documents and your costs in one place, with the timing watched. Pay once, and it's yours.