Proving finances for Registration Card

Hi, The time has come for me to get my registration card sorted, as part of the process I need to prove that I can afford to live here unaided.

A bank statement seems the easiest way of doing this, but I have "paperless" bank statements that I just download as a spreadsheet. I can't imagine this is going to count as proof, as it doesn't look very official. Perhaps a screenshot of me logged into my bank account online might be better?

Any advice on how best to "prove" my finances without a printed statement from the bank?

Thanks!

Hi Liam,

I'm not sure what documents they accept, probably a payslip + employment contract is a safe bet.

Which bank are you with? They usually offer you to download your monthly statement in pdf format.

Regards,

Andras

Thanks for your reply!

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I'm self employed. So that means I don't have a payslip for contract to reference.

I have enough in savings to see out my rental agreement, but I just don't know the best way to prove this without ordering a paper statement (which might take too long.)

I'm with Lloyds Bank: https://www.lloydsbank.com/online-banki … anking.asp

They do allow downloads, but they are basically just a plain looking spreadsheet, there's nothing to really identify it as my account. Thanks!

I'm with lloyds also. Don't click export, click print, that will give you a nicer format.

If you are self employed, self assessment report from last year(s) would be a better proof.

Andras

Wow, thank you so much for your suggestions! Perfect!

Bring in every piece of prove you can.
All bank statements, income, tax returns , literally whatever you can get your hands on.
I went through the process as a dependent of my Hungarian husband, at the time I was 100% dependent on his US SS alone.
We had a large sum in the bank, owned a flat in Budapest and my husband had prove of his monthly income from the US.
They still gave me a difficult time of it.
This was 7 years ago, after a 6 month wait and being told to leave HU they finally got everything in order, seems some papers were stuck in the office and not put in order on time.
Just bring in everything , you never know what they may ask for.

Sorry to hear you had such a hard time, thanks for the insight, I'll make sure I'll grab any useful documents I can. Thanks!

Hopefully your paperwork will be more straight forward.
We just took it for granted that since we were retired and my husband was a HU citizen that it would be a breeze for me to get  my paperwork done.
Seems they sent some documents to a building in the same complex that deals with marriages.Our marriage certificate from the US was not good enough for them, although it is good enough to get US passports and pay taxes, buy a home in the US, guess that't the difference in Hungary, they asked for the actual form we filled out back in 1978 in the Las Vegas city hall, the one that had the names and birth places of our parents on it... Could of accessed that form online but no, in Hungary they want to hold the actual papers with a seal on them in their hands.
What killed us was they had on file and even showed us they had it on file that our son was married in Hungary and i was down as his mother... Odd but thankfully all fixed now... Was stressful at the time though.
Made us sort of angry and felt like my husband was not wanted back in his home country, we are sensitive I suppose. At the time it was bad, we had plans on buying a nicer car, we bought a beat up old Citron because we didn't know if I would be leaving Hungary for good or not. We also put plans on fixing our flat up on hold, never even bothered after all that hassle, still haven't fix up our flat in all these years, had a bad taste in our mouths about how the system worked.Silly of us since it was years ago, we just saw reality and didn't trust how things did go and could go. Ready to move at a moments notice still... Still have all my suitcases in my loft,ready to pack if needed.
Guess we never felt secure here after that experience. I have all cards now, resident permit for 10 years etc. but still ready anytime for a notice in the mailbox to leave. Paranoid after what we went through.
Guess you can't take things all that seriously or you'll drive yourself crazy.
They did sort of investigate what happened in my case but still... sour and nasty experience.

Sounds like a bit of a nightmare Marilyn! Living in constant uncertainty must have been tough, I can only imagine how stressful that would have been. Perhaps the fact you were moving here from the US made it more complicated than it needed to be. I'm hoping the fact I'm already an EU citizen works in my favour and I can get everything sorted fairly quickly. I won't want to have to go through anything like that ^ - All the best, thanks for sharing!

There are many people all over the world, who for some odd reasons decide to trace back their ancestors to some god-forsaken village in the middle of nowhere. And imagine their delight when they find their great-grandparent's papers in a run-down church or in the basement of a bombed-out city hall.

That is why the authorities demand hard copies. It will be in the archives even after your grandchildren have died.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

they asked for the actual form we filled out back in 1978 in the Las Vegas city hall, the one that had the names and birth places of our parents on it

....snip...

We also put plans on fixing our flat up on hold, never even bothered after all that hassle, still haven't fix up our flat in all these years, had a bad taste in our mouths about how the system worked.Silly of us since it was years ago, we just saw reality and didn't trust how things did go and could go.

....snip...

Guess you can't take things all that seriously or you'll drive yourself crazy.
They did sort of investigate what happened in my case but still... sour and nasty experience.


I have heard a lot about such trans-Alantic issues by US citizens. I married my wife in Switzerland and I (knock on wood) had no significant problems with my visa (other than having to amass a huge amount of paperwork for my family reunification visa). When talking to an attorney, he was even shocked that I got immediately the 10 year permanent visa. I guess 7 years living in Switzerland prior contributed.

But overall, one should not, and can not, take the bureaucracy here seriously or put on hold life plans, else you will indeed go insane, because it is an insane system. Take a deep breath, and wait. Things, somehow, in some way, given enough time (as in months or years) do tend to work themselves out, but how is a mystery. If one is time-anal, or expect things to work like clockwork, Hungary is the wrong country to live in. ;)