Luxembourg sees rise in EU Blue Card applications

Non-EU citizens wishing to work in Luxembourg have, since 1 July 2024, been more easily able to obtain an EU Blue Card, giving them leave to live and work in Luxembourg.

At the time, the Ministry of Home Affairs explained that “applicants can now present a valid employment contract of at least six months’ duration and receive a salary equivalent to the average gross annual salary, which is currently equivalent to 58,968 euros, even if they have fixed-term contracts (of six months or more) and a lower salary”.

Before July, applicants needed a confirmed contract of at least 12 months and a salary 1.5-times the national average. This has been cut to a minimum of six months at the national average. According to the Ministry of the Interior, this represents a difference of around €30,000.

According to the General Department of Immigration, there has been a significant increase in applications for European Blue Cards since the rules changed in July. Around 825 Blue Cards were issued in 2024, most of them in the second half of the year, with a peak of 118 in October.

There were 38 more Blue Cards issued in 2024 than in 2023. In 2022, Luxembourg issued 914 Blue Cards, a number that may have been influenced by the end of the pandemic.

According to the Ministry of the Interior, the countries most represented among applicants have been India, Russia, Turkey, the United States and China, which account for almost 55% of applications. Applicants most commonly work in management and administration, IT, commercial services, and technical and social sciences, according to the ministry.

Digitalisation in progress

The government coalition agreement includes a commitment to adapt immigration legislation to “facilitate and accelerate the procedures for obtaining visas for workers from third countries” and to simplify access to the labour market. On this point, the Ministry of the Interior reports that steps to digitalise procedures are underway, which officials hope will speed up procedures in the future.

Applicants for regulated professions, such as doctors and architects, still have to meet all the conditions for access to the sectors concerned. Applicants for unregulated professions, however, now only require a university degree or professional experience of between three and seven years in the information and communication technology sector and at least five years in other fields.

(This article appeared in Virgule. Translation and editing by Alex Stevensson.)