National settlement permit vs EC Long time Residence Permit

Sorry have no idea about it.
I have a 5 year resident permit to Hungary because my husband and son are HU citizens.
I have never heard of the resettlement permit.
Am interested in finding out more.
No one at immigration gave an ounce of info about anything, they do not offer any advice or help.
My permit is up in June, will see what comes next if anything, no interest on my part to become a HU citizen, only wish to live with my husband in Hungary as it is his birthplace.

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

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.