Live in Vienna

Have you fallen in love with the charme of Vienna and can’t imagine life without hanging out at coffeehouses, riding the tram, and spending your days in Prater anymore? When you’re considering moving here, here are some guidelines to help you getting settled.

Visas
EU citizens can move freely within Europe but have to register with the district office within three workdays of moving into the new apartment.

Citizens from non-Eurpean countries can only stay for the period their visa is valid or have to try to change their visa status. Good luck with that.

Where to live?
Since public transport in Vienna is that comprehensive, it doesn’t really matter which district you’re living in, as long as it’s well connected to the subway system, the fastest means of transportation in the city. Renting an apartment for yourself is rather expensive, starting from about 300 Euros per month for a pretty small place, starting at about 25 square meters. The best bet is to rent an apartment with others and flat share. There are plenty of internet platforms where you can find the best arrangement and get to know many WGs. A WG is the German abbreviation for flat share.

Generally, as a rule of thumb, the closer you live to the 1st district, the higher the rent per square meter gets.

Useful webpages for finding a WG and appartments are:
www.jobwohnen.at
www.wg-gesucht.at
www.studenten-wg.de

How to make a living?
As an expat without formal education or training, you can still take on jobs like distributing leaflets or working in service positions. There also are opportunities to teach English to students or grown-ups. There certainly is quite a demand for that and you might very well get lucky finding a good arrangement, especially when you have some college degree.

Good places to look for jobs are the Vienna edition of craigslist, the Virtual Vienna Net career section, and platforms such as www.stepstone.at or www.monster.at.

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