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Stop. You gave her truly bad advice. Read More

"But if there's no DTT, then they both want their cut. And they don't care what is going on in the other country."That's plain wrong.Even without a tax treaty the US and Hungary each allow a foreign tax credit against taxes paid to the other country ... Read More

Those ads all seem to use the same technique.First they scare you and create fear.Then they push their pills as providing relief from the fear they've just created. Read More

"But what's he going to be charged with? Possession of a gun?  He didn't fire any shots.  He could have said he was there by coincidence."He was lying in wait in a concealed location with a loaded weapon in range of the ex-President's ... Read More

"So many people experiencing medical issues at younger and younger ages. I am pretty sure it has more to do with stress and diet then a bad heart."I also wonder how much it has to do with a constant barrage of pill-pushing ads advising you to "see ... Read More

Although they don't admit it, I thought dehydration -- withholding all fluids -- is a common technique in Western hospice care to end a life within a week. Read More

"I made cinnamon and raisin bread the other day.”I've always thought you could divide the world into cinnamon and non-cinnamon countries. Or at least cinnamon lovers and non-lovers.I was raised in a house where cinnamon went into just about ... Read More

Just to explain, "VA" in the US stands for the Veterans Administration. It runs hospitals and such for military veterans. But only a relatively few seem to qualify. My WWII veteran relatives never could get VA help. Shameless how they were forgotten. Read More

America has invented the most disturbing euphemism for dealing with dementia etc patients. It's called memory care. Read More

I ask because that's what it really boils down to. Nobody wants to put a relative -- or themselves! -- into some of these places.In the US, really good places have waiting lists and require an interview: they don't want someone who's too much ... Read More

Just out of curiosity, what are elder care homes like in Hungary? Read More

"Upshot is, claim dementia and get free shopping!"But isn't one of the hallmarks of dementia claiming that you don't have it?You don't have dementia.Do you? Read More

What's really sad is knowing that cemeteries just like that one are still being filled today, even as we chat here. Read More

They don't want to risk any players from their A Team against Trump.It's not just that Trump has a big perhaps unbeatable lead. It's that a presidential campaign put together in just a few days will likely be a disorganized mess. It is not going to ... Read More

He did this by letter. On Twitter.I'm left with a horrible sense of unease that America for all practical purposes doesn't have a President at the moment. Read More

How about Foul Play, that old Goldie Hawn - Chevy Chase comedy which ends with them in a mad chase to find the albino before he assassinates the Pope.They were so wrapped up in the chase though that they forgot that the best way to protect the Pope ... Read More

Registering as a Republican or Democratic voter in America simply gives you the right to vote in the Republican or Democratic primary elections. It doesn't necessarily imply any political affiliation. Indeed for strategic reasons some Democrats want ... Read More

Am I the only one who's gotten so used to fast-fowarding through the dull parts of a movie that sitting in a theater where I can't do that is almost unthinkable now? Read More

Just to confirm that it does in fact work. They don't even raise an eyebrow when you hand over your passport. Unfortunately!Apart from saving a few HUF, it's really nice not to have to deal with the hassle of having to get a ticket beforehand. Also, ... Read More

The rule is now the same for local transport in Budapest:"Free Travel: . . . Person over 65 (regardless of nationality or legal status)."https://bkk.hu/downloads/25264/This change doesn't seem widely known at all. Read More

The rules seem have changed for over-65 travel by rail.The limitation to Hungarian and other EU nationals no longer applies.Travel by rail (2d cl, unreserved) is free for "seniors over 65 years" "(regardless to nationality or ... Read More

Well, until you manage to post something more reliable backing your assertion it won't be mandatory, I'll stick with the Guardian and DM. Read More

The Daily Mail says it will be compulsory:"Rishi Sunak tonight defended his 'bold' plan to make teenagers do National Service . . .The Prime Minister said the policy, which will see 18-year-olds forced to either sign up to the military or cyber ... Read More

Not compulsory? Here's the lede in the Guardian:"The Conservative campaign pledge to introduce mandatory national service was dreamed up by advisers and sprung on candidates, a government minister has said." Read More

Bring back National Service? And make it an election pledge?The man must be nuts. Read More

R H I P. Even here! Read More

(If you're having problems editing here, using a different browser or updating your existing one may help.)Edit: And I just added this after posting the above. Of course you can only edit a post within an hour of making it. Read More

To bring this thread back on topic -- please! -- has there never been a proposal to redenominate the forint and slash a couple zeros off its value?Then there could be a competition for the name of the redenominated currency. Read More

"It's a weird thought they need to have 'company' while having their lunch."In some countries there's a stigma about eating alone. It's like saying you have no friends.I remember once eating in a country like that when a solo diner came into the ... Read More

Offhand, I was guessing that there's not much upside to joining the Euro for Hungary now. The forint works OK without too much hassle and gives Hungary control over its monetary policy.At this stage, joining the Euro would be mostly to signal ... Read More

I think the issue is that Hungary doesn't take a birth certificate alone as evidence of parentage when it records a birth in the official ledger of births (whatever it's called) since the mother might list any name as the father. So it wants in ... Read More

A Google search revealed that the "young diplomat" is actually France's 35-year-old prime minister. Read More

I was just watching Xi's arrival in Paris and thought, "How insulting! Xi will.be furious. The French sent some young diplomat to greet him."So will Orbán outdo the French and go to the airport himself? Read More

The US legal theory is that the Green Card is only for foreigners who intend to immigrate to the US; if you get the Green Card but later spend too much time outside the US you're assumed to have abandoned that intent and forfeited the ... Read More

Getting residency which could ultimately be turned into citizenship. That's possible after eight years under the new Hungarian program. Read More

To some extent, isn't this just a poke in the eye of the EU, which has been pressuring other member countries to shut down similar programs? Read More

My theory would be that nobody wants to be the one to replace Sunak before the election and lead the party to defeat. Much better optics to step in after the election to "save" it. Read More

Are the Tory MPs going to let Sunak march them into the sea? It's probably too late for a change at the top to work, but why aren't they at least trying. Self-preservation is normally a politician's greatest compulsion. Read More

And speaking of batteries, there are these plans to make Hungary the center of European EV battery production.But have any of those plans come to fruition yet? Will they ever? Read More

Just like cellphone batteries. Sometimes they're right under the back cover and easy to replace. Other times you have to first take out the motherboard and unhook a bunch of connectors. Seems like repairability rarely gets taken into account in ... Read More

Putting links here usually sends my post for review so I avoid it.But Google for example:"How Viktor Orbán is squeezing foreign supermarkets out of Hungary""Heated situation: Hungarian transport minister Lázár sends open threat ... Read More

Maybe some brave soul has to step in and steer this in a sunnier direction . . .So I'll ask for an explanation: why is OV going after the big foreign supermarket chains?It strikes me as odd because he's a populist and adept at trumpeting populist ... Read More

I'd assumed this was the first time a foreign leader visited the U.S. to meet with a presidential candidate but not the President. But no, my AI bot says Adenauer, Rabin and Sadat did the same. So did the Mexican president in 2016, but the ... Read More

Honestly, who wouldn't visit Mar-A-Lago if they had the chance? Read More

Is your kid Hungarian? From March 14, Hungarians can travel visa-free to China for 14 days. A chance to use the language is always the best incentive. Read More

You might recall the brouhaha over Elizabeth Warren's ancestry. I think it turned out that the genealogy firms have very limited samples tagged to specific American tribes and so many people with tribal ancestry in the Americas somehow just get ... Read More

Descent from an ancestor born in Kosice when it was part of Hungary should qualify. But you'll need a complete chain of birth and marriage certificates showing your descent from the Hungarian ancestor.Before 1895, churches (and temples) kept the ... Read More

In Britain I think it would be illegal: wasn't there a big scandal in the construction industry some years ago when several big contractors were found to be sharing lists of "problem" workers? Read More

I somehow thought that casinos kept a blacklist of "no-hires" that they shared amongst themselves. Read More

OV did have the political savvy to dump her tout de suite and not let this fester for days. Read More

I certainly don't know for certain, but I've read that Netflx's VPN and overseas IP detection runs only when you select a video, not during the actual streaming. Read More

Actually, I just checked and it seems that in Budapest you (or someone with your power-of-attorney) must show up at the U.S. embassy to renew your passport; no mail-in service.Mail-in service doesn't seem as widespread as I had thought. Read More

US Netflix has a far bigger catalog of movies, but if you try to sign onto the US site from Hungary you'll be redirected back to Hungary.If you try to sign onto the US site using a US VPN you will in most instances be blocked; Netflix has a strong ... Read More

Used to be U.S. passports were produced on site by embassies and consulates, for a very quick turn-around. Now they're all produced in the States (except for short-validity emergency passports).In most countries for renewal you just mail your old ... Read More

There's an extremely long thread on Simplified Naturalization below as well as a few much shorter threads. Read More

It's demonstrating jurisdiction over anyone physically present in the US.Other than that, we're moving into "Why isn't the moon made of green cheese" territory. Read More

-- Church records are official birth records in Hungary before 1895. Family Search has most of these. Look for church baptism records.-- You don't say where in Hungary your ancestor was born. Prior to 1918, "Hungary" was much larger than present-day ... Read More

When were they born? Civil records in present-day Hungary are nearly complete for those born 1895 and after. Read More

I haven't looked into it, but there may also be a legal requirement that everyone landing in the US undergo immigration clearance. Read More

As to why there's no immigration-free transit between international flights in the US, most airports aren't physically set-up to segregate international transit passengers. Everyone gets funneled to immigration, baggage claim and customs. Read More

But if you were native Hungarian (and had a new post-1AUG23 ESTA) you couldn't transit twice like that on a trip to Canada because your new one-year ESTA would permit only one entry. You'd need a visa to transit on your return.And given you in ... Read More

They aren't running yet: still under construction, with a report a few months ago that work had actually stopped.And it's not particularly fast in Hungary: 160kph ... Read More

The new high-speed trains in Turkey run on only limited routes but they have no equivalent in Hungary on any routes. Read More

Christmas Eve in Budapest. Read More

Yes I know it sounds like heresy, but so long as you brown the cheese on top till it's really crisp, frozen supermarket pizzas can be surprisingly edible.(And it's hard to get that brown crispy cheese on top at most pizza places because they don't ... Read More

You have essentially no chance of being a Hungarian citizen by verification for all sorts of reasons I'm too lazy today to set out.There is a possibility you might qualify for Simplified Naturalization; church records before 1895 (1900 in Croatia) ... Read More

If a "large hill" will do, take a look at my favorite town in Hungary: Esztergom. Quite a dramatic setting with the massive basilica set atop the "large hill" with the Danube flowing below.The town has character and is an easy jaunt to and from ... Read More

I don't care at all about your background.But if you are working with people older than you then you ought to be sensitive to language and be aware that many object to that word. To carry on using it and insist it's "neutral" when people do object ... Read More

Sorry Angela, but no.Here are some of the terms "elderly" brings to mind:In one's dotage, long in the tooth, as old as the hills, grizzled, hoary, decrepit, doddering, not long for this world, senile, over the hill, wrinklies. Read More

Just so there's absolutely no mistake about it, "elderly" is NOT 65 and over. Read More

None of the words is good, but "elderly" is especially fraught because it carries a sense of frailty and inability to care for oneself.If for some reason a word has to be used, make it "older people." Read More

It's all very complicated but it looks like 4000 HUF is the postal service fee for clearing customs.https://www.posta.hu/static/internet/download/VAM_dijak-dijszabas_ENG.pdf Read More

To be fair, while the US does have a fiancé(e) visa, officials tend to be hard-nosed about it because it's sometimes abused. Read More

To be legalized for use in Hungary, an official Nigerian document must be authenticated by the Hungarian embassy in Nigeria, not the Nigerian embassy in Hungary. Read More

There may be private rooms at Aquaticum but the large public area with several pools isn't the super-relaxing place you're looking for.You can also look at nearby Hajdúszoboszló. It has an enormous outdoor area (maybe the largest in ... Read More

There's Aquaticum in Debrecen itself. Fine if that's what you're looking for but not worth a special trip to the city. Read More

FATCA is the US law that basically requires foreign banks to report your account information to the IRS (or else). I'm not sure that's the issue here.I think the issue involves the termination of the tax treaty between the US and Hungary, which will ... Read More

I thought Batumi was awful. Liked Tbilisi, but for a few weeks maybe not a few years. For Bulgaria I'd prefer inland places like Veliko Tarnovo or Plovdiv. And if you'd consider staying in Turkey, consider Eskişehir. Big surprise how nice it ... Read More

At least in the US, debts are wiped out on death in the sense that creditors can't go after the deceased's family for the debts.But creditors can of course file a claim against the estate and collect on the debts before any distributions are made to ... Read More

Oh of course that's the case in the States, too. Until it's wound up an estate is pretty much taxed like a person on any income it receives. Read More

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about inheritance or estate tax. (At the U.S. Federal level it only applies to quite large estates anyway.)I'm talking about income tax on the gain accumulated while you hold an asset: taxable gain is basically ... Read More

In the US, tax law can make the "sell everything before you die" approach expensive. Sell your stuff before you die and you'll pay tax on the accumulated gain (apart from a limited amount on your principal home).But on death, the accumulated gain is ... Read More

Ikea does that maze layout forcing you to walk through the whole store everywhere in the world. It's their signature. But they're still making money, so I guess they know what works. Read More

Those empty buildings. Isn't it often the landlord with unrealistic expectations? Or an inherited property with too many shared owners to decide anything? Or an old building that would require a huge investment to be habitable again? (You don't see ... Read More

Oh the standalone Lidls and Aldis are great. But the urban ones crammed into old buildings are uncomfortable places to shop.The breads at Tesco are awful. Strange because I always thought supermarkets like to use good fresh bread as a loss leader to ... Read More

Ah. I first thought a Lidl was a strange place for that to occur, but that particular Lidl with its cramped narrow aisles, twisting layout and large packs of customers.is different. Most unpleasant Lidl I've ever been in. Read More

Isn't it part of a distraction to steal something from you or your husband? These thieves work in groups and are well trained.Walking along a street in Istanbul a guy right in front of me suddenly stopped and I bumped into him hard. Meanwhile the ... Read More

The cinnamon rolls at Aldi are not bad for the price. Not buttery but filling. Just need to make sure they're real fresh. Strangely, Aldis outside Hungary don't seem to carry them.(We need a better plural for Aldi than Aldis.) Read More

I remember going to Gerbaud for the first time in the late '80s. Can never forget the cinnamony buttery flaky taste of the roll. Mmmm. You just didn't find stuff of that quality around then.As said, it's now touristy and expensive. Don't dare try ... Read More

Were these the sort of places where your slice of cake entitles you to sit and play with your phone for the afternoon? Read More

We're not talking about someone who's tax resident elsewhere. Point doesn't seem to get through. Read More

No, the Hungarian rule is completely different and may be unique.As said, it traps a Hungarian citizen who isn't resident in Hungary but who then tries to avoid being a tax resident ANYWHERE by limiting his time in and ties with any other ... Read More

"The only other country that taxes [its non-resident citizens] worldwide is The Philippines."Not quite. Look right here.If you're a Hungarian citizen but not resident in Hungary you're still taxed as if you were resident on your worldwide income ... Read More

It's not just criminals. It's computers and everything associated with them that make tracking you so easy.Imagine what J Edgar Hoover would have done if cell phones were around when he was alive. Read More

There's FATCA that requires banks to get SS numbers from Americans.But there's also the OEDC-led Common Reporting Standard "CRS" that requires banks to get home-country tax ID numbers from all foreigners. Balances are then reported annually to your ... Read More

No indication there he has taken Romanian citizenship. Might be very difficult without his father's Romanian birth certificate. Read More

You don't mention your age. If born before Oct 1, 1957, citizenship usually passes only through the father.That apart, the bureaucracy has its boxes to check. Read More