Residence permit for Hungarian Card
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Magyar Kartya as of 2026-08-07[3] |
|---|---|
| Official name (English) | Residence permit for Hungarian Card as of 2026-03-10[5] |
| Legal basis | Not established from a qualifying source |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-03-10[5] |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EEA as of 2026-03-10[5] 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. |
|---|
Permit terms
| Initial duration | 3 years as of 2026-03-10[5] |
|---|---|
| Renewable | Yes as of 2026-03-10[5] |
| Renewal duration | 3 years as of 2026-03-10[5] |
| Maximum total duration | Not established from a qualifying source No cumulative cap is published. |
| Work rights | Not established from a qualifying source NDGAP's factsheet states no work-rights clause and no employer-change rule for this card, unlike the guest worker and National Card factsheets. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Not established from a qualifying source Not stated on NDGAP's factsheet. |
|---|
Requirements
| Job offer required | Yes as of 2026-03-10[5] A preliminary agreement or a valid work contract established for employment requiring higher professional qualification. The card also covers an owner or managing director performing actual work beyond that role, and third-country nationals with higher professional qualifications employed in Hungary under an agreement between a third-country employer and a domestic employer. |
|---|---|
| Qualification requirement | degree, regulated profession as of 2026-03-10[2][5] NDGAP applies an alternative test: the applicant must hold a professional qualification specified in the Decree of the minister responsible for higher education, OR be a professional sportsman/woman or professional coach, OR be a performer, OR work for a registered filmmaker or film production company. The certificate of higher education or professional qualification is expressly not required on the sportsperson, coach, performer and film-producer limbs, which is why those limbs are recorded as regulated_profession rather than degree. NDGAP's router page lists the qualification fields as information technology, engineering, natural sciences, music teacher or teacher of folk music and folk culture, and music; the factsheet itself does not enumerate them and defers to the ministerial Decree. |
| Employer sponsorship | Yes as of 2026-03-10[5] A named employer and a preliminary agreement or work contract are conditions. NDGAP publishes no employer-lodgement route for this card, unlike the guest worker, National Card, EU Blue Card, ICT and research permits. |
| Job-search route | No as of 2026-03-10[5] |
Process
| Where to apply from | either as of 2026-03-10[5] Abroad where entry is not visa-exempt; in Hungary during a legal visa-free stay by a person not already holding a residence permit. Extensions only in Hungary via Enter Hungary. |
|---|---|
| Statutory processing time | 21 days as of 2026-03-10[5] Excludes deficiency-remedy periods. Outer deadline: decision as to merits within 70 days. |
| Fees |
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Physical presence
| none stated | to keep the permit as of 2026-03-10[5] |
|---|
Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | Yes as of 2026-03-10[1][4] Established from NDGAP's family-reunification factsheet, which grants the permit to 'a family member of a person in possession of a residence permit' and then publishes a closed list of sponsor permit types that are excluded. This permit is not on that exclusion list. This is a positive general rule plus an express carve-out that does not reach this permit, not an inference from a negative list. |
|---|---|
| Eligible relations | spouse, registered partner, minor child as of 2026-03-10[1][4] |
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.
The next step is your own case. That assessment is legal work. Create profile for our assistance in this.
Profile benefits
- A 30-minute call with our consultant, who reads your profile first.
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Verification
| Sources cited | 6 |
|---|---|
| of which official (tier 1) | 5 |
| 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] Employment with a higher education / university degree
National Directorate-General for Aliens Policing (NDGAP/OIF) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2024-09-27 · Accessed 2026-08-07 - [3] 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 - [4] 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 - [5] Residence permit for Hungarian Card
National Directorate-General for Aliens Policing (NDGAP/OIF) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-03-10 · Accessed 2026-08-07 · Archived copy - [6] Procedural fees
National Directorate-General for Aliens Policing (NDGAP/OIF) · fee schedule · Tier 1 · Published 2026-03-03 · Accessed 2026-08-07 · Archived copy