Relocation to Austria

Registration of your new home

If you enter Austria with the intention of staying here, you are legally obliged to register your address within three days of moving in.

Registration of address

Certificate (Meldezettel)

The certificate you receive is commonly known as a Meldezettel and is often required when signing up for welfare, signing a phone contract or opening a bank account. Keep this with your most important documents, as you will often be required to present the original. You can register an address as either your primary or a secondary place of residence. If you change residences, you must de-register from the previous address and register at the new one.

Where do you register?

At the registration service in your place of residence, usually the town hall (Rathaus) or the city’s municipal administration (Gemeindeamt).

You have to do the registration of residence in person and you can register or de-register at any Residence Registration Service Centre (Meldeservicestelle) in Vienna. You can also have a trusted person file the application on your behalf. But in this case the trusted person needs your original passport or ID-card.

You’ll need to bring the following documents:

filled-out form (which in the case of a rental apartment requires the signature of your landlord)
Meldezettel
a valid passport and/or a personal ID.
evidence of your new address, such as a rental or purchase contract or simply a signature from the landlord on a form. If you are living rent-free with friends or relatives, a signed confirmation (Mietrechtsvereinbarung) to that end is required.