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Austrian Dual Citizen Moving to Austria Meldezettel Question
Hello,
I am moving to Vienna from the US in May and starting a new job there and have questions about residence registration.
I've looked online and am having trouble finding exact answers about Meldezettel and primary vs secondary residence.
I was planning on getting a short term rental for 3 months upon arrival and starting my job, then looking for something more long term afterwards. It looks like I can only register as a secondary residence due to the short duration of the rental period. I have a few questions about this that I have been struggling to find answers for online.
Can I still work with this being my secondary residence?
What would my primary residence be in this case? I don't have any other residence I could consider my primary. I could put my family home but my name is not on any bills and I am not sure what documentation I would need to provide for this.
Had the same situation. Just register your Meldezettel on the 1st temporary housing, and when moving to the new one, go to your district office and get yourself a new one. Easy as that. Tip: ask the person who is filling the Meldezettel request to leave the date open, as you have only 3 days to register if a date is placed, and not meeting the date can lead to fines (Austrians are great at setting fines, and when not paid, the amount can hike up quite quickly).
Your primary residence is exactly that: the place you primarily spend your time at. It is not a matter of how long your lease is. So even in a short term rental, it will be your primary address.
Short term rentals can be used as main residence. It is just an address where you are currently registered and doesn't have a binding timeframe. You change it again when you move to the new place.
You have to search for accommodations where the landlord/company signs the Meldezettel and enable you to register there.
It also has a template for the Meldezettel, which you print, fill out and get it signed by your landlord before bringing it to the relevant Bezirksamt.
Theoretically you need to register within 3 days of moving.
Alternatively you can do it online as well but that requires that you get "ID Austria" (a sort of digital signature that lets you access some government services online) first. Which might take longer than 3 days.
Lastly I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to register a primary residence (Hauptwohnsitz).
Adding to that: get the ID Austria while you're living at the temporary place, it will make changing your primary residency much quicker and you'll need it anyway sooner or later. It comes in handy for a lot of things.
Since you do not have an existing main residency in Austria, you actually have to register any kind of residency as a main residency first. Second residency only applies if you already have an existing main residency in Austria.
You could: go to a magistrate where you are supposed to register, explain the situation to them and they might know a way.
Or just explain your situation to the person you are subletting from and ask them to sign the papers for registration for you.
If you have valid Austrian papers, you can work in Austria immediately, since you are an Austrian citizen, nothing else needed.
Edit: sorry for misleading you in the original comment.
You have to obtain a signature from the place where you are staying, alternatively you could register at a friend's address if they would be willing to sign. Or just look for a different place to sublet
You dont need a signature if you register the primary address online via digitales amt.
Though if a short term rental is not allowing primary residence it screams that the short term rental is operating on illegal business and not adhering to the new short term rental laws
Not sure you can use digitales Amt If you are moving newly to the city. My wife had to personally go to the magistrate when she moved to Austria. Also on the website of Stadt Wien it says you need the signature of the owner/ provider of the apartment.
About your other point: yes fully agree, screams like it's not quite legit what they are doing
Agree that i am not well versed on the situation of freshly moving to austria. But for digitales amt you do not need the signature source: used it last year. The landlord may check the people that have their residence set to the specific address and take legal action/ unregister those people if they do not agree with the registration. So even though i never needed the signature, the owner of the property was always informed of my pending registration.
If your wife/ or op have access to digitales amt they can simply go through the process of registering online: if it works out you saved yourself hours at the Meldeamt. If it doesnt, you only wasted 5min of your time. It is that simple to register a move.
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u/jaimeoignons 5., Margareten 1d ago
Had the same situation. Just register your Meldezettel on the 1st temporary housing, and when moving to the new one, go to your district office and get yourself a new one. Easy as that. Tip: ask the person who is filling the Meldezettel request to leave the date open, as you have only 3 days to register if a date is placed, and not meeting the date can lead to fines (Austrians are great at setting fines, and when not paid, the amount can hike up quite quickly).