ID card or Social Security Number?

Morning.

As a Hungarian citizen, you do not need any special permission to come here and work (and for that matter, anywhere in the EU as well). 

You'll need to register yourself at a proper fixed address, get an an address card, tax card, ID card etc.

If you speak, read and write Hungarian, you will find it relatively easy.

Thank you for the reply.

Sadly, my dad never taught me Hungarian when I was a kid. I have made a couple of attempts learning the language but the precise pronunciation is so difficult.

To do freelance work I hear that "invoices" are requested by certain clients. What is that all about? Do I set up some type of limited liability company in order to engage in freelance work?

-John

You are not alone in not knowing Hungarian when one of the parents is Hungarian. I know of a few people. I don't know why they never taught their kids although I can imagine certain scenarios.

I obviously don't know anything about your position, skills and age but if you want to earn serious money here, then you will face an uphill struggle. Nearly everyone with saleable skills wants to leave and go to other countries like Germany, Netherlands and the UK where their skills and knowledge are appreciated and in demand.  The economy is pretty poor and the political system is unstable compared to other places.

As for invoices, this is of course normal because tax inspectors expect to see invoices passing into and out of businesses. Moreover you would need to register for VAT if your turnover is substantial.  You can be an "entrepreneur" and don't need to register a company but you will have difficulty offsetting your expenses against your income.

IMHO, coming to Hungary for money, while of course you are welcome here, is not likely to score any big cash. Speaking English in Hungary is not sufficiently unique to make a difference. You'd get more opportunity in the freelance market in say, the UK, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland or the Netherlands where English only skills are not an obstacle to success assuming you have particular in-demand skills for the labour market. As an EU passport holder you have every right to work in any EU country (and Switzerland and Norway).

I work as an EFL teacher and copyeditor in Seoul, South Korea and I'm ready for a change.

I've read a bit about freelance EFL tutoring in Budapest, so with ten years' of EFL teaching experience under my belt I was considering a "working holiday" to occupy my time while I'm in Hungary. I'll arrive with a certain about of savings, but it would be nice to pull in a bit of money to cover rent and utilities.

Making big money is not my number one concern (though perhaps it should be, according to my folks!). I'm more interested in good food, good company, and a healthy amount of work balanced with fairly earned leisure time.

I wonder if Pecs might be a better place to go than Budapest. My family's roots are in Mohacs, but that town has just 20,000 people in it. I doubt I would find much EFL work there.

canucksaram wrote:

I work as an EFL teacher and copyeditor in Seoul, South Korea and I'm ready for a change....

Presumably you have the TEFL certificate so that would help to have a recognised qualification. In my opinion, there's not currently a huge demand for language teaching here in Hungary. Everyone is short of money and English lessons might be considered a luxury.  I know a number of interpreters and translators and they are all struggling and/or trying to learn German. Taxes here are oppressive (unlike Korea - I have relatives teaching English there) and it's hard to just survive, never mind have disposable income. On the other hand, there's less of a superiority complex here in Hungary compared to Korea.

Everything is generally here in Budapest. There's almost nothing in Pecs or anywhere else.  The upside of Pecs and places like Debrecen is they have universities which would be helpful. The market is small here and incomes low.

You might want to consider Austria for TEFL. It's just next door so you can drop in on Hungary all the time (Vienna is only 50km or so from Hungary). There's a much higher level of demand for language teaching over there and the Austrians have plenty of money to spend.

I personally do not like the Austrians much at all but in common with many Hungarians (even though I'm not Hungarian), I'd be happy to take the Austrian's money. It spends the same as everyone else's!

It almost seems that anyone here with the most rudimentary foreign language skills feels competent to teach that language. Often with disastrous results. Convincing clients you are a better, more skilled alternative can be difficult. Only option is often to simply undercut the price.

One of my hobbies is to go to local historical or cultural sites and count the number of misspelling and grammatical errors on signs (to add to the comedy, I count the number of EU agencies that funded the sign). And my wife, who speaks fluent German, was correcting her "German" teacher in a local business course.

Come to Hungary. It is a great place, and worth a visit. But remaining for any length of time you have to accept the local way of doing things (i.e. it is often quality challenged).