Working in Hungary

As an EU citizen, the requirements can't be too stringent.
Your employer should be able to sort this out for you I guess.

The Hungarian "IRS" is "APEH", this part of their website seems relevant:
http://en.apeh.hu/taxpayer_registration

Being self-employed is a much bigger can of worms. All self-employed Hungarians I know contract a professional bookkeeper/tax advisor to stay afloat in the ever-changing sea of regulations.
Except for those who work completely "black" (registered as unemployed, paying no taxes, getting paid in cash under the table)
I can't recommend this to you if you plan to do anything more serious than teaching English to some neighbours.

You might be better off "incorporating" yourself in England or some other less tax-heavy country you might be affiliated with, officially only selling your "goods and services" in Hungary, which is duty free within the EU.

This is an absolute minefield. We've got a business registered in England in order to rent our cottage out over here but still have to register it with the Hungarian tax authorities. When we work as teachers etc there is a small blue book that both you and your employer has to sign. This enables you to work "freelance" but they're changing this system at the end of March. Legally you're supposed to register yourself as living in Hungary with the local Police, this allows you to stay here and get a job etc.....but believe me, Hungarian bureaucracy is a nightmare and it's just about the only thing that I have a real dislike/frustration for over here.

If you are coming here and plan to work for a Hungarian company and not start up your own busy it's easy since you are from EU. By easy I mean easy for being in Hungary; it's a lot of running between of offices and stamps and papers to keep track of and you have to do it in the right order. I did this back in 2007 and I will try to see if I can remember what I needed to do:

- Register yourself as a resident. This you do at your local council house. I was registered in Erd (as you will be too, if I remember correctly). You will get an address card that in Hungary is almost as important document as your ID (you can't get any Hungarian ID since your a.) not Hungarian b.) doesn't hold a permanent staying permit which you do NOT need since you are from EU and within EU ).

- If you are going to work you will need a work permit which you will automatically obtain if you have a unlimited contract with a company and you take that plus all other documents you have such as the address card, your passport etc. along with some special stamps that they use for official documents that you buy at the post, to the immigration office. You will also get a EU card as a proof that you are a citizen of EU and can live in Hungary.

-  To work here you need a tax number (and a card with it on). So that's another office you need to go to with all the documents you now have collected. The queue is always horrendous.

- You also need a health insurance card (they will ask for it when you will work and it's really good since going to the doctor will get very easy -and free!). You go there with all your papers and you get it. Note that you MUST have the address card with you for this one otherwise they won't give it to you.

- Bank card and bank account. Not a problem you can get it at any bank of your preference.


I think I might have a document somewhere where me and my former Scottish colleague wrote down all the addresses (in Budapest) you need to go to, what to do at which one (not easy to know since it's rare that anyone speaks English etc) when you first come to Hungary. If you give me your email address I can send it to you.

Susanna

Thanks for the reply people and wow that does seem like a lot of work, not too difficult but quite a bit to do. Luckily girlfriends dad handles a lot of legal stuff in his job so he's offered to sort out anything thats needed, take me where to go etc so now I have this information I can pass it on.

Will be registering as living in their house the day after I arrive, assumed I'd have needed to anyway so I had proof of address for banks and whatever else required it.

So address card and I.D (passport) will be sorted immediately thankfully. As for the rest I'll pass this on and also the email document, which again thanks very much for.

One more thing while I'm here, I've seen other job sites like cvonline etc which contain a lot of professional jobs but are there any where you could check for basic jobs such as cleaning, where the language isn't really a problem, money is money and I'm not "above" doing such thing, definitely not a snob when it comes to these things.

Thanks again for help on this topic and thanks in advance for any further information.

I think it will be probably harder to find a job as a cleaner (because you don't speak Hungarian) than find anything else. I mean with your native English you can find a job in a Call Center probably, there are a lot over here and they need native English speakers in many cases.
Try Expressz . hu  , which is a free advertisement site.
This is a site, which puts together the different job sites (it is in Hungarian, but you can easily find the links): allas.lap.hu/

Thanks for the link

Not really looking cleaning in particular, first example that came to my head, most sites do seem to only have office jobs etc so really just curious if there was a site for other types of jobs.

Been in touch with a few call centres as there do seem to be a lot, more looking english speakers than there are even here at the moment.

Maybe it's not below you, but sure would be a terrible waste!
We learn English from each other, faithfully copying our teachers' horrid accent and weird constructs.
Offer classes on pronunciation, articulation, stress, diction, de-Rigostreetification!
("Rigo steet" used to be the address of the state run language exam authority, became the symbol of Hunglish and learning a language to the test)
A lot of people now feel the need to overcome this pitiful "norm", you can recognise them by their forced imitation of wide, free-gliding southern-US diphthongs and "triple u"-s (even instead of "v" :-) ), but still stressing the first syllable like in Hungarian...

Personal note:
It took me years of native exposure to realise how important stress is, and learn to do it right. Now that everyone understands me, I am finally at peace with my accent. It's like waving the red-white-and-green flag whenever I open my mouth, and girls tell me it's cute :-) I'd love to take my kids to such classes to spare them the trouble later.

I think Expressz.hu is a site where you can find physical jobs as well. Cleaner = takarito in Hungarian, if you are interested, probably it is worth to try. I guess that these kind of jobs are rather published in real newspapers.

How is the situation in England? Is it getting better? What do you think how long does it take to find a job there (I mean physicalj jobs)?

I have spent there a year before the credit crunch and I am thinking about going back, but I am a bit afraid, because I know the unemployment rate is high.

I wish if my only problem would be my pronounciation. Of course I know it is very important. Once it happened that my American friend didn't understand me when I told her McDonalds, as somehow I pronounced it badly.
You must be very good in English. Where have you learnt it?
When I was in England it happened many times that I heard someone whole he/she was speaking and found out that he/she is Hungarian. So I agree we have a special pronounciation, but I think Spanish and German also has got it.

Not much has changed in England at the moment that I've noticed although I sorta assume it's because if anywhere needed staff they'd have just kept any Christmas temps on a longer contract, to cover clearance of stock sales etc, probably not get a proper idea until maybe mid Feb.

Szano79 wrote:

Once it happened that my American friend didn't understand me when I told her McDonalds, as somehow I pronounced it badly.

Even their jingle used to pronounce their name dead wrong: stress on the first syllable, completely unrecognisable to "untrained" ears.

There's nothing special about me, I stared young, and lived in the US a lot.

Hello everyone!

I am a new person here. I read this forum and I'd like to offer you some job opportunities in Budapest.

Kelly Services, founded in USA 1946, is a worldwide company in workforce management solutions. We work together with multinational clients, who are looking for people with excellent language skills.

As I read before, you mention the Call Center, as an opportunity. This job are the tipical for foreign people in Hungary. We are looking for talents who speak not only the most common languages, but Croatian, Slovenian, Romanian, Dutch, Norvegian, etc. as well.

If anybody interested in these possibilities, visit our webpage:
kellyservices.hu

You can apply for jobs online, after that our advisors will build the contact with you.

Hi Kelly Hun! Could you please post in the Hungary classifieds.
Thanks

I think the general takeaway from the above ad is that fluency in English is a valuable work skill in Hungary, automatically landing you white collar jobs.

In the UK, call centre jobs are considered McJobs. For the definition of a McJob, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McJob. Note specifically that telemarketing (which would include call centres) is defined there as a McJob.

And of course, one must be aware that scammers will use forums such as these to promote their evil schemes. No idea about that particular advert.

One thing I do know is that in the UK (don't know about HU) it is illegal for employment agencies to take fees (of any kind) from job applicants. Anyone in the UK asking a job applicant for a fee is running a scam. Avoid!

OK, these are not clear cut definitions, there's no caste system or anything, but these are pretty common stereotypes:

In Hungary, shoveling dirt into a wheelbarrow, cleaning up with a mop, and packing shelves in a supermarket are considered the bottom of the job pyramid, and paid as such. The corresponding term is probably unskilled labour, "segedmunka".
Next up, trained workers "betanitott munkas" are factory workers, construction labourers, hospitality industry and such. Usually must be sober to show up for work, so it's a notch up.
Then above them the trade jobs, "szakma", requiring high school level graduation from a trade school: carpenters, welders, masons, plumbers. car mechanics. They make great money and there is an increasing shortage, because manual work is socially looked down upon. (is that a preposition I should not end sentences with? :-) )
Lower payscale, but considered more elite is anything in an office Usually requires high school graduation and basic computer skills, or nice tits :-) This is where telemarketers and level 1 helpdesk jobs belong, but not skilled call center attendants: those jobs normally require something special: either higher education or experience in the field the call center is for (like finance, insurance) OR OUTSTANDING LANGUAGE SKILLS :-)
Next up professional jobs requiring collage degree, or extensive relevant experience. Again, language skill is a relevant factor.
Next up managers. No matter if you make minimum wage, once you are the boss of two other people making even less, you are socially above anyone who has no reports with unlimited bragging rights about how you abuse your underlings.
Top dog: entrepreneur. They live like kings, drive huge expensive cars way too fast, expense it all on their company. Due to the impossible nature of tax and accounting rules, they can not avoid criminal levels of fraud anyway, so they figure why hold back, sanctions are regressive.

Employment agencies do not normally ask for any fee from job seekers in Hungary, they charge the employer either for access to their candidate database, recruitment campaigns, or in headhunter mode, per person recruited.

Reputable agencies can be recognised from continued advertisement presence in reputable newspapers, like HVG (local economist clone)
Examples:
job.hu
jobline.hu
jobpilot.hu
profession.hu (=monster)
grafton.hu
kellyservices.hu

They should post their ads in the classifieds section :-)

Most scam sites look scammy, are targeted at easy pray mostly.
Dodgy English does not necessarily indicate scam, but sure looks unprofessional.
When in doubt, ask a local friend or this forum.

Anything offering "work from home", "flexible hours", "get rich quick", "steady income with little effort" is either a scam, or a Multi Level Marketing ploy, or commission based sales agent contract where you get nothing unless you hit an impossible target, or some mixture of these.

Oh, and never surrender your passport or other forms of ID. The most anyone can ask you is to make a copy. If you don't get it back right away, report it as stolen at the police immediately.

Next up, trained workers "betanitott munkas" are factory workers, construction labourers, hospitality industry and such. Usually must be sober to show up for work, so it's a notch up.

Nice summary of the "class" system!

When I worked for the government (in Hungary) back in the 1990s, even though I worked in an office, showing up sober was definitely not on the list of "must do" behaviours. I used to pass a pub on my way into the office from the car park and some of the staff (civil servants) were already in there having some morning palinka before facing the tough decisions of the day.  However, I was in the (Hungarian) passport office today and everything looked pretty slick and organised. Things have definitely changed.

In the UK, a lot of call centre staff are on commission, making appointments for kitchen and replacement window sales staff. Nothing but a McJob requiring a bit of flannel and the gift of the gab. Door to door selling by another means. In other words, verbal spam!

I stand corrected: Showing up sober is more of an expectation than a must :-)

The UK call centre jobs you describe would probably get classified as "sales agent" jobs here, except they have to use their own phone :-)
These are invariably advertised as "not sales agent work!" "nem ügynöki munka", but then of course it always turns out to be.

Just like "guaranteed sex free" exotic dancing jobs, where girls have their passports held back, told they get jailed and extradited if they complain to police, and end up sold as sex slaves addicted to something lethal anyway.
Oh, wait, no, that's what happens to Hungarian girls looking for work abroad :-)
You guys coming here are risking not getting your last paycheck at worst :-) (and don't feel bad about it if it happens, I'm local, and just got tricked out of my last two month worth of salary when switching jobs...)

So back to "call centres": I'm not much into this field, but I was under the impression there was even a further distinction between "helpdesk" jobs where you follow a script and transfer the call to level 2 support, and actual "call centre" jobs, equivalent to the clerks sitting behind the little windows in the branch offices. (except you don't need to dress up nice) This may have a warm-calling upsale element, just like the clerk/teller job has.

Once you are here, and still looking for a job, there's a fun thing here called a "job fair", "állásbörze". Actually there are a lot of them, at universities and independent locations. Large crowds, and the companies delegate high ranking HR ladies who usually speak English. Usually it's free.