Immigration law
Immigration law regulates the entry, stay, and legal status of foreign nationals within a country. It governs visas, residence and work permits, border control, and procedures for removal or deportation, ensuring that migration is managed within a clear legal framework.
The EU Blue Card and the Directive (EU) 2021/1883
The EU Blue Card is a residence and work permit specifically designed to attract highly qualified professionals from third countries, offering a harmonised framework across the European Union. Its purpose is to facilitate the arrival of international talent in strategic sectors while guaranteeing enhanced rights in terms of mobility, job stability and family life. This instrument has become a key component of the EU's legal migration policy, providing a privileged status that combines legal certainty, professional opportunities and smoother integration into the European labour market.
Directive (EU) 2021/1883 significantly modernises this system by making access requirements more flexible and adapting it to the global competition for talent. Among its main innovations is the reduction of the salary threshold—set between 1.0 and 1.6 times the national average gross annual salary, with a reduced threshold of 0.8 to 1.0 for young workers, shortage occupations or first highly qualified jobs—allowing more profiles to qualify for the EU Blue Card without imposing disproportionate burdens on employers. This flexibility enables European companies to recruit professionals who were previously excluded for purely salary‑related reasons, fostering innovation, competitiveness and the filling of critical vacancies in sectors such as engineering, healthcare, renewable energy and information technology.
The Directive also significantly strengthens family reunification, recognising that personal stability is essential for attracting and retaining talent in the long term. Family members of the Blue Card holder benefit from accelerated procedures, immediate access to the labour market and full intra‑EU mobility, making the Blue Card one of the most favourable regimes in European migration law. The implementation of this new Directive responds to a strategic need: the EU must compete with economies that already have highly attractive migration systems, and only through a flexible, secure and integration‑oriented framework can it ensure that highly qualified professionals choose Europe as the place to develop their careers and build their lives.