Moving Abroad with Family

13 July 2020
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Moving to another country to participate in a program can be a complicated but rewarding experience. 2018–20 USTA Max Binder shares their personal experience of moving to Austria with their husband.

Moving Abroad with Family


By Max Binder

With an unselbständige Erwerbstätigkeit—the residence permit most USTAs and Fulbrighters have in Austria—the borders of your personal life can be somewhat limited.

Just because we come here from the US doesn’t mean we get diplomatic immunity to labor laws. Our jobs are limited to exactly what we’re hired for—namely working as an English-language teaching assistant—and all other work in the EU is illegal. With a base income of about €1,500 before taxes, this can make it complicated to bring a spouse with you. I should know. I’ve done a lot of digging.

My “household situation” is unusually complicated. My husband is from Guatemala, and we met while both studying in Paris in 2017. We got married in summer 2018 in order to facilitate him moving with me to Vienna, but I would soon discover that the financial specifics of this would become complicated at best, prohibitive at worst.

Austria establishes a minimum net income required to bring a spouse to Austria of about €1,300 per month, an amount a USTA generally doesn’t meet after taxes. This means having sufficient savings to supplement this income and organizing one’s bank documents to prove it. Moreover, since I don’t have access to the job market, my spouse wouldn’t either. Taking into consideration more than €150 in fees, assembling documents, and a several-month-long processing time was enough for us to decide to pursue less complicated means.

These complications were sufficient for us to give up on the visa process, but not to give up entirely. I can happily say I’ve spent about half my time in Austria so far with my spouse living with me. During my first year, he had a visa to look for a job in France and he’d stay with me for the permitted three-month stints before returning to France for a while, finally coming back to Vienna for another legally permitted three-month period after his visa expired.

We started out in a spacious one-bedroom apartment, but when he was getting ready to move back to France the first time, I realized the rent was impractically high for one, and we moved into a shared apartment. While he was here, it was a party; when he left, I still had my roommate to lean on.

Although it was nice living together, the situation often felt transient. He never felt like he could fully move in because his stay would be so short. Still, I’m grateful to have had him with me. Many of the friendships I built here we built together, and those friends miss him now that he’s gone. We biked through Vienna together in the spring and fall, discovered plenty of restaurants, and went to performances. With him being between graduation and the world of work and me working only a few days a week, we enjoyed the intermezzo in our lives, an extended vacation and an opportunity to grow closer.

When we began this international relationship, we knew we were committing to living international lives, with “where” being the ongoing question. At present its answer is uncertain. His European stint ended in January when he headed back to Guatemala for a while, and mine will end in May when I finish my job as a USTA. We’ve been visiting one another for a few years now, and it’s going to have to continue a while longer. But sooner or later, we’ll figure out where we can settle down and make a home.

With him being between graduation and the world of work and me working only a few days a week, we enjoyed the intermezzo in our lives, an extended vacation and an opportunity to grow closer.

Did you also move with your family to participate in a Fulbright Austria program? If you'd like to share your personal story, please contact us.