Resettlement makes it possible for refugees to enter the country legally and safely.
Resettlement is the transfer of refugees from an asylum country to another State that has agreed to admit them and ultimately grant them a residence permit. There are, however, only few available places. Each year, many more people wish to be resettled than there are places available.
There is no entitlement to resettlement. Each country determines the number of resettlement places and the countries from which people will be admitted independently. In the years 2016 and 2017 Austria admitted a total of 400 Syrian refugees through its resettlement programme (that was also called humanitarian admission programme). Austria has not yet announced a resettlement or humanitarian admission programme for 2018.
There is a fixed selection procedure to determine who will be given a place in the resettlement programme. UNHCR examines cases according to certain criteria and then suggests particularly vulnerable persons for admission to Austria. The Austrian authorities have the final say regarding who will be admitted as part of the programme. The UNHCR Office in Austria is not responsible for the selection of persons for resettlement.
There are no resettlement programmes for persons who are already in Austria to be resettled to another state such as Canada or the United States.