What is Luxembourg's Residence permit for salaried workers?

The standard route: a third-country national with a Luxembourg employer. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens need none of it — they make a declaration of arrival at the commune and register within three months. So do the enormous cross-border workforce commuting daily from France, Belgium and Germany, who work in Luxembourg without residing here at all. It lasts the first permit is issued for a maximum of one year and is restricted to one profession and one sector. From the first renewal it can run up to three years and opens to any sector and any profession. A long-term resident's permit after 5 years of continuous legal residence, subject to stable resources, health insurance and evidence of integration. Luxembourgish naturalisation requires 5 years' residence and a Luxembourgish language test — the spoken-language requirement is the real bar.

What is Luxembourg's EU Blue Card?

Highly qualified workers — the route much of Luxembourg's finance, fund administration and technology recruitment runs on, because it avoids the ADEM labour market test. It lasts issued in line with the contract, renewable, with intra-EU mobility rights after a qualifying period. Counts toward the 5-year long-term resident's permit, and Blue Card holders may aggregate residence accrued in other EU member states — the practical advantage over the national permit.

What is Luxembourg's Intra-corporate transferee (ICT) permit?

Managers, specialists and trainee employees transferred into a Luxembourg entity from a group company established outside the EU — common in the fund administration and Big Four world here. It lasts up to three years for managers and specialists, up to one year for trainee employees, after which you must leave the EU before a new ICT permit can be issued. ICT is by design temporary. It does not build toward long-term residence in the way a salaried worker permit does — if you intend to settle, switching status is the conversation to have early with your employer.

GlobeQuest

Moving from Lithuania to Luxembourg

What your passport gets you at the border — and what it takes to actually stay.

Lithuania

LuxembourgShort stay

Visa-free

Lithuania passport holders can enter Luxembourg without a visa.

This is short-stay visitor policy only. It does not let you work, study or settle in Luxembourg — that needs a residence permit.

Passport Index · updated 17 February 2026Luxembourg's official immigration service

Long stay

How you actually move to Luxembourg

Work / sponsoredHigh confidenceVerified August 2026

Residence permit for salaried workers

The standard route: a third-country national with a Luxembourg employer. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens need none of it — they make a declaration of arrival at the commune and register within three months. So do the enormous cross-border workforce commuting daily from France, Belgium and Germany, who work in Luxembourg without residing here at all.

What you need

A temporary authorisation to stay, applied for from the Immigration Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs BEFORE entering Luxembourg
An employment contract, plus a certificate from ADEM (the national employment agency) showing the vacancy was declared and the local and EU labour market could not fill it
Copies of your passport and of the qualifications the post requires
Where your nationality requires one, a type D visa obtained after the authorisation is granted
A declaration of arrival at your commune within 3 days of arriving, a medical examination including tuberculosis screening, and a residence permit application within 3 months of entry

How long it lasts: The first permit is issued for a maximum of one year and is restricted to one profession and one sector. From the first renewal it can run up to three years and opens to any sector and any profession.
Path to permanent residence: A long-term resident's permit after 5 years of continuous legal residence, subject to stable resources, health insurance and evidence of integration. Luxembourgish naturalisation requires 5 years' residence and a Luxembourgish language test — the spoken-language requirement is the real bar.
Cost: €80 for the residence permit application. The temporary authorisation to stay and the visa carry their own charges.
Processing time: The authorisation to stay decision takes weeks to a few months; it is valid for 90 days once granted, which is your window to travel.

Worth knowing

This is the single most-missed step in Luxembourg: the authorisation to stay must be granted before you set foot in the country. Arriving as a tourist and applying from inside is not the process, and it costs people entire job offers.
Three days to declare arrival at the commune is genuinely three days, not three weeks. Your copy of that declaration, together with the authorisation, is what gives you a lawful right of residence until the permit card is issued.
The first permit is locked to one profession in one sector — the ISCO code is written into the observations field on the card. Changing jobs in year one is a fresh application, not a transfer.
The ADEM certificate is the employer's obligation and the usual source of delay. Ask when it was requested, not whether it will be.
Living in Luxembourg is expensive enough that a large share of the workforce chooses not to: over 200,000 cross-border commuters travel in daily from the three neighbouring countries. If your employer is here, residence is a choice with real alternatives.

Sources:Guichet.lu — conditions of residence for third-country salaried workers Guichet.lu — immigration

Work / sponsoredMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

EU Blue Card

Highly qualified workers — the route much of Luxembourg's finance, fund administration and technology recruitment runs on, because it avoids the ADEM labour market test.

What you need

A higher-education qualification from a programme of at least three years, or recognised equivalent professional experience under the recast directive
An employment contract of at least six months
A gross annual salary at or above the national threshold, pegged at one times the average gross annual salary in Luxembourg — €65,652 for applications filed from 3 March 2026, set by the Ministerial Regulation of 23 February 2026 and up from €63,408. It is revised roughly annually, so verify the figure in force on your filing date
The same pre-entry temporary authorisation to stay, declaration of arrival within 3 days, medical check and 3-month permit application as the salaried worker route

How long it lasts: Issued in line with the contract, renewable, with intra-EU mobility rights after a qualifying period.
Path to permanent residence: Counts toward the 5-year long-term resident's permit, and Blue Card holders may aggregate residence accrued in other EU member states — the practical advantage over the national permit.
Cost: €80 residence permit fee, as for the salaried worker route.
Processing time: Statutory limits under the recast Blue Card directive apply; the authorisation-to-stay stage remains the gating step.

Worth knowing

The salary threshold is indexed to the Luxembourg average gross annual salary and reset roughly annually, and the reset is not on 1 January — the 2026 increase to €65,652 took effect on 3 March. Applications filed before the change date are assessed against the previous figure. Luxembourg's average wage is the highest in the EU, so the euro figure is high in absolute terms even though the multiple is only 1× — do not benchmark it against a neighbouring country's number.
There is one threshold, not two. Luxembourg abolished the lower Blue Card rate for shortage occupations in June 2024; guidance offering a discounted floor for IT or engineering roles is describing the superseded scheme.
The Blue Card avoids the ADEM labour market test that slows the ordinary salaried-worker route. For a qualifying candidate it is usually the faster filing.
It does not exempt you from the pre-entry authorisation. Every third-country route into Luxembourg goes through that door.
If you also meet the impatriate tax conditions, the two run together — the Blue Card is the immigration status and the impatriate regime is the tax election on top.

Sources:European Commission — EU Blue Card in Luxembourg Guichet.lu — conditions of residence for third-country salaried workers

Work / sponsoredHigh confidenceVerified August 2026

Impatriate tax regime for highly skilled and qualified workers

People recruited from abroad into highly qualified roles, typically in finance, funds, insurance and technology. It is a tax election attached to an employment, not an immigration route — you still need the permit underneath it.

What you need

A fixed annual salary in Luxembourg of at least €75,000 gross, before benefits in cash and in kind
Not having been tax-domiciled in Luxembourg, nor resident within 150 km of the Luxembourg border, nor subject to Luxembourg personal income tax on professional income, in the 5 tax years preceding entry into service
Recruitment from abroad or secondment from a group company abroad into a highly qualified role
The employer must submit a list of employees benefiting from the regime to the competent tax office by 31 January each year

How long it lasts: The year of arrival plus the following eight years.
Path to permanent residence: None — it is a tax treatment. Residence and permanence come from the permit underneath.
Cost: No fee. The cost is the employer's compliance work and the risk of losing the benefit if the annual list is not filed.
Processing time: Applied through payroll once eligibility is established; no separate approval process for the individual.

Worth knowing

The regime was rewritten by the Law of 20 December 2024 with effect from the 2025 tax year. The old regime exempted 50% of specific relocation allowances and cost-of-living premiums; the new one exempts 50% of total gross annual remuneration, capped at €400,000 — a maximum exemption of €200,000. Anything describing 'the impatriation premium' is describing the superseded rules.
The 150 km rule is the condition that disqualifies most people who assume they qualify. Luxembourg is small: Metz, Trier, Arlon and much of the Belgian and German border region all fall inside it, so a candidate hired from a neighbouring commuter town is out.
The €75,000 floor is a fixed annual salary figure, not total compensation with bonus. Structuring a package to clear it on variable pay does not work.
Employers must file the list by 31 January. If they forget, the benefit is at risk for the year — worth confirming with payroll rather than assuming.

Sources:Guichet.lu — tax regime for highly skilled and qualified workers (impatriates)Guichet.lu — immigration

Work / sponsoredMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

Intra-corporate transferee (ICT) permit

Managers, specialists and trainee employees transferred into a Luxembourg entity from a group company established outside the EU — common in the fund administration and Big Four world here.

What you need

At least the minimum period of prior employment within the group required by the directive, immediately before the transfer
An assignment letter setting out the position, remuneration and duration
Qualifications for the role, and professional qualifications where the host role is regulated
The same pre-entry authorisation to stay, declaration of arrival within 3 days and residence permit application as other third-country routes

How long it lasts: Up to three years for managers and specialists, up to one year for trainee employees, after which you must leave the EU before a new ICT permit can be issued.
Path to permanent residence: ICT is by design temporary. It does not build toward long-term residence in the way a salaried worker permit does — if you intend to settle, switching status is the conversation to have early with your employer.
Cost: €80 residence permit fee plus the authorisation and any visa costs.
Processing time: Standard Immigration Directorate timelines; the assignment documentation is usually what determines speed.

Worth knowing

The time limit is a genuine ceiling, and it is followed by a required period outside the EU before another ICT permit. People plan multi-year Luxembourg careers on ICT and discover the cliff late.
Mobility within the EU on a Luxembourg ICT permit is possible but procedural — it is not free movement.
The impatriate tax regime can apply to a seconded employee who meets its conditions, including the 150 km and five-year tests, so check both together rather than sequentially.

Sources:Guichet.lu — intra-corporate transferee (ICT) residence Guichet.lu — immigration

InvestmentLow confidenceVerified August 2026

Residence permit for investors

Third-country nationals investing in a Luxembourg business or in instruments the law specifies. A small, tightly-drawn programme with substance requirements — it is not a golden visa in the way the Mediterranean schemes are.

What you need

One of the statutory investment forms set out in the immigration law, each with its own minimum amount, holding period and job-creation or management conditions
Evidence of the lawful origin of the funds
The same pre-entry temporary authorisation to stay, declaration of arrival within 3 days, medical check and 3-month residence permit application
Health insurance and appropriate accommodation

How long it lasts: Initially three years, renewable while the investment and its conditions are maintained.
Path to permanent residence: Counts toward the 5-year long-term resident's permit on the ordinary conditions.
Cost: The investment itself, plus the €80 permit fee and the professional cost of documenting source of funds.
Processing time: Months rather than weeks — the source-of-funds review is the substantive stage.

Worth knowing

Uptake has been low since the scheme opened, and the amounts and conditions are set in the immigration law rather than in agency policy. Read Guichet.lu's own page for the current statutory forms rather than an intermediary's summary.
Some forms require job creation or active management. A passive deposit does not satisfy those variants.
There is no citizenship dimension. Luxembourgish naturalisation still requires five years of residence and a spoken Luxembourgish test.

Sources:Guichet.lu — conditions of residence for investors from third countries Guichet.lu — immigration

RetirementMedium confidenceVerified August 2026

Residence for private reasons (including sufficient resources)

Third-country nationals who do not intend to work in Luxembourg — retirees and people living on their own resources — plus family and personal-ties cases.

What you need

Evidence of sufficient resources to support yourself without recourse to the social assistance system, and without working in Luxembourg
Appropriate accommodation and health insurance cover
The same pre-entry authorisation to stay, declaration of arrival within 3 days and 3-month residence permit application

How long it lasts: Typically one year initially, renewable for longer periods where conditions continue to be met.
Path to permanent residence: Counts toward the 5-year long-term resident's permit.
Cost: €80 residence permit fee plus the authorisation and any visa costs.
Processing time: Standard Immigration Directorate timelines.

Worth knowing

This permit carries no right to work. Taking a Luxembourg job on it means changing status, not notifying a change.
Luxembourg has no digital nomad visa. A remote worker paid by a foreign employer has no dedicated route here; the private-reasons permit is the nearest thing and it is not designed for people actively working, so take advice before assuming it fits.
The resources test is assessed against Luxembourg living costs, which are among the highest in the EU — the bar in euros is correspondingly high.
Residing here makes you a Luxembourg tax resident on worldwide income regardless of where your income arises. Living in Luxembourg while being paid from elsewhere does not keep you outside the system.

Sources:Guichet.lu — residence for private reasons for third-country nationals Guichet.lu — immigration

On the ground