Vienna Sees Sharp Rise in New Austrian Citizens
VIENNA: The number of people receiving Austrian citizenship in Vienna has risen sharply this year. In the first six months of 2026, a total of 3,333 people became Austrian citizens, 60.5 percent more than in the same period last year, according to Statistics Austria. Across the country, naturalisations increased by 17 percent to 13,700.
Syrian nationals formed the largest group among Vienna’s new citizens, with 723 people receiving Austrian passports. They were followed by people previously holding Afghan, Turkish and Iranian citizenship.
The increase in Vienna is partly linked to the large number of people who arrived in Austria during the refugee movement of 2015. Many of them have now completed the required period of legal residence and are eligible to apply for citizenship. Vienna’s immigration authority, MA 35, also processed nearly 3,000 more cases in the first half of this year than during the same period in 2025.
Nicole del Carmen Garfias, head of the authority, said the rise in applications was partly connected to people who arrived from Syria in 2015 and were now able to prove the legal residence required under Austrian citizenship law.
However, the improvement has not solved the authority’s long-standing delays. Citizenship procedures currently take an average of 322 days, well above the legal target of six months. Garfias said meeting the statutory deadline remained an important goal, but admitted that MA 35 was still working towards it.
The number of citizenship grants to people living abroad fell by 9.6 percent. Many of these applicants are descendants of people persecuted by the Nazi regime.
Despite the rise, the organisation SOS Mitmensch says Austria’s naturalisation rate remains low. Spokesperson Alexander Pollak said the rate was about one percent nationally and 0.9 percent in Vienna. He warned that many long term residents live in Austria but remain excluded from full participation in democratic life because they cannot vote.
