The EU Blue Card is a residence-and-work permit for highly qualified non-EU workers, and its salary floor is not one number: each participating country sets its own, inside a range fixed by EU law. For a developer with a job offer, the floor in the country you target is the first thing that decides whether the Blue Card is on the table.
TL;DR:
- EU law sets the range: the threshold must be 1.0 to 1.6 times the national average gross annual salary (per Directive (EU) 2021/1883, Article 5(3))
- Germany 2026: €50,700 gross per year, or €45,934.20 for ICT professionals and recent graduates with Federal Employment Agency approval (per Make it in Germany and §18g AufenthG)
- Netherlands 2026: €5,942 gross per month, or €4,754 for recent graduates (per the IND)
- France: €59,373 gross per year, which is 1.5 times the reference salary (per service-public.gouv.fr)
- Luxembourg: €65,652 gross per year, equal to the national average (per the Ministry of Home Affairs)
- Spain: €41,356.36 gross per year (1.4 times the INE average), or €33,085.09 for hard-to-fill occupations in CNO-2011 groups 1 and 2 and for recent graduates (per the UGE-CE June 2026 notice; under Order PJC/44/2026 Art. 3.2 it applies to applications filed from one month after the INE’s 28 May 2026 publication)
This guide is about the employed route only. If you want to keep a foreign employer and work remotely from Europe, that is a different permit family, covered in our guide to EU remote-work visas. Here the question is narrower: what must the salary on your contract say.
What EU law fixes, and what it leaves to each country
Directive (EU) 2021/1883 sets the shared rules, and the national threshold sits inside them (per EUR-Lex). The contract must be for highly qualified employment and run for at least 6 months. The gross annual salary in it must not be lower than the threshold the member state publishes. That threshold must be at least 1.0 times and not more than 1.6 times the average gross annual salary in that country (Article 5(3)).
Two lower thresholds are allowed, both with the same floor. A member state may apply a threshold of at least 80 percent of its normal one, never below 1.0 times the national average, for:
- professions in ISCO major groups 1 and 2 where there is a particular need for third-country workers (Article 5(4))
- people who obtained a higher education qualification no more than 3 years before applying (Article 5(5))
For developers there is also a qualifications shortcut. ICT managers and professionals (ISCO-08 groups 133 and 25) can qualify with at least 3 years of relevant professional experience acquired within the 7 years before the application, instead of a degree (per the Directive).
Because the multiplier is applied to each country’s own average, the same developer salary clears the bar in one country and misses it in the next.
The thresholds at a glance
| Country | 2026 general threshold | Lower threshold | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | €50,700 gross per year | €45,934.20 with Federal Employment Agency approval (ICT professionals and other listed groups; graduates under 3 years) | Make it in Germany |
| Netherlands | €5,942 gross per month | €4,754 gross per month (recent graduates) | IND |
| France | €59,373 gross per year (1.5 times the reference salary) | Not covered in this article | service-public.gouv.fr |
| Luxembourg | €65,652 gross per year (the national average) | Not applicable: the general threshold already equals the average, the Directive’s floor for any lower threshold (derived from Art. 5(4)-(5)) | Ministry of Home Affairs |
| Spain | €41,356.36 gross per year (1.4 times the INE average earnings per worker) | €33,085.09 (hard-to-fill occupations in CNO-2011 groups 1-2; qualification under 3 years old) | UGE-CE, BOE |
The figures use different units (a monthly figure for the Netherlands, annual for the rest), and they rest on different national averages and on different rules about what counts as salary. Do not rank countries by this table alone. It tells you what the paperwork asks for, not what a developer earns or what a month of living costs.
Germany: €50,700, with a lower threshold for ICT professionals
Make it in Germany states that the job must allow a gross annual salary of at least €50,700 as of 2026. A lower gross annual salary of at least €45,934.20 applies if the Federal Employment Agency approves the employment. Section 18g of the Residence Act (AufenthG) puts ISCO-08 groups 132, 133, 134, 21, 221, 222, 225, 226, 23 and 25 on that lower threshold, and group 25 is ICT professionals, which covers most software developers. The same lower threshold applies to people whose degree was obtained no more than three years before applying. The Federal Ministry of the Interior publishes the thresholds each year.
Practical consequence: if you are a developer with an offer around €46,000 to €50,000, the route runs through the Federal Employment Agency’s approval, not through the general threshold. Check your occupation group against the §18g list before you assume the general threshold applies. The job must also match your qualification, and §18g(3) AufenthG requires employment of at least six months.
Netherlands: monthly amounts that change on 1 January
The IND publishes the 2026 required amounts per month, gross. For the European Blue Card it is €5,942 for a first permit, an extension with the same employer, or a change of employer. The reduced criterion for graduates is €4,754, available when the sponsor applies within 3 years after graduation, and in some extension and employer-change cases as the IND describes.
Two details matter in practice. The amounts change every year on 1 January, and the highly skilled migrant must meet the amount that applies on the date of the application (after a change of employer, the amount on the date the new contract starts). And the IND counts reimbursements of expenses and fixed allowances, such as a thirteenth month, toward the salary criterion under conditions it lists, so the structure of the offer can matter as much as the headline number.
The Netherlands also runs a separate highly skilled migrant permit with its own, partly different amounts. This article covers the Blue Card threshold only.
France: 1.5 times a reference salary
Service-public.gouv.fr states that the “talent – carte bleue européenne” requires a gross annual remuneration of at least 1.5 times the reference average gross annual salary, which it gives as €59,373 gross per year. The duration of the card depends on the length of the work contract, and the employer does not need to request a work authorisation.
France has a separate “qualified employee” talent permit with a lower salary threshold (€39,582 gross per year on the same page) that applies only to routes with their own conditions. It is a different permit, not a Blue Card discount, so check which one your employer is actually applying for.
Luxembourg: the national average, exactly
Luxembourg sits at the bottom of the EU range. The Ministry of Home Affairs’ information note says the pay must be at least equal to the average gross annual salary, currently €65,652. The contract must be valid for at least 6 months, and the application must be made and favourably advised before you enter Luxembourg; an application after entry is inadmissible. The note adds that highly qualified workers are not subject to the local labour market test.
Because the Luxembourg figure is set at the average itself, it uses the lowest multiplier the Directive allows, yet its euro amount is higher than Germany’s or France’s. That is the clearest example of why the multiplier and the euro amount tell different stories. For the tax side and the standard permit, see our Luxembourg guide.
Spain: 1.4 times the INE average
Spain’s Order PJC/44/2026, published in the BOE on 30 January 2026 and in force from the next day, sets the threshold as a gross annual salary of at least 1.4 times the average gross annual earnings per worker (both sexes) published by the INE in its Annual Wage Structure Survey. A reducing coefficient of 0.8 applies in two cases: occupations in groups 1 and 2 of the CNO-2011 that are on the hard-to-fill catalogue, and people who obtained the required qualification at most three years before applying.
The euro amounts come from the UGE-CE unit of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration. Its June 2026 notice says the INE published on 28 May 2026 an updated average salary for 2024 of €29,540.26. That gives a general threshold of €41,356.36 and a lower threshold of €33,085.09. The notice also says that the national highly qualified permit under Article 71.2.b has a single threshold of €41,356.36, with no lower threshold.
The Order says a new threshold applies to applications filed from one month after the INE publishes a new survey, so a figure you read in a spring 2026 article is probably out of date. Spain’s separate digital nomad route is covered in our Spain guide.
Using the numbers in a job search
Four habits for reading these numbers:
- Ask for the gross annual figure in the contract, not a take-home number, and ask whether bonuses count under the authority’s rules.
- If you graduated less than three years ago, check the lower threshold first. In Germany and the Netherlands it can be thousands of euros below the general one.
- Check the date on any threshold you read, and confirm it again on the official page before you file.
- Treat a blog or a recruiter’s number as a prompt to check the authority, not as the answer.
The threshold is only one of the conditions. The qualification, the contract length and the employer’s own paperwork all have to line up as well. This article is general information, not legal advice; the authority handling your case decides.
FAQ
Who sets the EU Blue Card salary threshold?
Each participating member state (Denmark and Ireland do not take part; Directive recitals 69 and 70) sets and publishes its own. Directive (EU) 2021/1883 only fixes the range: the threshold must be at least 1.0 times and not more than 1.6 times the average gross annual salary in that country.
Is there a lower threshold for software developers?
Possibly. A member state may apply a lower threshold, of at least 80 percent of its normal one, for occupations in ISCO major groups 1 and 2 where it sees a particular need for third-country workers, and for people who graduated no more than three years before applying. Whether your role qualifies depends on the national list.
Can I get a Blue Card as a developer without a degree?
Under the Directive, ICT managers and professionals (ISCO-08 groups 133 and 25) can qualify with at least 3 years of relevant professional experience acquired within the 7 years before the application. National implementation and documentation requirements vary, so confirm with the authority that handles your case.
Does the threshold count bonuses and allowances?
It depends on the country. The Dutch IND, for example, counts reimbursements of expenses and fixed allowances such as a thirteenth month toward the salary criterion, under conditions it lists, and it excludes items such as holiday allowance, payment in kind and non-regular pay. Check what your authority counts before you negotiate the contract.
What is the Spanish Blue Card salary threshold in euros?
Spain’s rule is 1.4 times the average gross annual earnings per worker published by the INE. After the INE published an average of €29,540.26 on 28 May 2026, the UGE-CE of the Ministry of Inclusion published a general threshold of €41,356.36 and a lower threshold of €33,085.09. The amounts are updated whenever the INE publishes new data, so check the UGE-CE portal before you file.
Do I need a work contract to apply?
Yes, or a binding job offer where national law allows it. The Directive requires a valid work contract or, where national law provides, a binding job offer for highly qualified employment of at least 6 months, and the gross annual salary in it must not be below the national threshold.
What to do next
Pick the two or three countries where an offer is realistic, write down each authority’s current figure with the date you checked it, and only then compare offers. The number that matters is the one on the official page on the day the application is filed.
Applying across several countries gets messy fast. Xeito’s job tracker has an Interested stage and a notes field on each application, so you can park a role there and note which threshold it has to clear. Xeito does not filter roles by Blue Card threshold; that comparison stays with you and the official pages.
Ready to land that role? See Xeito at xeito.ai — track every application in one place.
Related articles in this series
- Remote Work Visas in the EU for Developers
- Belgium Professional Card
- Luxembourg Salaried Visa and EU Blue Card
- Austria Red-White-Red Card
Sources
All figures last checked on 13 October 2026 against the pages below.
- Directive (EU) 2021/1883 — EUR-Lex — Article 5(1) and (3) to (5): 6-month contract, threshold range of 1.0 to 1.6 times the average, 80 percent derogations; Article 2(9) and Annex I: ICT experience route (ISCO-08 groups 133 and 25).
- EU Blue Card — Make it in Germany — €50,700 and €45,934.20 as of 2026, shortage occupations, new entrants.
- Section 18g AufenthG — gesetze-im-internet.de and the Federal Foreign Office Blue Card leaflet — German legal basis and the 2026 amounts, €50,700 and €45,934.20.
- Required amounts income requirements — IND — €5,942 and €4,754 per month gross for 2026, annual change on 1 January, allowances counted.
- Carte talent — service-public.gouv.fr — talent – carte bleue européenne at 1.5 times the reference salary, €59,373 gross per year; qualified employee line at €39,582.
- Authorisation to stay as a highly qualified worker — Ministry of Home Affairs, Luxembourg — pay at least the average gross annual salary, currently €65,652; no local labour market test; apply before entry.
- Orden PJC/44/2026 — BOE — 1.4 times the INE average earnings, 0.8 coefficient in two cases, update rule, publication on the UGE-CE portal.
- Nuevos umbrales salariales Tarjeta Azul, June 2026 — UGE-CE, Ministry of Inclusion — INE average €29,540.26 (published 28 May 2026), general threshold €41,356.36, reduced €33,085.09, single threshold for the national permit; linked from the UGE-CE authorisations page.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Salary thresholds are updated by each country and change; confirm the current figure with the authority that handles your case before you accept an offer or file.