New Blue Card directive must be implemented by 18 November 2023

An amendment to the Blue Card Directive (EU 2021/1883) will relax the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals wishing to carry out highly qualified work.

In the revised Highly Skilled Migrant Directive, the main changes compared to Directive 2009/50/EC and implemented are the following:

·  The relaxation of EU Blue Card admission conditions (such as the presentation of an employment contract for a period of six months instead of twelve months and the recognition of work experience as a higher professional qualification).

·  Shorter decision-making periods for different situations (such as staying in a second Member State or staying as a long-term resident, former EU Blue Card holder or staying as a family member of an EU Blue Card holder) of EU Blue Card applications. The shorter decision-making periods must ensure that licences are issued quickly in all cases.

·  The extension of the scope of the Highly Skilled Migrant Directive. Beneficiaries of international protection will have the right to apply for an EU Blue Card in Member States other than the Member State that granted them international protection. Highly qualified third-country nationals enjoying the right to free movement should also benefit from the EU Blue Card in order to facilitate their autonomous mobility and work activities within the EU under the same rules as all other third-country nationals falling within the scope of this Directive.

·  In order to promote innovative entrepreneurship, EU Blue Card holders will be able to pursue a self-employed activity in addition to their activities under this Directive, without affecting their residence rights as EU Blue Card holders.

·  A number of changes concern long-term residents who are former EU Blue Card holders. In order to facilitate the mobility of highly qualified third-country workers between the EU and their country of origin, derogations from Directive 2003/109/EC are provided for in order to allow longer periods of absence than those laid down in that Directive after highly qualified third-country workers have acquired EU long-term resident status in a Member State. In addition, it is arranged that the long-term resident who is a former EU Blue Card holder retains the more favourable family reunification conditions enjoyed as an EU Blue Card holder. EU Blue Card holders who have made use of the possibility to move from one Member State to another will also have easier access to EU long-term resident status in a Member State, in particular through the possibility of cumulating periods of residence in different Member States.

· Longer periods of unemployment shall be allowed, in particular where the EU Blue Card holder has held the EU Blue Card for more than two years.