Residence permit for seasonal employment
Residency route facts
Identity
| Official name (local) | Szezonalis munkavallalas celu tartozkodasi engedely as of 2026-08-07[2] |
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| Official name (English) | Residence permit for seasonal employment as of 2026-03-03[5] |
| Legal basis | Not established from a qualifying source No Act or section is cited for the permit itself. NDGAP cites Act I of 2007 only incidentally, in describing which family members may make a notarised accommodation declaration. |
| Instrument type | residence permit as of 2026-03-03[5] |
Who can apply
| Nationals not served by this route | EEA as of 2026-03-03[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. |
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Permit terms
| Initial duration | 6 months as of 2026-03-03[5] |
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| Renewable | Yes as of 2026-03-03[5] |
| Renewal duration | 6 months as of 2026-03-03[5] Extendable for a period not exceeding six months within a period of 12 months. |
| Maximum total duration | Recorded at the source, but not reducible to a single value as of 2026-03-03[5] |
| Work rights | own activity only as of 2026-03-03[5] NDGAP: 'clients are only entitled to work for the employer in relation to whom the respective residence permit was issued.' If employment ceases during validity, the permit becomes invalid on the sixth day following the employer's notification of termination, and the applicant must have declared in advance that he will voluntarily leave the territory of the Member States and other Schengen States within 8 days of the permit ceasing to be valid. A change of employer requires an extension application via Enter Hungary. |
Permanent residence and citizenship
| Counts toward permanent residence | Not established from a qualifying source NDGAP publishes a bar in these terms: 'A guest worker holding a residence permit for the purpose of seasonal work may not be granted a National Card.' The National Card is a work permit, not a long-term-status document, so this does not state whether the route counts toward a national residence card. NDGAP also states that during and after the permit's validity an application for a residence permit under another legal title may not be submitted in Hungary. |
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Requirements
| Job offer required | Yes as of 2026-03-03[5] A preliminary agreement on establishment of an employment relationship, or a document on the legal relationship of employment. |
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| Qualification requirement | none as of 2026-03-03[5] No qualification condition appears among NDGAP's published conditions. |
| Employer sponsorship | Yes as of 2026-03-03[5] A named employer is a condition and the permit is tied to that employer. NDGAP publishes no employer-lodgement route for this permit. |
| Job-search route | No as of 2026-03-03[5] |
Process
| Where to apply from | either as of 2026-03-03[5] Abroad where entry is not visa-exempt; in Hungary during a legal visa-free stay by a person not holding a residence permit. Extensions only via Enter Hungary. |
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| Statutory processing time | 21 days as of 2026-03-03[5] Reduced to 15 days where the applicant resided in Hungary at least once during the 5 years preceding submission and complied in full with the legal provisions on immigration and labour. 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 2026-03-03[5] |
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Family inclusion
| Family members may be included | No as of 2026-03-10[1][3][5] NDGAP: 'A residence permit for the purpose of family reunification may not be granted to a third-country national by reference to the residence of a guest worker in Hungary holding a residence permit for the purpose of seasonal work.' The family-reunification factsheet independently lists seasonal employment among the excluded sponsor permit types. |
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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.
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Verification
| Sources cited | 5 |
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| of which official (tier 1) | 4 |
| 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 - [5] Residence permit for seasonal employment
National Directorate-General for Aliens Policing (NDGAP/OIF) · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-03-03 · Accessed 2026-08-07 · Archived copy