2024-11-11 10:07:00
Vienna. According to Der Standard Newspaper, there is no way to escape MA 35 for foreign citizens who want to live and work in Vienna, just like there is for those who want to get an Austrian passport. However, in recent years, this department responsible for immigration and citizenship in Vienna has gained a reputation as a real problem authority. So much so that complaints are increasing day by day about waiting times to process applications, sometimes lasting many years, lack of service and difficulty contacting the Department with questions. For example, in the reporting year 2023, the Austrian Ombudsman Board received approximately 400 complaints that were classified as well-founded, most of them due to long processing times.
At the same time, there has recently been a significant increase in new applications for recognition of Austrian citizenship, from an average of 300 applications per month to 1,200 applications. In 2021, the Vienna City Councilor for Integration Christoph Wiederkehr (Neos) started a reform process to control the growing problems. The focus was on more services, better accessibility, digitization and more staff. On Friday, Wiederkehr and MA-35 Director Georg Hufgard-Leitner published an interim report covering developments until 2024.
According to the report, the field of citizenship remains a challenge: applicants have to wait almost a year for their first in-person appointment, and the average waiting time is 324 days. On the one hand, this is due to population growth: For example, people who arrived and integrated in Vienna during the years of major refugee movements in 2015 and 2016 can now apply for citizenship if they meet the conditions. This is the case for many people from Syria and Afghanistan. On the other hand, there was an increase in the number of applications for the descendants of Austrian victims of Nazi persecution who were able to apply for passports.
More appointments are made every month
The municipality responded to this development by significantly increasing the number of staff and by improving efficiency. Many more application appointments are available now, Wiederkehr said. While 300 appointments were made per month in 2021, around 1000 appointments are currently being made. From September 2025, around 1,300 appointments per month will be available once new employees are trained. The number of employees at MA 35 has increased from 554 in 2021 to 717 currently, and is aiming to be just under 800 by autumn 2025.
The effects of the reform can also be seen in the number of completed citizenship transactions: The number of transactions, which was 7356 the previous year, reached 5609 in 2021. Of these, more than 2900 transactions were rejected. According to Hufgard-Leitner, citizenship applications often had to be considered negatively due to missing income limits.
The reform has brought significant improvements to immigration, with the average procedure time reduced from 69 days in 2021 to the current 41 days. For applications from EEA citizens, this period has reduced to around 13 days. Settlement and residence procedures for third-country nationals are now 87 days: three years ago the average was 107 days. Hufgard-Leitner said that all transactions that could be done this way are also done electronically. The Ministry’s websites have been translated into understandable language. There are also online help centers to offer more services. Phone availability is also optimized.
Students without a residence permit
Peter Marhold, who advises foreign nationals on residence and settlement law, employment and naturalization at the NGO Helping Hands, has a mixed assessment of the MA-35 reform process. Things are now routine in “standard cases” such as the move to Red-White-Red Card Plus. Cases are being decided faster than ever before.
However, problems arise when a case needs to be independently assessed by a consultant. For example, students from third countries who need an entry visa to Austria to enroll in an Austrian university. To be granted a visa, these students must be able to support themselves, find accommodation in Austria, and have German language skills at A2 level. By the time all this is presented and created, the registration deadlines for the current term have often already passed. The residence permit is often refused as a result.
Although the objections made in such cases are usually accepted by the administrative court, until then the persons concerned remain unregistered in the country. He is forced to leave the country.
Problems with removing criminal records
Another “chronic problem” is the problems associated with criminal records obtained abroad in the case of naturalization applications. The law requires that such a summary be submitted if a person seeking naturalization has spent more than six months abroad, for example for work reasons or spent a semester abroad. “This spring, that period was suddenly reduced to three months under MA 35.”
A request was also made for a 35-year-old Afghani MA who had lived in Iran for ten years to obtain a criminal record in Iran.
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