I’m going to start a post to track information on the EU Blue Card right here. If and when people find new information on the Blue Card or, particularly, its implementation for Spain, please post it here. Try to keep questions as relevant as possible. Off topic or negative comments will be deleted (no offense, just trying to keep the information here succinct.
From EU Blue Card, here are the main features of the European Blue Card system:
* The Blue Card will offer candidates speedier work permits and make it easier for migrants? families to join them, find public housing and acquire long-term resident status.
* After 18 months of working with a Blue Card in one EU state, an immigrant may move with his/her family to work in another EU state, but must apply for a new Blue Card there within a month of arrival.
* To be eligible for a Blue Card, migrants must be offered a job with a gross annual salary of at least 1.5 times the average wage in the EU state concerned ? falling to 1.2 times average earnings in areas with strong labour gaps.
* Migrants must have the equivalent of a bachelor?s degree, or at least five years of professional experience of a comparable level, to apply for a Blue Card.
* Governments may refuse to issue the Blue Card citing labour market problems or if national quotas are exceeded.
* Each EU state will decide how long a Blue Card will be valid, with a maximum of four years. It remains valid for at least three months if the migrant loses his or her job.
* High-skilled foreign workers make up 1.7 percent of migrant workers in the EU, compared with a share of 9.9 percent in Australia, 7.3 percent in Canada and 3.2 percent in the United States, EU data show.
* The scheme enters into force 30 months after EU governments endorse it in the coming weeks, an EU official said.
