With the first four months of 2021 having passed, a year in which MA35Magistratsabteilung 35 Residency and citizenship issues in Vienna are handled by Magistratsabteilung 35 (MA35). It has several offices in Vienna and where you need to go depends on whether or not you are an EU citizen (you go to one or other of its EU Referat offices depending on the district you live in), or its premises for third country nationals. has to potentially handle ca. 4,500 applications from UK citizens, it is possibly a good time to reflect on what we have learned to date this year from MA35, as well as to try to keep people’s expectations realistic about the duration of the card issuing process. We are very grateful to all the assistance provided by MA35, Vienna City Council and the BMIBundesministerium für Inneres The Bundesministerium für Inneres (BMI) / Ministry for the Interior (UK counterparty: the Home Office) is competent for public security, policing, border control as well as residency and citizenships. It is also responsible for elections and direct democracy instruments as well as the civil service in the respective provinces, as well as municipal level where they are not covered by the Federal Chancellery., in answering many questions that we have raised so far this year.
Before starting, it has to be pointed out that in 2021, Austria will have to handle around four times as many procedures with UK citizens as it did in 2020, and MA35 has also made substantial personnel resources available at the start of the year to try to get a lot of applicants through their appointments in a very short time. The legislation only cleared Parliament in mid-December 2020, having been ddelayed due to other legislation not being passed as scheduled in early November, thereby reducing the available training time.
British in Austria has received a lot of very positive feedback, and also has visited to assist applicants. The service offered to Art 50 EUVAufenthaltstitel "Artikel 50 EUV" The Aufenthaltstitel "Art 50 EUV" is a residency title to be issued to British citizens from the end of the transition period. Its name is derived from Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. The "Titel" refers to the document or card itself, and not the right, or permission that it confirms. card applicants has been vastly more customer-friendly than many typical 3CN3rd country nationals Third country nationals are citizens of non-EU/EEA countries. Residency and naturalisation procedures for third country nationals are more complicated than for citizens of EU Member States or EEA signatory states. residence permit applications, and there have been considerable delays due to the ongoing Covid-19 public healthSozialministerium The Austrian Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection is responsible for the following fields: The health care system Initiatives for people with disabilities Consumer protection Public health and medical issues Care and support The rights of consumers and the protection of their health Senior citizens’ policy Social policy Social insurance crisis. All applicants in Vienna are issued with a Bestätigung der Antragstellung at their appointment which is valid for the duration of the procedure, and other than a case of someone who was deemed not to be resident in Austria prior to the end of the transition periodTransition Period The transition period (also referred to as the implementation period) is the period following the UK's departure from the European Union (on 31.01.2020) until the end of 2020. An option to extend this period has not been taken up by the UK government., we are unaware of any rejected applications to date.
At the end of April, the feedback received in the last two weeks has been that the duration of the application has been between 4 and 15 weeks. There are still some applicants who applied at the start of January who have not yet received cards. Some only received their cards recently (within the last couple of weeks). In these cases, some had their cards delayed substantially between printing and delivery (there were a number of cards received in April 2021, that were issued in late January or early February, and which were not sent out until April).
A number of people who used the 90+ days since application form, reported that they were requested to supply additional information, some of which they claim to have supplied at their actual apppointment. It has been apparent from the feedback received that not all cards are processed strictly in the order the appointments for applications were received in. It appears to be the case that new applications are put on the top of the pile, so there were disproportionately longer application times for those who applied earlier. To give MA35 their credit, the appraisal of the factual circumstances (Würdigung des Antrags) is very thorough, and in cases where extra documentation was required, such information being processed did lengthen the application process substantially.
From our communications with sister groups under the British in Europe umbrella, no other country in Europe has the level of statistical feedback in place that British in Austria is obtaining, or such direct routes to the authorities. Our data collection does not stop at the city limits, we have been assisting Art 50 EUV card applications throughout Austria, from trying to push for postal applications in Burgenland and parts of Lower Austria, to enquiring about rights of appeal for people issued with a five year card, who believe that they should have received a ten year card.
We are currently investigating issues in Salzburg and Tyrol of applicants being told they need to prove that they intend to stay long-term in Austria before being allowed to apply. We have also ensured that authorities have been made aware of situations of maternity benefits being suspended pending proof of having applied for the Art 50 EUV card, where in some cases the local authorities were not taking appointments.
We would also finally advise people, when communicating with MA35 or other resident permit issuing authorities, to always quote the Geschäftszahl (GZ) in your correspondence to minimise the time that it takes for correspondence to be attached to a file. Similarly, in light of applications being passed onto other sub-offices, it may not be possible to speak to your case officer who conducted the appointment with you.