Austria Caps Refugee Family Reunification at 314 a Year as Asylum Applications Hit a 30-Year Low
Austria's Interior Ministry announced in an official release on October 30 that the country will set an annual quota for refugee family reunification of 314 people for 2026 and 314 for 2027. The accompanying draft Settlement Ordinance entered a four-week public consultation on October 30.
Under the draft, the total number of quota-based residence titles is capped at 5,860 per year, with Vienna allocated 74 of the family reunification places. Refugee family reunification in Austria has been suspended since March 2025; the new rules would resume it in limited, quota-based form.
Actual arrival figures have changed sharply: more than 6,000 people entered Austria through family reunification between January and September 2024; in the same period of 2026 there were only 60 cases, all of them hardship cases.
Asylum applications have fallen in parallel: first-time applications in September 2026 numbered 308, down 58 percent year on year (739 in September 2025), and the number of people receiving basic care is about 5,200, the lowest level in almost 30 years.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said the new arrangement sets a clear and strict ceiling for family reunification; State Secretary Jörg Leichtfried and ÖVP integration spokeswoman Wotschke also set out their positions in the release.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于维也纳的奥地利议会大厦。摄影 Dennis G. Jarvis，CC BY，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Austrian Parliament building in Vienna. Photo by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons.
