Why I Would Never (Again) Choose to Live in Austria

Even as I sit here at a coffee shop on the beach in Croatia I find this extremely difficult to write. I don’t want to offend, but I fear that no matter how I write this I will offend someone. Hell, even the title will probably offend more than one. If I’m being honest with you, and myself, I never actually chose to live in Austria. 

Now don’t get me wrong. The country itself is absolutely gorgeous and most of the people I have met have welcomed me with open arms. Yet the more I experience the immigration process to this country and learn of some people’s opinions the more I resent it. It has really opened my eyes to the struggles of those who move to another country for a better life, but alas I’m getting ahead of myself.

So Why Am I Living in Austria?

This is the easiest part to answer and it’s the age-old reason why men have moved anywhere. I met a girl. She has changed my life in so many ways, making me a better person in the process. I can’t imagine my life without her. 

“Why Austria though?” you may ask. She is from here and wanted to go back to school near where her friends and family were. At first, I was ecstatic. I had always wanted to live in Europe but had assumed that it would be something I would have to do far down the line. Austria had never been my first choice. Hell, I doubt it would have been in the top ten. Yet the more research we did the more it dropped. That was before we even really started the actual process. 

Before leaving Canada we researched the possibility of visas. Specifically the working holiday visa. The first thing, and the first pitfall, we noticed was that all information on this visa was vague. Where other countries, such as Germany, had everything laid out straightforward and neat, Austria did not. 

Normally when you look up working holiday visa requirements you’ll get a list that you can print off and go step by step. The most important being an almost exact minimum of how much money you will need to get accepted. Austria, however, is deliberately vague stating only:

 Proof of sufficient funds: applicants must show proof of sufficient funds to help cover initial expenses in Austria

Helpful right? Just for simplicity in comparison here is what the official German website states:

• Evidence of sufficient funds: the applicantʹs personal bankbook, with a minimum amount equivalent to EUR 2,000

Maybe I seem a bit nitpicky. It’s possible, I’m human. Yet as someone who has applied for quite a few visas this vagueness was concerning to me so I decided to get a working holiday visa for Germany instead. I only had enough for me to fly to one of the two embassies in Canada to apply so I went with the one that wouldn’t deny me due to how much or little, I had in my bank account. Plus Munich was only a five-hour train ride and I had a couple of months in Austria with Lisa before I had to go to Germany. Therefore I could try to find a job to attempt to jump straight to a work visa. During this time I had someone straight up say to me:

“You should go back to Canada. Give up on everything here. I don’t believe you will ever make it in Europe.”

That was the first time I experienced anything like this. The blatant voice that I wasn’t wanted or welcome. Little did I know how much worse it would get.

As you can imagine getting an Austrian work visa didn’t work and I ended up going to Germany to work. Eventually switching to a full work visa. After working and travelling around Germany for close to two years Lisa and I got married. Early in the second quarter of 2021, we decided it was time to get me to Austria and start the immigration process.

Where did it start to go wrong?

Luckily, or so we thought, Lisa’s mother had contact with someone high up in the immigration department who was willing to give us the information of what we needed to prepare. How much money minimum we needed in our account and all that. Lisa was still in school and therefore wasn’t working so we needed to have enough in our account to cover one year of expenses in case neither of us found a job during that time. Roughly about 20,000 Euros, which we had quite a bit more than.

We also printed off the official list of what we needed off the government website. We gathered all the necessary papers and applied for what was needed before booking an appointment. Someone warned me (maybe Lisa too. I’m unsure on this) that our visa guy was a jerk. We couldn’t change people because it was based on the first letter of the last name.

About a week before our appointment Austria went into its third lockdown. The lockdown got extended so a day or two before our appointment we called to reschedule. He told us he had already cancelled the meeting a few days prior. No call or e-mail to us whatsoever. If we had shown up not knowing this they would have turned us away without an answer. However, we could drop off the papers, so we did.

 A week or two later, on a Monday to be precise, Lisa received an e-mail near the end of the workday stating he had an opening available at 9 am the next morning. Fortunately, we caught the e-mail in time and booked it. The next morning at 8:30 he calls us to tell us we are missing papers. He needed my bank statements for the past few months because my financial statement, which was signed by my bank and stated how much money was in my accounts, was not enough.

According to him I also needed a Meldezettel (registration of the address I live at in Austria) when I technically still lived in Germany. Now I need to be clear as to why this was weird. Even with my residency card for Germany, I am only allowed to be in Austria for 90 days out of 180. That’s including the fact that I applied for a visa. Unlike a lot of other countries where you can stay until you get a response on your visa in Austria even if you are waiting for a visa if you hit those 90 days, you must leave. Our visa guy made this dreadfully clear with his numerous threats to call the police.

So we rescheduled for Thursday and prepared even more papers.

Our first and only visa appointment (So Far)

We arrive about 15 minutes early for the appointment on Thursday with all the required papers. Go through security, put things we don’t need in a locker, and go up to the office. 

Knock. Knock. Knock

…

Knock. Knock. Knock knock. Knock

…

Met with nothing, but silence we decided to just walk in after a few knocks. We entered a 15’ by 10’ office with one window on the far wall and some bookshelves lining the walls. Two desks were set up in an upside-down “T” shape separated only by a plastic barrier with a hole cut out in the bottom just left of the center of the room.

A man in his late 40’s early 50’s with greying hair that lay like a bowl cut grown out sat behind the trunk of the ”T”, His sleeves rolled back a few inches displaying his hairy wrists as his fingers dawdled across his keyboard. On his desk were two piles, about the thickness of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”, of other people’s applications containing very sensitive personal information. On the desk, we were to sit at were two more piles close enough to read without having to lean forward.

As we entered the room and sat down he refused to acknowledge us. No hello, good morning, or even a grunt. After about five minutes of absolute silence, he starts demanding papers from Lisa. Not stopping once to even acknowledge my being there. After two or three papers he asks for my Aufenhaltstitel from Germany (essentially a residency permit). I had left it in the locker so I politely excuse myself to go get it.

When I came back I passed it over while asking in German “Why do you need this? I looked on the internet and nowhere did it say that you need it. Not even on the official website”

Immediately his demeanour and speech changed from the normal speed in which he spoke with Lisa to a stern, rushed mumble. I caught nothing. Lisa had to later tell me that he needed proof of something and if he couldn’t get it he would have to call the police. He said this while flipping through my brand new passport. which I assumed was to look for stamps from when I arrived in Europe.

He acknowledged and spoke directly to me, but that would be the first and last time that happened. When he needed my fingerprints he turned to Lisa.

“Tell your husband I need him to come around and give me his fingerprints”

Lisa and I looked at each other before I got up and went around the desk.

“Tell your Husband I need his right hand”

I placed the four fingers from my right hand on the scanner.

“Tell your husband I need his left now”

I put my left hand down as I started to glare.

“Tell your husband to do his thumbs”

I complied as my glare intensified. I was noticeably pissed at this point.

Clearly, I had understood him, but even so, he refused to acknowledge or speak to me. He acknowledged me once and threatened to call the cops on three to five separate occasions in that entire appointment. 

Since the meeting, he has called Lisa a few times to ask for more papers including a police record check from Germany, further clarification on the amount in my bank account (It seems an official statement of funds and several months of bank statements is not enough), and to ask Lisa if she has gotten a job yet for the second and third time.

We have since found out that the insurance we had applied for and need was rejected because I “need a visa to get the insurance”. Yet I need the insurance to get the visa. So now the 90 days have run out so I have gone travelling to visit friends.

So why exactly would I never choose to live in Austria?

When we contacted his higher up again (the one who had given us the original list) to tell them of all that had come to pass she appeared noticeably annoyed, stating that he is their “best” employee. None of this made sense to me. Why couldn’t I stay with my wife? Why was this the worst visa process I had ever experienced?

I sat with some friends shortly after this all happened and told them about it all. It was then that it was all made very clear to me. They explained that it hadn’t always been this way. In fact, it was just a few years ago that the whole process was easier. However, one of the recent right-wing parties in power changed it. Even so, they didn’t understand how this guy was getting away with all of this.

Of all of the people, we have told of this experience only one person has said they understand this visa guy and what he is doing. That is the same person who told me I would never make it to Europe nearly two years before. I realised that it was this same mentality that causing all of this.

So why wouldn’t I choose to live in Austria?

Because when it comes to foreigners you are welcome to come to visit and spend money, but that’s all. Just be a tourist and why not? It’s gorgeous, but In any other capacity you are not wanted nor welcome. Austria does not want foreigners and has made it as difficult as humanly possible for you to live here. You will never be viewed as one of them no matter how long you stay or how well you assimilate. Throughout this process I felt more discriminated against and dehumanized than I ever had before in my life. It was completely demoralizing.

How this guy still has a job I have no idea. If this is how he treats me as a privileged white male (yes, I acknowledge that being white gives me some privileges and I’m sorry that this is true), I can’t even imagine how he treats other immigrants. If it were up to me Lisa and I would leave Austria far behind.

*Since originally writing this I have received my visa. I decided not to post this until after as I didn’t want to risk not getting my visa because of what I have written. Before getting it though, the visa guy asked for further clarification of funds a few more times, asked Lisa about her employment situation again, and has asked for very thorough proof that I left the country after the 90 days. The stamp in my passport wasn’t near enough.*

What are your thoughts? Have you had a similar or worse visa experience? Let us know in the comments below.