Denied Hungarian Simplified Naturalization

1POSTS

10 years ago

Hi everyone,
I am an American citizen with a late Hungarian great-grandfather. I had my interview for simplified naturalization in a US consulate in June of 2014. My language skills were fine, my papers were sent through.

I have continued to learn Hungarian in the year since then. In January, I received a phone call from Budapest checking up to see that I spoke Hungarian. I spoke some to the woman, who I had trouble understanding as it was on the phone, but at the end, she said in English that she called to see what I spoke, and that it was enough.

And just two days ago, I received a call from the consulate saying my application had been denied without a reason to why. I was told to reapply. I understand there is no appeals process and that the process has gotten harder, but without a reason as to why my application was denied (the best case scenario, as I see it, is that my language skills were not enough, because I have continued to work with my teacher and will continue to do so), I have no understanding of what my application lacked.

I did hear that there were a lot of denials recently.

Does anyone have any insight? Would hiring a lawyer make a difference the second time around? I'm really confused.

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HungaryDragon Active member

42POSTS

10 years ago

Are you in London?

If you are already a British resident, you should be able to get residency rights in Hungary by EU law, if that is what you need. Also, look at the EU web-sites before hiring a lawyer. There are a lot of rumours and reports circulating in the Hungarian social media about cases of discrimination on the grounds of language and ethnicity against immigrants in general. Not all true, but some may be illegal under both EU law and the European Convention on Human Rights, which covers US citizens.

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Marilyn Tassy ViP

7136POSTS

10 years ago

Don't really have an answer for you, sorry.
I think the women just wrote you off because of the phone conversation, not fair.
I would keep trying if I were you and I am pretty sure a lawyer could help you out, not sure how much they charge though.
Maybe you can speak to someone at your closest HU embassy and see what is next.
My son got HU citizenship though his father without speaking HU. This was 20 years ago though so perhaps they have been getting stricter with the language part. Best of luck.

spooty Member

19POSTS

10 years ago

Something is very odd about this timetable. I submitted my application in May 2014 and was approved four months later. It's very, very strange that they would sit on your application until this January, particularly since they're (publicly, anyway) committed to processing the paperwork very rapidly. I would ask your contact at the consulate to dig for more details; the people I dealt with were extremely helpful.

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zif Serial expat

624POSTS

10 years ago

Here's an excerpt from a February, 2015, article on the toughening of the language requirement:

"After registering unexpected high number of Serbian applicants for the Hungarian citizenship, Budapest has introduced more rigorous checks, B92 reported today. According to account, the number of applicants has increased in the villages in southern Hungary,

"Hungarian authorities allegedly reacted by demanding excellent language skills as the precondition for citizenship to be granted. This is being checked both during the interviews with the applicants and in loyalty oaths which are the part of the procedure. Therefore, the number of people attending Hungarian language lessons has increased.

"Serbian media have been reporting earlier ridiculously poor preconditions for obtaining Hungarian passport. In many cases greeting clerks in something like Hungarian was enough. Criteria are now allegedly tougher with testing language skills in informal conversations.

“'It is needed to answer correctly to all questions regardless whether they refer to details in your biography or not', says Nikola Travica who recently obtained Hungarian passport."

http://www.balkaneu.com/hungary-grants- … ce-serbia/

Marilyn Tassy ViP

7136POSTS

10 years ago

So tough, if it was that hard in the US for people to pass the language portion to get citizenship, the country would be half empty.
too bad they don't go case by case but toss everyone into the same boat.
My husband got US citizenship in 78, he spoke English then but not exactly perfectly.

Ben2323 Member

2POSTS

5 years ago

Hello,

I hope you are well and keeping safe.
My friend is preparing for the simplified Naturalization interview.

If you don't mind, I just wanted to check what questions were you asked during the interview?
Also what level did you speak at the time of the interview?

I am helping him get it, and just want to make sure we cover every base.

Thank you for your help in advance!

Have a nice day and best regards,
Ben

fluffy2560 Hungary Expert

14712POSTS

5 years ago

HungaryDragon wrote:
Are you in London?

If you are already a British resident, you should be able to get residency rights in Hungary by EU law, if that is what you need. Also, look at the EU web-sites before hiring a lawyer. There are a lot of rumours and reports circulating in the Hungarian social media about cases of discrimination on the grounds of language and ethnicity against immigrants in general. Not all true, but some may be illegal under both EU law and the European Convention on Human Rights, which covers US citizens.

Don't forget the UK is no longer in the EU and the UK is in a transition period until 31 Dec 2020.

If an British EU citizen (as of now), to secure rights here, one needs to get here relatively fast to register to get the EEA/EU registration card and its accompanying address card. For an address card, you need to have a Hungarian address with either a rental contract or purchase contract for that location. Probably the best passport to have currently is something like Ireland.

There has always been discrimination here against language and ethnicity around this region and it goes back centuries. At the moment, if someone came from Somalia they'd almost certainly encounter plenty of hassle. If someone came from Canada, almost certainly not.

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