Almost half of EU residence permits issued based on employment
Eurostat has released some interesting figures in its latest survey. Last year, EU countries issued 3.7 million primary residence permits. This number is more than 700 thousand higher than the same figure for 2021.
After a serious drop in applications for residence permits in 2020, caused by the pandemic, migration flows have resumed. The statistics do not include third-country nationals who applied for temporary protection due to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The statistics are based exclusively on persons who applied for a residence permit for the purpose of employment or for any other reason:
- For 42% of all expats, work was the main reason for obtaining the documents.
- Another 24% obtained permits for family reasons.
- For "other reasons," including international protection, 21% of expats applied.
- An additional 13% were students seeking a residence permit for educational purposes.
On the top of the list of work destinations was Spain. The country approved 145,314 applications. In second place is Germany with 81,795 residence permits, and in third is Italy (66,791 permits).
The number of applications in Germany has almost doubled since 2021 (190%). This is largely due to the fact that Germans began to approve more applications for family reasons and in the "other" category. The second most popular country was Malta (+164% of applications), followed by Ireland (+146%).
In total, Luxembourg issued 9,245 residence permits in 2022. About 45% of them were for family reasons (4,181 applications approved), 34% for employment reasons (3,204 applications), 13% for other reasons (1,227 applications), and 6% for education purposes (633 residence permits were approved).
Grand Dutchy still remains a promising country for employment. With recent changes making it easier for expatriate families to obtain work permits, this option seems particularly interesting. In July, the Chamber of Deputies approved Law No. 8227. The law facilitates access to work for newcomers and changes existing labor market regulations. Once the law goes into effect, expats who have a residence permit but not yet a work permit will be able to get a job.
