Moving to Europe from India: What Official Pages Say

The EU Blue Card: one name, national rules

The European Commission says an EU Blue Card lets highly qualified workers from outside the EU live and work in an EU Member State if they hold higher professional qualifications (or, where allowed, higher professional skills) and an employment contract or binding job offer for at least six months, with a salary at least equal to, but no higher than 1.6 times, the average gross national annual salary of the country concerned. It applies in 25 of the 27 EU Member States and does not apply in Denmark and Ireland.

The same page says that after 12 months a holder may move to another EU Member State for highly skilled work, by applying for a new EU Blue Card there. It also says citizens of India were granted the highest number of EU Blue Cards in the EU in 2021, followed by Russia, Belarus, Türkiye and Iraq.

European Commission: EU Blue Card

Germany: EU Blue Card thresholds

For a job offer that matches an academic qualification, the portal says the job must pay a gross annual salary of at least €50,700 (as of 2026). People who obtained their last degree less than three years ago, and people employed in a shortage occupation listed by the portal, can get the card with at least €45,934.20 (as of 2026), with approval from the Federal Employment Agency. The same page says EU Blue Card holders can obtain a settlement permit after 27 months with German at level A1, or after 21 months with level B1.

Make it in Germany: EU Blue Card

Germany: looking for work with the Opportunity Card

Make it in Germany, the Federal Government portal, describes the Opportunity Card (Chancenkarte) for people from a country outside the EU or EFTA who want to come to Germany to look for qualified work. Without a qualification recognised in Germany, the applicant must have completed vocational or academic training with a qualification recognised in the country where it was obtained, score at least 6 points in the points system and show German at level A1 or English at level B2. Every applicant must show enough money for the job search, for example a blocked bank account holding at least €1,091 net per month (the amount applicable in 2026). The card is first issued for a maximum of one year, and part-time jobs totalling 20 hours a week are allowed while searching.

Make it in Germany: Job Search Opportunity Card

Netherlands: highly skilled migrant or EU Blue Card

The Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) says only an employer recognised by the IND can apply for a residence permit as a highly skilled migrant. Its table of required amounts for 2026 sets gross monthly salaries of € 4,357.00 for highly skilled migrants younger than 30 years, € 5,942.00 for those 30 years or older, and € 5,942.00 for the European Blue Card.

A reduced European Blue Card amount of € 4,754.00 applies to graduates when the recognised sponsor applies within 3 years after the graduation or promotion date. The IND says the required amounts change every year on January 1.

IND: Highly skilled migrant

IND: Required amounts income requirements

Ireland: outside the EU Blue Card, with its own permit

Because the EU Blue Card does not apply in Ireland, Ireland uses its own employment permits. The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment says the Critical Skills Employment Permit needs a minimum annual remuneration of €40,904 for occupations on the Critical Skills Occupations List, with a relevant degree or higher; €36,848 where the qualification was received in the 12 month period before the application; or over €68,911 for other occupations not on the ineligible list. The applicant must have a 2-year job offer.

Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment: Critical Skills Employment Permits

Italy: quota places that name India

Italy’s decree of 2 October 2025 on work-entry quotas for 2026, 2027 and 2028 (Gazzetta Ufficiale, Serie Generale n.240 of 15 October 2025) lists India among the countries whose citizens have reserved places for non-seasonal employed work. Article 6 sets that reserve at 25.000 entries in 2026, 25.000 in 2027 and 25.000 in 2028 for the whole group of listed countries, not for one nationality, inside an annual non-seasonal quota of 76.200 (the decree writes thousands with a full stop).

Gazzetta Ufficiale: DPCM 2 ottobre 2025, art. 6 (work-entry quotas 2026-2028)

Working holiday visas: India is not on the lists read

Working holiday and youth mobility visas depend on agreements between two countries. Germany’s Federal Foreign Office lists working holiday programmes with Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan and Uruguay. The Dutch IND lists Argentina, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, Uruguay and South Korea, and says other nationalities cannot apply. Portugal’s visa portal lists memoranda in force with Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, the United States, Japan, New Zealand, Peru, the Republic of Korea and Uruguay. India is on none of these lists.

Federal Foreign Office: What exactly is the Working Holiday programme?

IND: Residence permit Working Holiday

MNE Vistos: Mobilidade jovem

What the official pages used here do not cover

The pages read for this guide are silent on the points below. Silence is not a rule: ask the issuing authority.

• Which Indian degrees each country treats as equivalent: Germany, for example, decides comparability case by case.
• EU Blue Card salary thresholds in Member States other than Germany and the Netherlands.
• How long applications take from India, and the fees and blocked-account costs beyond those quoted.
• How many of the Italian quota places go to Indian citizens: the decree sets one reserve for the whole list of countries.
• The outcome of any individual application: each authority decides case by case.

Related guides on this site

• Germany’s EU Blue Card from India
• Germany’s Opportunity Card explained
• Germany country guide
• Netherlands country guide
• Ireland country guide
• Italy country guide
• Outside Europe: Canada Express Entry from India
• The same European routes seen from Egypt