Residence permit for the purpose of family reunification
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Csaladi egyutteles biztositasa celu tartozkodasi engedely as of 2026-08-07[2] |
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| Official name (English) | Residence permit for the purpose of family reunification as of 2026-03-10[3] |
| Legal basis | Act XC of 2023 on General Rules for the Admission and Right of Residence of Third-country Nationals; registered partnership as defined by Act XXIX of 2009 as of 2026-03-10[3] The only two instruments NDGAP cites by name on this factsheet. Neither is cited with a section or paragraph number. |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-03-10[3] |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EEA as of 2026-03-10[3] Open to third-country nationals only; EEA nationals and their family members hold the right of free movement and residence. Stateless persons qualify as third-country nationals. |
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Permit terms
| Initial duration | 3 years as of 2026-03-10[1][3] |
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| How the initial term is set | matches the sponsor's permit |
| Renewable | Yes as of 2026-03-10[1][3] |
| Renewal duration | 3 years as of 2026-03-10[1][3] The general figure; see initial_duration for the sponsor-dependent tiers. |
| Maximum total duration | Not established from a qualifying source No absolute cumulative ceiling is published. |
| Work rights | authorisation required as of 2026-03-10[3] NDGAP: 'The applicant is entitled to work in case the issuance or the extension of the residence permit has been made in a single application procedure.' The applicant must then enclose the appendix for employment, a Hungarian Card or a National Card, whichever fits his employment and citizenship, alongside the family-reunification appendix, and must notify the immigration authority of an intention to enter employment immediately after concluding the preliminary agreement and within 5 days at the latest. Work rights therefore exist but are conditional on a separate permission obtained in the same procedure – the v1.0 (E1) authorisation_required case. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Not established from a qualifying source Not stated. NDGAP publishes a continued-residence right rather than a PR pathway: the family member who has not acquired residence on another legal basis is entitled to continue to reside if 5 years have passed since the first issuance of the residence permit, or on the death of the sponsor or of the person recognised as a refugee where the conditions of residence are met. |
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Requirements
| Who can sponsor | citizen, permanent resident, temporary permit holder as of 2026-03-10[1][3] |
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| Eligible relations | spouse, registered partner, minor child, parent, grandparent, sibling, other dependent as of 2026-03-10[1][3] NDGAP's closed definition of family member covers the spouse (including a registered partner under Act XXIX of 2009); the minor child, including adopted and foster children, of the third-country national and his spouse; the dependent minor child of a third-country national with parental custody; the dependent minor child of the spouse where the spouse has parental custody; and a person having and exercising parental custody of a minor Hungarian child and living in the same household with that child – this last limb has no relation enum and is the reason other_dependent appears. Beyond that definition, NDGAP's eligibility list separately admits the dependent parent of a sponsor or his spouse; the dependent parent of a person with refugee status; the sibling and ascendant family member of a sponsor or his spouse who is unable to support himself for health reasons (ascendant is why grandparent appears); the same for a person with refugee status; and the parent or legally appointed guardian of an unaccompanied minor with refugee status. Restriction on the spouse: 'The spouse of the sponsor cannot be granted a residence permit if the other spouse of the sponsor is in possession of a residence visa or a residence permit issued for the purpose of family reunification.' A marriage certificate submitted by the third-country family member of a Hungarian citizen is accepted only after domestic registration. No minimum marriage age and no minimum marriage duration is published. |
| Sponsor income requirement | Not established from a qualifying source No sponsor income threshold and no figure of any kind is published. The subsistence condition NDGAP publishes falls on the APPLICANT, not the sponsor: sufficient resources to cover subsistence, accommodation, return or onward travel and healthcare from legally acquired income and savings, evidenced by a credit-institution certificate, a document on regular income from the employer or the tax authority, a notarised maintenance declaration by a family member plus proof of his capacity, or other credible evidence. |
| Sponsor accommodation requirement | Not established from a qualifying source NDGAP publishes an accommodation condition on the APPLICANT – ownership of, or legal title to use, a residential property suitable for habitation, evidenced by a lease, a document on accommodation by courtesy, proof of ownership, or proof of reservation and payment. No square-metre or occupancy standard is given. Whether any accommodation condition falls on the sponsor is not stated. |
| Sponsor waiting period | Recorded at the source, but not reducible to a single value as of 2026-03-10[1][3] |
| Pre-entry language test | No as of 2026-03-10[3] No language requirement, integration test or pre-entry exam appears anywhere in NDGAP's published conditions for this route. Recorded false on the same exhaustive-conditions-list basis used elsewhere in this record, not on silence alone. |
Process
| Where to apply from | either as of 2026-03-10[1][3] Abroad where the applicant holds no residence permit and is not allowed to enter Hungary without a visa; in Hungary during a legal visa-free stay by a person not holding a residence permit. Extensions only via Enter Hungary. Where the family member's own application for an intra-corporate transfer, research, National Card, EU Blue Card or Corporate Card permit is lodged by his employer, the reunification application may be lodged by that employer too, on the applicant's written consent, via Enter Hungary only. |
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| Statutory processing time | 21 days as of 2026-03-10[1][3] Excludes deficiency-remedy periods. Where the application is examined under a single application procedure because the applicant also wishes to establish an employment relationship, the authority decides as to merits within 70 days of submission. |
| Fees |
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Physical presence
| none stated | to keep the permit as of 2026-03-10[3] |
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Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Yes as of 2026-03-10[3] This route is itself the family route; the block is recorded for schema completeness. NDGAP grants a family-reunification permit to a third-country national child born in Hungary to a third-country national residing on a residence permit, on notification of the birth. |
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| Eligible relations | spouse, registered partner, minor child, parent, grandparent, sibling, other dependent as of 2026-03-10[1][3] The union of NDGAP's two published lists. See requirements.eligible_relations for the detail and for which limbs are confined to refugee sponsors. |
| Family may apply at the same time | Not established from a qualifying source Not stated. |
Your next step
Read the requirements above considering your own situation: the income multiple, the absence limits, who you can bring. Check the country record for the reference figure those amounts are calculated from, and for anything that has changed recently.
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Verification
| Sources cited | 4 |
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| of which official (tier 1) | 3 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2026-03-03 |
| Newest as-of date | 2026-08-07 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-11 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] EU Immigration Portal – Hungary, family member
European Commission · international organisation · Tier 2 · Accessed 2026-08-07 - [2] Tajekoztatok – Hungarian-language factsheet index (official permit designations)
National Directorate-General for Aliens Policing (NDGAP/OIF) · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-07 · Archived copy - [3] Residence permit for the purpose of family reunification
National Directorate-General for Aliens Policing (NDGAP/OIF) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-03-10 · Accessed 2026-08-07 · Archived copy - [4] Procedural fees
National Directorate-General for Aliens Policing (NDGAP/OIF) · fee schedule · Tier 1 · Published 2026-03-03 · Accessed 2026-08-07 · Archived copy