national settlement permit vs EC Long time Residence Permit

2POSTS

10 years ago

Dear forum mates.

I am a third country national who will be working in Hungary soon. Just wanted to learn details on those permits. After 3 years working/residing in Hungary you are granted a national settlement permit. As far as I know it gives you a life time permit to stay and work and renewable every 5 years.

If you reside in Hungary for 5 years, you are granted EC Long Time Residence Permit. It seems like it gives the same rights with the national settlement permit.

What's the difference?

Thanks in advance.

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GuestPoster279 Guest

0POSTS

10 years ago

Your rights differ. One large difference: The national settlement permit only allows you to work and live in Hungary. The EC Permit allows you to find work and then live in any EU state while working there.

Details here:

National Settlement: http://www.bmbah.hu/jomla/index.php?opt … settlement

EC Permanent Resident: http://www.bmbah.hu/jomla/index.php?opt … mit_holder

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Thierson1 Contributor

115POSTS

10 years ago

Hello everyone, hello noneu

I'm also a third country national and I have been granted a 2 years residence permit and will start working in Budapest on January. However I looking for advises/tips on how my wife can follow me, what kind of visa could she easily been granted considering my situation? Is it necessary to hired an immigration lawyer/expert for that in order to have more chances or not necessary? How soon can she be allowed to join me as my spouse? We both are third country nationals.

Thank you.

Marilyn Tassy ViP

7141POSTS

10 years ago

You should talk to someone at the HU embassy as soon as possible.
We can not give expert advice here because we don't know all the circumstances and details and even those working in the Budapest immigration office give different info, if they give any info at all.
One person will tell you one thing, you bring in the info they asked for then they ask for something else. Just keep you coming in until time runs out and you have to pay more to stay longer while your papers are being looked over. Filed and misfiled in different dept. at their offices. My experience with them anyways.
It became a sort of game after awhile for my husband to argue with them, talk to supervisors and in general give them a hard time of it. He only could act that way because he was within his rights and he knew it plus he in the long run didn't care if they gave me a permit or not, he was ready to chuck HU for good at any time. He also speaks fluent HU, and they couldn't play games with him as much as us who don't know the language.
Do yourself a huge favor and settle this before she enters HU.
They are not helpful at all at the immigration office, they expect you to have your stuff together before entering HU.
The people at the embassies are much friendlier and helpful.

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Thierson1 Contributor

115POSTS

10 years ago

Thank you Marilyn, this is noted. I will try to approach the HU consulate for advises if they can provide, sometimes they are not easy to please too hehe...

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Marilyn Tassy ViP

7141POSTS

10 years ago

Good idea, if you think the embassy is difficult, just wait until you go into the immigration office in Budapest.
I personally think they make it difficult so people break down and hire lawyers.
We are old, stubborn Hippies and my husband has always been a rebel sort of person.
He escaped HU in his youth because he couldn't see himself living under so many dumb rules.
I would not recommend arguing with them like my husband did, he was even holding himself back.
We just assumed it would be easy and logical so we waited on my papers until we were already in HU.Don't do that, get it all together before entering HU. If not they make it harder.
In all 5 years ago with us doing all the leg work ourselves I still think the final total for my resident permit came out to around $500. to $600. A lawyer will be in the thousands from my guess.
Can't really say how many years that stress took off our life however.

ExpatHungarian Member

16POSTS

10 years ago

Thierson1 wrote:
I will try to approach the HU consulate for advises if they can provide, sometimes they are not easy to please too hehe...

I cannot offer any advice but my personal opinion is that you should contact an English-speaking immigration lawyer based in Hungary; I do not know any personally but just Google 'immigration lawyer Hungary'. If I were you, I would call them before you leave for Hungary (bear in mind, most Hungarians are on a break until 4th January or so). Legal services are typically not too expensive in Hungary, of course you have to pay a premium for anything done in English, but I am sure it is worth it, saving you a lot of time and effort trying to negotiate the system yourself. Good luck.

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Thierson1 Contributor

115POSTS

10 years ago

ExpatHungarian wrote:
Thierson1 wrote:
I will try to approach the HU consulate for advises if they can provide, sometimes they are not easy to please too hehe...

I cannot offer any advice but my personal opinion is that you should contact an English-speaking immigration lawyer based in Hungary; I do not know any personally but just Google 'immigration lawyer Hungary'. If I were you, I would call them before you leave for Hungary (bear in mind, most Hungarians are on a break until 4th January or so). Legal services are typically not too expensive in Hungary, of course you have to pay a premium for anything done in English, but I am sure it is worth it, saving you a lot of time and effort trying to negotiate the system yourself. Good luck.

Thank you very much, this is very recomforting.

My best wishes for 2016.

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ExpatHungarian Member

16POSTS

10 years ago

#10

Marilyn Tassy wrote:
A lawyer will be in the thousands from my guess.
Can't really say how many years that stress took off our life however.

I would be very-very surprised if it costs thousands of US dollars for something like that; lawyer's fees in Hungary are really not that high. Even if it did cost that much (and it will probably not), you yourself admit that it was extremely stressful and time-consuming to do it without a lawyer, and your husband is a native Hungarian speaker. In the case of the OP, it seems a no-brainer to use an immigration lawyer. One can get quotes from different ones, and negotiate the fee with them - fees are not fixed but decided by the lawyer / legal firm on a case-by-case basis. To give you an idea: an average Hungarian-only solicitor would typically charge someone HUF 10.000-20.000 an hour. So even if they charge a premium because they speak English, it does not have to break the bank to hire them.

ExpatHungarian Member

16POSTS

10 years ago

#11

Thierson1 wrote:
Thank you very much, this is very recomforting.

My best wishes for 2016.

You are welcome, and I really hope it works out for you.

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Marilyn Tassy ViP

7141POSTS

10 years ago

#12

Good idea, I am not sure but it might be do able for your wife to come with you and then start doing the paperwork for a longer visa while in HU.
Since you already have a good job it might work ok.
I know in my case we just assumed it would be no problem for me to start my paperwork for a resident permit since I have a husband and son who are HU citizens.
Since I entered HU as a tourist, they gave me a hard time of it.
That's why I would recommend at least speaking to someone over the phone at the HU embassy before entering HU as a tourist. They seem to take issue about how one entered the country, what sort of visa one had while coming in. As a US citizen I didn't need a visa to enter but still entered without permit to stay longer then 90 days.
Confusing I know, if you didn't have a job, I would say no way enter without a visa to stay but since you have a job, are legally married and have some savings and are willing to hire a lawyer, then it will probably work out in your favor.
As I stated before, we did the leg work ourselves but with translation fees, stamps needed for immigration services, letters mailed special delivery to the US and back it came to around $500. to $600. out of pocket, A lawyer will add to those basic fees.
My son just finished his last payments to the US state Dept. for his Japanese wife, he did the paperwork himself ( crazy stressful) and in all it was well over $1,200. and then another $600. just a few months back for her permenate cards.
He paid in the past for his first wife from HU to enter the US with her documents, that was expensive too.
He is still considered married in HU to his first wife as they married in HU. He really should contact the HU embassy and be clear of his past wife for good.
Divorced by US standards but still legally married in HU. Crazy hard to figure out how legal issues go sometimes.
Call the embassy, and think about taking her with you, worst case is they will delay her paperwork because of tech issue or whatever and it will just cost you in fees for her to stay while they sort it out at immigration.
If you walk into their Budapest immigration office, you can spot the young lawyers looking to find people, they are the ones wearing suits and carrying briefcases and piles of files.