Address card for non-EU nationals

See the post below.

After you find an apt. you go into the local city hall for your district and pick up a form.
The landlord must sign this form showing you will be living in the flat.
This is called:Lakcim Kartya Ingenyles.

You take it back to city hall where they will give you an actual card with your name and address printed on it.
Husband said you can pick it up in person at city hall.
The resident card is handled at the immigration office and is a different card.
Everyone living in Hungary must have an address card no matter if you buy or rent.
Even the homeless have a card stating they live on the streets.
They like to keep tabs on everyone is seems.

I am not fully sure but I sort of heard through the grapevine that if you do rent a place first, it helps with immigration. They will be more ready to give out a resident permit to stay if you are already renting a place out.
As a retired person with means it shouldn't be too difficult to get a resident permit.
Don't quote me on that however but I know of a case like yours and having a lease in hand was a big help with obtaining a resident permit for retirement for a non EU, N. American.
Sounds a bit confusing to get the card in hand and most likely either your landlord or someone in city hall will not speak English, with any luck both parties will and things will go smoother.
You may need a HU speaker to help you out.

As far a resident card goes, hard to tell you much.
I got the run around and I know other people were sent running around collecting papers and going in several times to immigration and receiving different treatment.
I got my permit 5 years ago, am married to a HU citizen and was asked to leave at one point because of paperwork being handled very slowly.
They at first didn't believe I was legally married to my husband for 40 years, Had documents to prove our legal marriage but they wanted a more detailed paper with my parents birth place and old addresses from back in the 1950's. All the info they wanted was available for free and fast online in Clark county NV,but no, they want papers in hand. They even wanted to know my parents birthplace. My father was born in former Galica which I believe was part of HU at one point.
The papers I had were good enough in the US for the IRS and to buy a pricey home years back but then again everything is different in HU.
I know people with no ties to HU who got permits faster then I did, their  permits however are not for as long as mine was issued.
I heard though that the longer you sign a lease on a place the longer they give you a permit. If say you sign a lease for one year then you may only get a one year permit, a 2 years lease, then 2 years to stay.
Every case is different and every worker at immigration will tell you something else, ask for some paperwork that a previous worker didn't tell you about etc.
Best to have as much documents with you when you apply.
Bank statements etc.
If all else fails they have lawyers hanging around inside immigration services, you can tell who they are, all wearing cheap suits and holding stacks of files and texting away.They sometimes sit in small groups together, easy to spot them.
You will be asked several times to go out and pay for stamps for immigration there is a post office across in a shopping mall where you can purchase the stamps.
Loads of fun, good luck with that part.
We have no actual way of knowing why I had such a run around but my husband suspects  I was treated badly because he is a citizen of HU. He has all legal rights as anyone else in HU and if they happened to let me stay as his wife and something should go horribly wrong, they must support him and there is no way to make him leave the country. They seem a bit afraid of those HU who return home to retire. Can't think of any other logical reason for my hassle with them. Then again nothing is logical in HU.

Hello Marilyn,

thank you very much for your detailed explanations of various steps to follow during settlement process in Hungary, definitely will take your tips into consideration.  We are planning on buying apartment for ourselves, so I assume that we still need to go to local municipal office to get those forms you mentioned and apply for address cards.  All that obviously after obtaining residents permits first

Thank you again

Glad to help out, I am not sure though  if immigration wants to see an address card before issuing a resident permit.( It's been nearly 5 years now and I have forgotten the routine)
We out right owned our flat and they still gave me a hard time, took nearly 6 months to finally meet all they asked from me.
With only being allowed in for 90 days, it was sort of overly stressful on us, had to pay for more stamps to stay longer then 90 days the whole time wondering what would finally happen, sort of took the sparkle of HU away from us.
I would recommend getting more exact details from the HU embassy in Canada before setting foot  in Hungary.

I am still a bit confused also! I recently got my Residence Permit for Other Purposes  In late April still less than 30 days ago. They gave us a paper address card but now i guess we need to get a Lakcim Kartya Ingenyles card also? Where do you go to get one?

We ask Immigrantion about this directly when we got our residence permit but they said there is no such thing now i feel they once again were not truthful!

We rented a flat in Budapest and are going to stay here for 2 more years so we are not moving from this address so we do need that.

That said we have already rented a flat, have a mobile, phone, bank account, home internet/home phone/cable already with out that so i will say you can do all that without one. But we want everything we are supposed to have!

I dealt with the immigration office in Eger, but there are many dotted around the country. There are instructions available in english. It is not altogether straightforward, like all documents have to have been issued in last 30 days: that is land Reg cert or tenancy agreement and bank statement. There is no guarantee that there will be an english speaker on duty at the time you go. + 1000ft stamp. I'm still not certain of the purpose of it.

It took Immigration from Jan 5th to April 17th i think to process our residence permit so since we had to have all the documents done first to submit the application for the residence permit before hand and they took over 90 days to approve the residence permit there is no way we could of gotten the address card if your documents have to be within 30 days but you have to have the residence permit first?

Oh ok, well our lease on our flat was back in December 2015 but we are signing a new one for 2 more years in October of this year and submitting our documents for renewal of our residence permit then.

So maybe we should wait and ask about the address card  then?

All are info will be the same so i am thinking renewing should be easier this time.

I should have added: beware about bank statements. They need hard copy ones headed by the bank, not downloaded statements.

davidpearce wrote:

I should have added: beware about bank statements. They need hard copy ones headed by the bank, not downloaded statements.

That's odd about the statements as the ones I have downloaded say they are valid without the signature and stamp of the bank.  Left and right hands!!

We all have address cards.  We need to produce them all the time  - always when we interact with the state.  No-one else cares.  These address cards still exist or at least are still valid for some parts of the government. 

I don't know about non-EU nationals.

I believe if you have a lease or rental agreement and already have your resident card for Hungary, all you have to do it take those papers, your ID etc. with you to your local district city hall and they will issue you a address card.

davidpearce wrote:

I dealt with the immigration office in Eger, but there are many dotted around the country. There are instructions available in english. It is not altogether straightforward, like all documents have to have been issued in last 30 days: that is land Reg cert or tenancy agreement and bank statement. There is no guarantee that there will be an english speaker on duty at the time you go. + 1000ft stamp. I'm still not certain of the purpose of it.

This is the method for an EU citizen to get a Hungarian registration card: Regisztrációs kártya. For EU citizens, once they get the registration card, the address card, as I understand it (but EU nationals, please correct me if I am wrong), is then mailed to them automatically in a few weeks.

Non-EU citizens need to get a residence visa: Tartózkodási engedély. For Non-EU citizens, to get your address card, first get your residence visa, then see Marilyn's comment above to get the address card.

Thanks everyone for this info and help!

I would employ most of the people from this site to go work at the Immigration and government offices!

klsallee wrote:

.....the address card, as I understand it (but EU nationals, please correct me if I am wrong), is then mailed to them automatically in a few weeks....

If I remember correctly, we received the address card immediately over the counter but it might be specific to where we did it as they seem very "modern" in the way they run their office.

Hello everyone, 
I have the latest update to my initial post.  As per immigration staff in Budapest office I on Budafoki u.60, non-EU nationals will only receive paper version of address cards (in addition to our resident permits).

I believe card type of address card is only available to people who are EU nationals

Hope it helps and will clear out all confusions

I am a non EU person also, from USA we went to that office to get our residence permit done which was about 30 days ago. Yes you get the paper address card when your residence permit is approved.

I will find out about the plastic address card n the next few weeks and post how it goes.

Just to let you know it is taking awhile for Immigration at that office at least to get things done. We submitted on Jan 5th they did not finish it and approve it until April 20th.

Then they only approved it until Jan 1st 2017. They said non EU people will only get a residence permit for as long as they have a rental contract, lease. Since ours ends end of Dec then that is when we have to renewal. But they said when we renew if we have lease for 1 or 2 years then that is how long the residence permit will be for.

Rental things was the only issue they raised in our case at least. Our income was good, all other documents were ok. Just getting our landlord to give us documents relating to our lease on the flat.

It sucked cause Immigration made us write documents stating what we were going to do in Hungary for the next 3 years. We did. Then they only gave us a permit for 1 year from when we applied. Which since they did not approve it until April 20th we really got less than a year! Not getting into that as USA people our 90 days visa free travel would not of ended until March 6.

Then we asked why only the so called one year? That is when they said that all non EU people only get the length of flat rental contract.

We we are going to live in Hungary for several years so we will figure it out!

voyage2931 wrote:

non-EU nationals will only receive paper version of address cards

The official card is paper, but it should be laminated. I am a non-EU national, and mine is the standard laminated address card.

I found these websites to be helpful:
https://www.angloinfo.com/hungary/how-t … ncy-non-euhttps://www.justlanded.com/english/Hung … gistration

Its a bit difficult if you are a non eu citizen like myself, even if you own property in Hungary. Even owning property in Hungary doeant count for much. My husband is an eu citizen and he obtained his registration card and address card without any issues.

Its all about the eu passport and if you dont have it youre in for a difficult time. I just had my interview with the immigration officer, it went well however i have my doubts wheter i will be granted a residence permit/card even though I own a property in Budapest.

Personally I think its a bit silly having to obtaina visa everytime i want to visit my own property, should be something like a property owners card allowing you visa free entry.

As a UK national, I am soon to be in the same situation. I own 2 properties in Hungary and may have difficulty using them.
Currently I am applying for a residence card as an EU national. I do not know if that residence card will remain valid, if of course I get it.
I will know more when I've been to the Eger immigration office in September. This is clearly an ongoing story for many of us: Will know a more complete story then.
Suggest post line is kept open across the Brexit period.

Jennifer_BudaVar1014 wrote:

My husband is an eu citizen

I assume you applied under EU "Family Reunification" law. If so, I would think it is unlikely they will reject your application without good cause.

Well the immigration lawyer arranged the application, not sure under what she applied, didnt even know theres different application types. I was under the impression its about a residence permit for me so i do not require a visa everytime we want to visit Hungary and my property in Budavar. But will see, aparently well know by end of July if ive been kicked to the curb or not.

As far as im aware as an eu citizen you will only need a registration card, eu citizens do not require residence permits. My husband is an eu citizen and was only required to register himself for extended stay in Hungary. He also received an address card.

Me on the other hand owning a property cant get any of those because im not a member of club europe. As long as you have the all important eu passport im certain itll be very easy to settle in Hungary for you.

Just take into consideration, as a non eu citizen youll need to obtain permission first before you are allowed to buy property in Hungary which in cludes a background check as well eg political affiliations, criminal record etc. Youll also be required to sign a declaration that you will live at you property full time (new law, also only heard abt it at the day signing he purchase agreement)

They are always changing the rules mid game here.
My husband is a HU citizen and so is our adult son. I have been married nearly 42 years to my husband.
I am American.
We put our property in my husband's name only, if he should kick it, then our son and I will get the property to share, either way no biggie, if my son inherits the property due to any rule changes, I'll just be his burden, he is better off going 50/50 with me then having to care for me in my old age!
Yes, I had a very difficult time getting my 5 year resident card in HU.
Took over 6 months to get it in hand and at one point I was given 90 days to leave HU.
In the past, it worked out in the end, now I am waiting for my 10 year card to arrive in the mail or for a officer from immigration to knock on the door to double check that we are on the up and up.
Crazy at this point in our lives but that's how they roll in HU.
It's a waiting game, don't stress out, if you ave paid and gotten all your papers in order you will get a resident permit, they just want to see you sweat a bit, seems non EU members are on their hit list.
As far as just an address card, I am not sure if things have changed since I got mine but if you and your husband go into your local city hall with papers on your property, I think they will issue you a simple address card right then and there, take your photo and hand you a card. It is not a resident card, just an address card.

Jennifer_BudaVar1014 wrote:

Well the immigration lawyer arranged the application, not sure under what she applied, didnt even know theres different application types.

Yes, there are many different types of residency permits one can apply for. A list of them all is available at:

http://www.bmbah.hu/jomla/index.php?lang=en

Jennifer_BudaVar1014 wrote:

I was under the impression its about a residence permit for me so i do not require a visa everytime we want to visit Hungary and my property in Budavar.

A residency visa is of course not a travel visa replacement. Residency visa application is designed and meant for those who will immigrate to Hungary and take up permanent living in Hungary.

And that includes obligations, such as paying Hungarian taxes on world wide income (minus any deductions allowed from bilateral tax agreements), paying social taxes in Hungary (i.e. health care contributions), etc. There are also travel limits and reporting requirements. Such as for the 5 year residency visa one is not suppose to leave Hungary for more than 6 months in total in those five years; being abroad for more than 6 months may mean Hungarian Immigration can deny your a renewal of your residency visa.

We would like to live in Hungary for 6 months a year and travel the other 6 months. Im already registered as a tax payer in Hungary, already paid property purchase tax, income tax and have my own medical insurance.

My mistake, the address card does not have a photo on it, that is the resident card with the photo.
Address cards can be gotten from your local city hall.
They are needed for ID for certain things , sometimes they must be shown when using your health card etc. Nothing to do with traveling outside of HU.

Jennifer_BudaVar1014 wrote:

We would like to live in Hungary for 6 months a year and travel the other 6 months.

Your residence permit may or may not have travel restrictions. Rules change here all the time. So I do suggest you confirm with Hungarian immigration if any such restrictions exist for the permit you are seeking.

For example, if you ever want to apply for long term residency in the EU, and have a 5 year residency permit, from:

http://ec.europa.eu/immigration/tab1.do … 0#longterm

Can I leave the host EU country during the five-year period before I fill out my application?

Yes. You can spend periods shorter than six months in a row abroad, if those periods do not add up to more than ten months in total during the necessary five-year period before you hand in your application. Such periods outside you host country will not be considered as interruptions when calculating the duration of your residence.

In some exceptional circumstances, longer periods of absence may also be treated as not interrupting your residence. Depending on national law, these could include time spent outside your host country for military service, serious illness, maternity care, research or study.

So, spending every six months abroad might be a problem, depending on your long term residency goals and plans. But again, Hungarian Immigration makes the final determination on this issue.

Its a stuffup if one is not part of club europe, very complicated. I told the immigration officer we want to settle in Hungary but that we also want to travel, so hopefully she can customize my residence permit according to my requirements if she decides to grant me a residence permit.

Our long term goal is to return to the continent of our ancestors and spend the second half of our lives in europe.

They have pretty much hard and fast regulations,I suppose you might get some sort of resident permit which allows multi entries and exits.
My 5 year permit as a family member of a HU citizen clearly stated I was not to leave HU for more then 3 months at a time without contacting them.
Almost makes one feel like a prisoner, need permission from the warden.
Why not just look into getting a visa to stay for 6 months and dealing with immigration later when you are ready to settle down for good?
I am now waiting on my 10 year card to arrive in the mail, I believe I can leave for up to a year with that one.
I will be receiving my own monthly income this year from the US. I wonder if that would change my status as I will be both a family member of a HU citizen under their care plus have my own income?
In any case, a 10 year permit one way or the other should do me for this lifetime.

If i do not receive a residence permit Ill explore other options if there are any, if not then i guess its not meant to be and europe wont see me again soon.

Its awful to have a residence permit with travel restrictions. Shows you once again theres always double standards. If you do not have an eu passport you are nothing, except if you are a migrant.

I also have my own income and do not need to rely on my husband

Another thing to consider is to qualify for a resident  card in HU you must show that you have health coverage in HUngary.
Not sure where you plan on traveling the 6 months you are outside of HU but you will need to pay for coverage in HU for the full year and maybe afterwards you may be able to buy into the National health but that must be kept up forever, no lapse in payments.
Might be cheaper in the long run to just buy a 6 month visa.
They do not allow you to stop paying for health coverage, if you stop they could go after your assets.
We pay even when we are not in HU, just to keep up on payments and not put our property in jeopardy.
Once your in your in the game for good.

I do have health coverage/insurance already, its not expensive.

For me the mainthing is not having to collect a bunch of documents, have photos taken, make an appointment which takes 2 weeks, drive an hour to another city to reach embassy, sit at embassy for 2 -3 hours, drive an hour home, wait 3 weeks, deive an hourto collect my passport, drive an hour home and finally i can now travel to europe 5 weeks later than i actually wanted to travel.

Its just too much hassle to get a visa everytime...

Jennifer_BudaVar1014 wrote:

I do have health coverage/insurance already, its not expensive.

For me the mainthing is not having to collect a bunch of documents, have photos taken, make an appointment which takes 2 weeks, drive an hour to another city to reach embassy, sit at embassy for 2 -3 hours, drive an hour home, wait 3 weeks, deive an hourto collect my passport, drive an hour home and finally i can now travel to europe 5 weeks later than i actually wanted to travel.

Its just too much hassle to get a visa everytime...

Wow. That is bad. And this is coming to Europe?

I have had to get visas for some African and Asian countries, and could always do it by sending my paperwork and passport by mail. I never was asked to come to the embassy personally. A pity it can not be so easy to visit Europe.

But it could be worse: trying to get a visa to the USA. 

I was also thinking, wowie what a hassle for a visa to Hungary.
The 3 of us all got visas to visit Hungary in 78 and 86 when it was still communist and I do not remember such a hassle, never went in anywhere all by mail if I remember correctly.
The only hassle was physically going into the HU police station within 3 days of entry to register with them, not a hassle so much as scary, hated taking my little 2 1/2 year old down a dark hallway with soldiers holding machine guns, walking to a stark lonely desk with a big serious man sitting there ready to stamp our passports.
No kid should have to see that site.

Just a bit silly owning a property and still having to go through all this hassle to get permission to visit your own property, i really think foreign investers should be treated better. Im not asking for work, citizenship, pension or to be on the government health system, just want to be able to visit my propertyhassle free.

Yes all this to visit europe, just because i was born in an african country now im also associated with africans. And any african passport is rubbish... .

Unfortunately my clever ancestors left europe, colonised africa without keeping their european relations and now the joke is on me.

Jennifer_BudaVar1014 wrote:

Just a bit silly owning a property and still having to go through all this hassle to get permission to visit your own property, i really think foreign investers should be treated better. Im not asking for work, citizenship, pension or to be on the government health system, just want to be able to visit my propertyhassle free.

For most governments around the world, owning property means next to nothing. They are happy to tax you for buying the property, and they are happy to tax you each year for owning the property, but they are not happy to let you visit your property. Since you just "visiting" your property gives them no additional income.

Investor residency is another matter. Some countries have it. Hungary included. But the Hungarian version is, in my humble opinion and price, a scam: one gets "residency" but little else (one can get the same residency permit for much less just going through normal immigration procedures). Better to just buy a fully valid EU passport from Malta if one has the capital (about 1 Million Euro). If one does not have the capital, then you are essentially "nobody" to the government agencies that are just money eager (which I think Hungary is). Sad fact, but that is reality.