Graz University of Technology (Technische Universität Graz)

Work during study

A third-country national holding an 'Aufenthaltsbewilligung – Student' residence permit is subject to the Aliens Employment Act (Ausländerbeschäftigungsgesetz) and needs a Beschäftigungsbewilligung (employment permit) for any job, including minor ones. As a student, this permit can be granted for work up to 20 hours a week without a labour-market test (Arbeitsmarktprüfung) — the normal check that a role can't be filled by a jobseeker already registered in Austria or an integrated foreign worker. The employer, not the student, applies for the permit, with the national employment service (Arbeitsmarktservice, AMS). The work must not interfere with the primary purpose of the residence permit, which is the course of study itself. A job over 20 hours a week is not ruled out, but can only be approved if the labour-market test is passed.

Post-study work visa

Verlängerung der Aufenthaltsbewilligung 'Student' zur Arbeitsuche (one-time 12-month extension of the Student residence permit for job-seeking or business founding) . Up to 1 year
After successfully completing a degree in Austria, a graduate may extend their 'Student' residence permit exactly once, for 12 months, specifically to look for work or to found a business in Austria. Austria's own migration portal frames this as a bridge: after that year, the intended route onward is switching from the Student permit to a 'Rot-Weiß-Rot – Karte' (Red-White-Red Card), Austria's points-based immigration status for qualified workers, which the graduate would need to separately qualify for.

Route to permanent residence

Austria's own citizen portal states the residence-length route relevant to a graduate directly: 10 years of lawful, uninterrupted residence in Austria, of which 5 years must have been 'niedergelassen' (settled) — meaning held under a genuine settlement-type residence title such as 'Daueraufenthalt – EU' (EU long-term residence) or the 'Rot-Weiß-Rot – Karte', explicitly not merely an 'Aufenthaltsbewilligung' (the category the Student permit itself belongs to, which does not count as 'settled' at all). 'Uninterrupted' allows absence from Austria for at most 20% of the required period. In practice this means a graduate's time on the Student residence permit does not itself advance this clock in the way holding a Rot-Weiß-Rot Karte or an equivalent settlement permit would — the realistic path is the same one described under postStudyWork: extend to look for work, obtain a Rot-Weiß-Rot Karte or comparable settlement-based residence title through qualifying employment, and accumulate the years described here from that point.

Route to citizenship

Austrian citizenship by grant (Verleihung) is administered by the citizenship department (Staatsbürgerschaftsabteilung) of each state government (Amt der Landesregierung), and requires meeting the 'general naturalisation conditions' (allgemeine Einbürgerungsvoraussetzungen) on top of the residence-length route described under residencyRoute (commonly 10 years, 5 of them settled). oesterreich.gv.at's own list of those general conditions includes: good conduct (no criminal convictions, no pending criminal proceedings at home or abroad, no frequent or serious administrative offences); a sufficiently secure livelihood, evidenced by fixed, regular income over an average of 36 months within the 6 years before applying, with the most recent 6 months immediately before the application; German-language proficiency and basic knowledge of Austria's democratic order and the history of Austria and the applicant's own state (usually shown through the citizenship test, with limited exceptions e.g. German as a mother tongue); no current residence ban or return/removal decision, no expulsion within the last 18 months, and no proximity to an extremist or terrorist group; and — the point most likely to matter to StudyPath’s readers — that granting citizenship must not significantly harm Austria's international relations or interests. On dual nationality, the list states the default plainly: 'grundsätzlich Ausscheiden aus der bisherigen Staatsangehörigkeit' (in principle, exit from the previous nationality) is itself one of the general naturalisation conditions — Austria's default rule requires giving up the applicant's original nationality to naturalise, not a right to keep it.