Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union
1.2. Contact organisation unit
F2: Population and Migration
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
2920 Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
23 January 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
23 January 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
23 January 2025
3.1. Data description
Within the broader statistical domain of residence permits statistics, the statistics on intra-corporate transfers (ICT) refer to non-EU citizens receiving an authorisation to reside under the framework of Directive 2014/66/EU on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals in the framework of an intra-corporate transfer (Hereinafter “Intra-corporate transfers Directive”).
The authorisation to reside for intra-corporate transfer refers to the temporary secondment for occupational or training purposes within an economic enterprise belonging to the undertaking or to the same group of undertakings which is established in that Member State. Directive 2014/66/EU sets up a specific intra-EU mobility scheme whereby the holder of a valid intra-corporate transferee permit issued by a Member State is allowed to enter, to stay and to work in one or more Member States.
Ireland and Denmark are not bound by Directive 2014/66/EU and this directive is not applicable for EFTA countries.
ICT statistics refer to three main topics:
the intra-corporate transferee permits
permits for long-term mobility where applicable
the notifications received, where applicable (short or long term mobility)
Data source
Data is based on administrative sources, provided mainly by the Ministries of Interior or related immigration agencies. Generally, the dissemination of data occurs in July of the year following the reference year, contingent on the availability and quality of the data.
See the Annex 1 Residence Permits Technical Guidelines including the guidelines on ICT statistics.
Starting from 2025, the residence permits and EU directives data collection now includes six metadata files in total. Countries are required to submit six distinct files. For those that have not yet provided the updated six files, the previous metadata format, included in the Annex 2 of this metadata file, remains available as a reference
3.2. Classification system
Classification for the "citizenship" category is based on the ISO-3166 code list (using alpha-2) with minor changes. These differences consist of minor changes that have occurred over time to reflect the creation of new countries or citizenships. In some cases, these citizenship categories are not universally recognised but are used by some Member States in the data supplied to Eurostat. A further case is that of "Recognised non-citizen" – a category introduced by Eurostat to cover a "person who is not a citizen of the reporting country nor of any other country, but who has established links to that country including some but not all rights and obligations of full citizenship. Recognised non-citizens are not included in number of EU citizens." This category is used in Eurostat's population and migration statistics.
Classification for the "Economic sector" category is based on statistical classification of economic activities NACE Rev2 – first level of details, collected under the category of "ACTIVITY".
3.3. Coverage - sector
Migration and asylum – Residence permits statistics, intra-corporate transfers.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
Intra-corporate transfer means the temporary secondment for occupational or training purposes of a third-country national who, at the time of application for an intra-corporate transferee permit, resides outside the territory of the Member States, from an undertaking established outside the territory of a Member State, and to which the third- country national is bound by a work contract prior to and during the transfer, to an entity belonging to the undertaking or to the same group of undertakings which is established in that Member State, and, where applicable, the mobility between host entities established in one or several second Member States; (Art 3(b) Definitions - Directive 2014/66/EU).
Intra-corporate transferee means any third-country national who resides outside the territory of the Member States at the time of application for an intra-corporate transferee permit and who is subject to an intra-corporate transfer;
Mobility of intra-corporate transferees
Directive 2014/66/EU sets up a specific intra-EU mobility scheme whereby the holder of a valid intra-corporate transferee permit issued by a Member State is allowed to enter, to stay and to work in one or more Member States; Two types of mobility schemas are considered by this Directive:
Short-term mobility for the purposes of this Directive should cover stays in Member States other than the one that issued the intra-corporate transferee permit, for a period of up to 90 days per Member State.
Long-term mobility for the purposes of this Directive should cover stays in Member States other than the one that issued the intra-corporate transferee permit for more than 90 days per Member State.
Types of permits to reside for ICT reasons
Intra-corporate transferee permit means an authorisation bearing the acronym ‘ICT’ entitling its holder to reside and work in the territory of the first Member State and, where applicable, of second Member States(implies the possibility of short-term mobility), under the terms of this Directive; (Art 3(i) Definitions - Directive 2014/66/EU).
Permit for long-term mobility means an authorisation bearing the term ‘mobile ICT’ entitling the holder of an intra-corporate transferee permit to reside and work in the territory of the second Member State under the terms of this Directive (Art 3(j) Definitions - Directive 2014/66/EU).
Types of notifications
The notification of the mobility of intra-corporate transferees is related to the right of the intra-corporate transferee "to stay in any second Member State and work in any other entity, established in the latter and belonging to the same undertaking or group of undertakings" (based on Art 21 Short-term mobility - Directive 2014/66/EU).
Notification for the mobility of intra-corporate transfers refers to the notification by the host entity in the "first Member State" to the "second Member State" mentioning the intention of the intra-corporate transferee to work in an entity established in the second Member State. (Based on Art 21 Short-term mobility - Directive 2014/66/EU)
Types of transferee positions
Manager means a person holding a senior position, who primarily directs the management of the host entity, receiving general supervision or guidance principally from the board of directors or shareholders of the business or equivalent; that position shall include: directing the host entity or a department or subdivision of the host entity; supervising and controlling work of the other supervisory, professional or managerial employees; having the authority to recommend hiring, dismissing or other personnel action; (Art 3(e) Definitions - Directive 2014/66/EU).
Specialist means a person working within the group of undertakings possessing specialised knowledge essential to the host entity's areas of activity, techniques or management. In assessing such knowledge, account shall be taken not only of knowledge specific to the host entity, but also of whether the person has a high level of qualification including adequate professional experience referring to a type of work or activity requiring specific technical knowledge, including possible membership of an accredited profession; (Art 3(f) Definitions - Directive 2014/66/EU)
Trainee employee means a person with a university degree who is transferred to a host entity for career development purposes or in order to obtain training in business techniques or methods, and is paid during the transfer; (Art 3(g) Definitions - Directive 2014/66/EU)
Status of authorisation to reside for intra-corporate transfer
There are three possible decisions for intra-corporate transferee permits counted:
Permits issued for the first time refers to all ICT permits issued to third-country nationals when they are admitted to the territory of a Member State under the terms of this Directive, in the framework of an intra-corporate transfer as managers, specialists or trainee employees. This category excludes renewals/extensions of the ICT permits and refers to the "Intra-corporate transferee permit"
"Renewed" refers to ICT permits issued to the same person with the validity starting immediately after the expiry of the previous ICT permit (Extension of stay or renewal of the previous ICT permit).
"Withdrawn" refers to the situation in which the ICT Permit (issued or renewed) was withdrawn in accordance with the Article 8 of the Directive 2014/66/EU (Withdrawal or non-renewal of the intra-corporate transferee permit).
3.5. Statistical unit
The statistics on ICT refers to the number of permits and the number of notifications. One person can be counted more than once during the reference period.
See point 3.6 also.
3.6. Statistical population
Three main categories of data are collected for ICT statistics:
the intra-corporate transferee permits
permits for long-term mobility where applicable
the notifications received, where applicable (short or long term mobility)
The statistics on ICT refers to the number of permits and the number of notifications. One person can be counted more than once during the reference period.
The statistics on ICT shall refer only to the intra-corporate transferees and not to their family members who have been granted family reunification residence permit.
3.7. Reference area
EU Member States, except Denmark and Ireland.
Ireland and Denmark are not bound by Directive 2014/66/EU and this Directive is not applicable for EFTA countries.
3.8. Coverage - Time
First reference year by data collection is 2017.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Units of measure is the absolute numbersof authorisation to reside for intra-corporate transfers and to the number of notifications received or objected.
Calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Member States have the responsibility to send residence permits statistics to Eurostat based on the Directive 2014/66/EU, which includes the reference to Council Regulation (CE) No 862 of 11 July 2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection.
Eurostat provide Technical Guidelines to the Member States describing the procedures and the quality requirements for the statistics collected on voluntary basis. See the Annex 1: Residence Permits Technical Guidelines including the guidelines on ICT statistics.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Not applicable.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Not applicable.
8.1. Release calendar
Depending on the data availability, most of the statistics will be released by end of July of the year following the reference year.
8.2. Release calendar access
Not applicable.
8.3. Release policy - user access
In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.
The metadata are complete and accessible online on the website of Eurostat
10.6. Documentation on methodology
Eurostat provides Technical Guidelines to the Member States describing the procedures and the quality requirements for the statistics collected. See Annex 1.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
See Annexes.
11.1. Quality assurance
Statistics on ICT are based entirely on administrative sources. Member States compile data in compliance with the Council Regulation (EC) 862/2007 that lays down the common framework for the compilation of statistics on migration and international protection.
The technical guidelines follow the rules and quality aspects from both Council Regulation (EC) 862/2007 and Directive 2014/66/EU. These guidelines set the standard for quality by providing the definitions applied for the collected categories.
At national level, most of the data providers perform various checks before data transmission. At Eurostat level, data processing has an automated validation system embedded and various checks are manually performed in the data workflow before data publication.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Certain differences in definitions and practices of producing statistics might exist between countries due to the national transposition of the ICT Directive.
Number of national authorities have introduced improved procedures to ensure that the necessary information is gathered as part of the immigration administrative process and better computing systems to allow this information to be readily accessed to be included in the statistical data.
Non-compliance follow-up measures have been launched by the Commission in response to the most serious cases of missing or incomplete data – where for example, no data have been supplied by a country in response to a data collection. Actions undertaken have demonstrated that a large majority of Member States make a serious effort to be compliant.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The statistics collected under the Directive are widely used in official publications and by a wide range of users.
Within the Commission, the main user of migration and asylum statistics is DG Migration and Home Affairs. However, these statistics are also frequently used by other Directorates General, in particular, by DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, and by DG Justice and Consumers. These statistics are used in several publications of the Commission, as well as in the preparation of regular reports, policy proposals and analysis.
From EU policy perspective, the admission of intra-corporate transfers enforces economic strength and diversity, enabling multinational groups to optimally utilize their human resources, while intra-EU mobility enables them to reap the benefits of the internal market.
In the area of Intra-corporate transfers statistics, the number of users is contingent upon the statistical product, the topic it covers, and the specific statistical product in question. For example, there were around 200 unique page views in 2024 of the table Intra-corporate transferee permits issued, renewed and withdrawn by type of permit, length of validity and citizenship. Different situation was recorded for the other datasets. For example, table “Intra-corporate transferee permits issued by type of permit, economic sector and citizenship” recorded about 100 unique page views, table “Intra-corporate transferee permits issued by type of permit, length of validity, transferee position and citizenship” recorded about 60 unique page views and the table “Intra-corporate notifications received by length of validity and citizenship” recorded about 30 unique page views.
The statical explained article “Residence permits - statistics on authorisations to reside and work recorded” in which the intra-corporate transfers statistics are present, recorded a number of 4 433 unique page views.
12.3. Completeness
The implementation of the ICT Directive has resulted in an inpruvement in the completeness and degree of harmonisation of these statistics.
However, despite these improvements, further work is still needed for some of the statistics collected and in some of the Member States at higher granularity. Problems of missing and incomplete data still might occur for specific detailed categories.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Under the framework of the Directive 2014/66/EU and Council Regulation (CE) No 862 of 11 July 2007, the ICT statistics are based mainly on administrative registers, and therefore it is expected that there is a high accuracy of the overall resulting statistics. However, the final accuracy of the data depends on the precision of the underlying administrative systems.
The national metadata file gives more details on accuracy at the national level. For example, the absence of certain detailed categories in the statistical system could lead to specific accuracy problems.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
Data should be supplied to Eurostat no later than 6 months after the end of the reference period.
14.2. Punctuality
Residence permit data are generally published within 7 months after the reference year.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Some administrative differences still exist between the Member States due to the national specific EU Directive transposition and particular institutional configuration.
For the analytical purposes and comparisons between the countries please see the national metadata files.
15.2. Comparability - over time
ICT statistics should be compiled based on the same reference methodology, and the outputs should be comparable between years. Due to ongoing methodological improvements or revisions to administrative systems that may occur at different reference periods, Member States may apply slightly different processing rules between the years for certain permit categories. For the analytical purposes and comparisons between the years, please see the national metadata files.
When a change in the standards for defining and observing a variable over time causes a break in the time series, Eurostat uses the flag "b" to signal this change between years.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Not applicable.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Internal coherence (e.g. between years, a coherent classification of issued permits) is ensured through the application of the reference methodological guidelines and through the various validations performed on the data before publication. An important aspect is that this data collection is based on administrative sources following almost the same procedures.
The types of statistics required under the Directive 2014/66/EU are also needed for national purposes, such as for the migration policy management including labour migration. In almost all cases, the data used to produce the statistics are based on existing administrative and statistical systems. The burden related to the ICT statistics on the national authorities is therefore related to the need to prepare particular disaggregations or tables that might not otherwise have been produced and to the need to apply the harmonized statistical definitions and concepts. For some national authorities, this resulted in one-off costs associated with the necessary adaptations to methods, procedures, and systems.
The extent of the additional burden may vary between the Member States according to the degree of similarity between the existing national systems for migration statistics and the requirements of the Directive 2014/66/EU. However, in most Member States and for most of the statistics covered by the legal requirements, the additional costs and burden are believed to be limited and to be proportionate to the benefits obtained at both the EU and national level of having more complete and better-harmonized migration statistics.
17.1. Data revision - policy
The general Eurostat revision policy applies to this domain. According to the policy for routine revisions, national data continue to be revised when additional information from national authorities becomes available. If errors are detected in either national data or in European aggregates, they are corrected immediately. Major revisions and changes in methodology which may lead to breaks in time series shall be announced in advance by the national data providers and approved by Eurostat.
17.2. Data revision - practice
The revision practice aligns effectively with the one outlined in sub-concept 17.1 (data revision - policy). Reported errors are corrected in the disseminated data as soon as the correct data have been validated. Whenever new country data are validated, the already disseminated data are updated. Revisions of aggregates are made directly after revisions of country data transmitted to Eurostat. Time series breaks caused by major revisions are flagged. Major revisions are documented and communicated to users in a methodological note. Data may be published despite incomplete datasets, with some data missing or flagged as provisional or, in very exceptional cases, of low reliability for specific statistics. Such data are replaced with the final versions upon transmission and validation. The impact of major revisions is analysed in working documents produced for experts' meetings held with representatives of the national data providers.
18.1. Source data
Most of the statistics are based on administrative data sources only. Data are compiled from the administrative records of the national authorities, mainly the Ministries of Interior or Immigration Agencies.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annual.
18.3. Data collection
ICT statistics are annually collected from administrative sources, having as a statistical unit the number of persons receiving the authorisation to reside under the framework of Directive 2014/66/EU.
The national authorities from the countries implementing this directive have the obligation to collect the required variable at the national level and to send the resulting statistics to Eurostat in a specific data format. The collected files should pass the automated validation procedure in the first stage of quality assessment at Eurostat level.
Please see the technical guidelines in Annex 1 further information on the data collection.
18.4. Data validation
Before publishing the data, consistent validation checks are performed. ICT data are validated through all processing steps, combining manual/visual validation with some tools integrated within the templates and the production environment.
The Member States shall apply the validation checks of the permit statistics before providing data to Eurostat. The statistical process is different in each country. Therefore, each country shall develop its own data validation system, depending on the national infrastructure.
With the aim of assuring the data quality and for harmonising the validation systems between Member States, Eurostat is involved in the following four main activities:
Setting the methodological framework for producing harmonised statistics between the Member States. The methodological requirements are specified in the Technical Guidelines for data collection.
Promote the exchange of good practices between MSs related to the data processing and validation procedures. In this respect, different quality aspects of the statistics produced by Eurostat have been presented to the data providers.
Establishing a set of validation rules that should be applied to all the files that are provided to Eurostat
Provide some IT tools for data validation (e.g. automated data validation for minimal quality requirements) that allow data providers to check the files before data transmission.
18.5. Data compilation
List of EU aggregates used:
EU28 aggregate refers to European Union before the Brexit. This aggregate covers the following countries: BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, CY, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, UK.
EU27_2019 aggregate refers to European Union (27 countries without the United Kingdom). This aggregate covers the following countries: BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, CY, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE.
EU aggregates are calculated only if all the Member States from the aggregate are available.
Within the broader statistical domain of residence permits statistics, the statistics on intra-corporate transfers (ICT) refer to non-EU citizens receiving an authorisation to reside under the framework of Directive 2014/66/EU on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals in the framework of an intra-corporate transfer (Hereinafter “Intra-corporate transfers Directive”).
The authorisation to reside for intra-corporate transfer refers to the temporary secondment for occupational or training purposes within an economic enterprise belonging to the undertaking or to the same group of undertakings which is established in that Member State. Directive 2014/66/EU sets up a specific intra-EU mobility scheme whereby the holder of a valid intra-corporate transferee permit issued by a Member State is allowed to enter, to stay and to work in one or more Member States.
Ireland and Denmark are not bound by Directive 2014/66/EU and this directive is not applicable for EFTA countries.
ICT statistics refer to three main topics:
the intra-corporate transferee permits
permits for long-term mobility where applicable
the notifications received, where applicable (short or long term mobility)
Data source
Data is based on administrative sources, provided mainly by the Ministries of Interior or related immigration agencies. Generally, the dissemination of data occurs in July of the year following the reference year, contingent on the availability and quality of the data.
See the Annex 1 Residence Permits Technical Guidelines including the guidelines on ICT statistics.
Starting from 2025, the residence permits and EU directives data collection now includes six metadata files in total. Countries are required to submit six distinct files. For those that have not yet provided the updated six files, the previous metadata format, included in the Annex 2 of this metadata file, remains available as a reference
23 January 2025
Intra-corporate transfer means the temporary secondment for occupational or training purposes of a third-country national who, at the time of application for an intra-corporate transferee permit, resides outside the territory of the Member States, from an undertaking established outside the territory of a Member State, and to which the third- country national is bound by a work contract prior to and during the transfer, to an entity belonging to the undertaking or to the same group of undertakings which is established in that Member State, and, where applicable, the mobility between host entities established in one or several second Member States; (Art 3(b) Definitions - Directive 2014/66/EU).
Intra-corporate transferee means any third-country national who resides outside the territory of the Member States at the time of application for an intra-corporate transferee permit and who is subject to an intra-corporate transfer;
Mobility of intra-corporate transferees
Directive 2014/66/EU sets up a specific intra-EU mobility scheme whereby the holder of a valid intra-corporate transferee permit issued by a Member State is allowed to enter, to stay and to work in one or more Member States; Two types of mobility schemas are considered by this Directive:
Short-term mobility for the purposes of this Directive should cover stays in Member States other than the one that issued the intra-corporate transferee permit, for a period of up to 90 days per Member State.
Long-term mobility for the purposes of this Directive should cover stays in Member States other than the one that issued the intra-corporate transferee permit for more than 90 days per Member State.
Types of permits to reside for ICT reasons
Intra-corporate transferee permit means an authorisation bearing the acronym ‘ICT’ entitling its holder to reside and work in the territory of the first Member State and, where applicable, of second Member States(implies the possibility of short-term mobility), under the terms of this Directive; (Art 3(i) Definitions - Directive 2014/66/EU).
Permit for long-term mobility means an authorisation bearing the term ‘mobile ICT’ entitling the holder of an intra-corporate transferee permit to reside and work in the territory of the second Member State under the terms of this Directive (Art 3(j) Definitions - Directive 2014/66/EU).
Types of notifications
The notification of the mobility of intra-corporate transferees is related to the right of the intra-corporate transferee "to stay in any second Member State and work in any other entity, established in the latter and belonging to the same undertaking or group of undertakings" (based on Art 21 Short-term mobility - Directive 2014/66/EU).
Notification for the mobility of intra-corporate transfers refers to the notification by the host entity in the "first Member State" to the "second Member State" mentioning the intention of the intra-corporate transferee to work in an entity established in the second Member State. (Based on Art 21 Short-term mobility - Directive 2014/66/EU)
Types of transferee positions
Manager means a person holding a senior position, who primarily directs the management of the host entity, receiving general supervision or guidance principally from the board of directors or shareholders of the business or equivalent; that position shall include: directing the host entity or a department or subdivision of the host entity; supervising and controlling work of the other supervisory, professional or managerial employees; having the authority to recommend hiring, dismissing or other personnel action; (Art 3(e) Definitions - Directive 2014/66/EU).
Specialist means a person working within the group of undertakings possessing specialised knowledge essential to the host entity's areas of activity, techniques or management. In assessing such knowledge, account shall be taken not only of knowledge specific to the host entity, but also of whether the person has a high level of qualification including adequate professional experience referring to a type of work or activity requiring specific technical knowledge, including possible membership of an accredited profession; (Art 3(f) Definitions - Directive 2014/66/EU)
Trainee employee means a person with a university degree who is transferred to a host entity for career development purposes or in order to obtain training in business techniques or methods, and is paid during the transfer; (Art 3(g) Definitions - Directive 2014/66/EU)
Status of authorisation to reside for intra-corporate transfer
There are three possible decisions for intra-corporate transferee permits counted:
Permits issued for the first time refers to all ICT permits issued to third-country nationals when they are admitted to the territory of a Member State under the terms of this Directive, in the framework of an intra-corporate transfer as managers, specialists or trainee employees. This category excludes renewals/extensions of the ICT permits and refers to the "Intra-corporate transferee permit"
"Renewed" refers to ICT permits issued to the same person with the validity starting immediately after the expiry of the previous ICT permit (Extension of stay or renewal of the previous ICT permit).
"Withdrawn" refers to the situation in which the ICT Permit (issued or renewed) was withdrawn in accordance with the Article 8 of the Directive 2014/66/EU (Withdrawal or non-renewal of the intra-corporate transferee permit).
The statistics on ICT refers to the number of permits and the number of notifications. One person can be counted more than once during the reference period.
See point 3.6 also.
Three main categories of data are collected for ICT statistics:
the intra-corporate transferee permits
permits for long-term mobility where applicable
the notifications received, where applicable (short or long term mobility)
The statistics on ICT refers to the number of permits and the number of notifications. One person can be counted more than once during the reference period.
The statistics on ICT shall refer only to the intra-corporate transferees and not to their family members who have been granted family reunification residence permit.
EU Member States, except Denmark and Ireland.
Ireland and Denmark are not bound by Directive 2014/66/EU and this Directive is not applicable for EFTA countries.
Calendar year.
Under the framework of the Directive 2014/66/EU and Council Regulation (CE) No 862 of 11 July 2007, the ICT statistics are based mainly on administrative registers, and therefore it is expected that there is a high accuracy of the overall resulting statistics. However, the final accuracy of the data depends on the precision of the underlying administrative systems.
The national metadata file gives more details on accuracy at the national level. For example, the absence of certain detailed categories in the statistical system could lead to specific accuracy problems.
Units of measure is the absolute numbersof authorisation to reside for intra-corporate transfers and to the number of notifications received or objected.
List of EU aggregates used:
EU28 aggregate refers to European Union before the Brexit. This aggregate covers the following countries: BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, CY, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE, UK.
EU27_2019 aggregate refers to European Union (27 countries without the United Kingdom). This aggregate covers the following countries: BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, CY, LV, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI, SE.
EU aggregates are calculated only if all the Member States from the aggregate are available.
Most of the statistics are based on administrative data sources only. Data are compiled from the administrative records of the national authorities, mainly the Ministries of Interior or Immigration Agencies.
Annual.
Data should be supplied to Eurostat no later than 6 months after the end of the reference period.
Some administrative differences still exist between the Member States due to the national specific EU Directive transposition and particular institutional configuration.
For the analytical purposes and comparisons between the countries please see the national metadata files.
ICT statistics should be compiled based on the same reference methodology, and the outputs should be comparable between years. Due to ongoing methodological improvements or revisions to administrative systems that may occur at different reference periods, Member States may apply slightly different processing rules between the years for certain permit categories. For the analytical purposes and comparisons between the years, please see the national metadata files.
When a change in the standards for defining and observing a variable over time causes a break in the time series, Eurostat uses the flag "b" to signal this change between years.
