The European Union issues thousands of Blue Cards every year to highly qualified third-country nationals. But which nationalities receive the most — and which EU country emits the most? And how many does Portugal issue?
In 2024, the Indian citizens received the highest number of worker visas highly qualified and researchers, according to the most recent data from Eurostat, the EU statistics office.
This trend should continueafter the EU and India recently signed one that includes a “comprehensive mobility cooperation framework”.
This framework aims to “facilitate the mobility of qualified workers, young professionals and seasonal workers in sectors with a lack of labor, whilst simultaneously promoting the research and innovation“.
The is the European version of the famous Green Card North American, and can be obtained in all EU countries, except in Denmark and Irelandwho chose not to join. In 2024, around 78,100 Blue Cards.
All non-EU citizens who have a university degree or equivalent qualification and a job offer with an ssalary that meets the established threshold by the EU country for which you are applying.
In addition to work and residence rights, the Blue Card holder can travel to other EU Member States atup to 90 days in any 180 day periodnote or .
In 2024, it was Indian citizens to receive the highest number of Blue Cards (16,300), ahead of the citizens of Russia (6,700, a number that decreased compared to 9,500 in 2023), Turkey (5,600) and China (4,600). Almost 1,900 cards for US citizensjust over 1,200 to Britons and almost 600 to Canadian nationals.
As in previous years, it was Germany, which issued the highest number of Blue Cards, more than half of the total (56,300)although there was a decrease compared to 69,300 in 2023. Of these cards, 13,300 were issued to Indian citizens, 4,500 to Turks, 3,800 to Chinese and 3,700 to Russians.
A long way from Germany, Poland follows (5,900 cards issued), Hungary (2,900), France (2,800) and Spain (2,000). Austria issued 1,100 EU Blue Cards, Italy 600 and Sweden just 62, figures that all decreased compared to the previous year.
According to Eurostat data, Portugal issued in 2024, 35% less than the 26 issued in 2023.
Study and investigation
Eurostat data on highly qualified professionals also includes, as well as visas issued by the EU for, which refer to temporary workers transferred from a company outside the EU to a subsidiary in an EU country.
In 2024, EU countries issued 475,000 visas for study purposes and investigation. It was the Germany issued the most (131,000)followed by France (118,000) and Spain (59,000), while Sweden issued 16,000, Austria 8,200 and Italy 2,100. Portugal issued 16,653 visas for study and investigation, a number 17 times higher to the 979 visas issued in 2023.
The main recipients were again Indian citizens (53,000), followed by citizens of China (44,000), Morocco (23,000) and the United States (22,000). THE Most Indians studied in Germany (26,400), France (7,300), Sweden (2,500) and the Netherlands (2,300).
Nearly 21,700 Americans received student and researcher visas, of which 7,400 were in France, 5,400 in Spain, 3,400 in Germany and 2,400 in the Netherlands. The British received 7,200 study and research visas, of which 2,100 were in France, 1,700 in Spain and 800 in Germany.
As for the intra-company visasthe total in 2024 was just over 10,200, of which 2,400 were issued by the Netherlands, 2,000 by Luxembourg, 1,800 by France and 1,500 by Germany. Portugal issued just 4 business visas, almost half of the 7 issued in 2023.
The citizensIndians and Chinese (3,300 and 2,200, respectively) constituted the majority of recipients.
