Residency application

fluffy2560 wrote:

.... $800 is too much money for this kind of thing  BUT, it's a lot more expensive in the UK.   It costs there £1350 (per person).

Plus £470 p/person Health Services Surcharge.  Overall, you won't see much change out of £2k by the time you've gone to VFS in your home country.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

...
Oh the $800. was just his last of many payments...
X amount for a resident permit, X amount for this card or that one.
it's a expensive process.
No idea why it took over a year and they still hadn't gotten a date for her citizenship review.
My son just gave up, his dream was always to live in Japan and if she was a US citizen she would have to decide which country she was give up.
Japan only excepts one citizenship. They couldn't live there long term if she gave that up.

Pricey stuff.   They say in the UK, citizenship is a privilege.  That's overdoing it as being born to British parents makes it a right.  Right vs Privilege.  Meh.

I never understood if you acquired another citizenship, why your original country would know about it?  Unless someone told them.  I cannot see how they would know.

fluffy2560 wrote:

..... I never understood if you acquired another citizenship, why your original country would know about it?  Unless someone told them.  I cannot see how they would know.

I recall when the MOD found out I had a US passport, I didn't tell them; it caused some ruffled feathers until they realised I also had a British one - both legitimate.  The end conclusion was it was the Army's fault for not asking me when I joined up; I never did find out who had told them, but I let the US passport lapse years ago.

Cynic wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

.... $800 is too much money for this kind of thing  BUT, it's a lot more expensive in the UK.   It costs there £1350 (per person).

Plus £470 p/person Health Services Surcharge.  Overall, you won't see much change out of £2k by the time you've gone to VFS in your home country.

Yes, exactly.    I cannot stand VFS. I have come up against them a couple of times.

The health surcharge is per year too.  One of my friends is a student and she had to pay that for the duration of her course.  The upside is that she can work in the UK for 2 years I believe after graduation.

I cannot see her going home ever again as it's a war zone there now.

I had to look up what VFS was.
I'm out of the loop...
My son has both US and EU citizenship but he would give it all up in a second if he could get Japanese citizenship.
It's not so easy to do over there.
Guess they might know something other countries don't know?
Since he is married to a Japanese citizen he gets their health coverage without having to wait the year like here in Hungary, unless in Hungary you wish to pay allot for little. I think they pay $100. each a month but they take care of you right away .
He has no plans at all to ever return to the US.
Not sure why but he dislikes everything about the place.
He didn't even collect his 2019 tax returns or any of the stimulus money they were handing out.
I forced him to contact the IRS once over the phone and he was so put out about how careless they are that he said he would rather never see a money from the US if they promise to never bother him again.
I'm not sure what the public schools did to him but something must of happened.
He likes peace of mind more then money.
Even so ,he had thousands of dollars coming to him I wish he had put in more effort to collect.
If it was the other way around, the iRS would track him down for their last penny into the Amazon forest with blood hounds at his heels.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

I had to look up what VFS was.
I'm out of the loop...
My son has both US and EU citizenship but he would give it all up in a second if he could get Japanese citizenship.
It's not so easy to do over there.
Guess they might know something other countries don't know?
Since he is married to a Japanese citizen he gets their health coverage without having to wait the year like here in Hungary, unless in Hungary you wish to pay allot for little. I think they pay $100. each a month but they take care of you right away .
He has no plans at all to ever return to the US.
Not sure why but he dislikes everything about the place.
He didn't even collect his 2019 tax returns or any of the stimulus money they were handing out.
I forced him to contact the IRS once over the phone and he was so put out about how careless they are that he said he would rather never see a money from the US if they promise to never bother him again.
I'm not sure what the public schools did to him but something must of happened.
He likes peace of mind more then money.
Even so ,he had thousands of dollars coming to him I wish he had put in more effort to collect.
If it was the other way around, the iRS would track him down for their last penny into the Amazon forest with blood hounds at his heels.

VFS is a visa outsourcing service used by various countries.  There's no way to argue your case  directly.   

IRS is a law unto itself.   

I knew one "accidental American" who was born there during WW2.  He'd never lived there for any period of time except as a child.  He left there and returned to the UK and never has been there again except for short periods to visit a relative.

Yet, the IRS is on him.  He did visit on his British passport but that shows he was born somewhere like New York.  They said he had to go through the US citizens queue even with a foreign passport.   He told me he now avoids  any contact with the USA, avoiding any flights likely to go near there or be diverted.  He fears arrest by the IRS as he's always ignored them. 

The US is very unusual in taxing its citizens wherever they are regardless of their residence status elsewhere.  I seem to remember the only other one that does that is The Philippines.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

I had to look up what VFS was.
I'm out of the loop...
My son has both US and EU citizenship but he would give it all up in a second if he could get Japanese citizenship.
It's not so easy to do over there.
Guess they might know something other countries don't know?
Since he is married to a Japanese citizen he gets their health coverage without having to wait the year like here in Hungary, unless in Hungary you wish to pay allot for little. I think they pay $100. each a month but they take care of you right away .
He has no plans at all to ever return to the US.
Not sure why but he dislikes everything about the place.
He didn't even collect his 2019 tax returns or any of the stimulus money they were handing out.
I forced him to contact the IRS once over the phone and he was so put out about how careless they are that he said he would rather never see a money from the US if they promise to never bother him again.
I'm not sure what the public schools did to him but something must of happened.
He likes peace of mind more then money.
Even so ,he had thousands of dollars coming to him I wish he had put in more effort to collect.
If it was the other way around, the iRS would track him down for their last penny into the Amazon forest with blood hounds at his heels.

VFS is a visa outsourcing service used by various countries.  There's no way to argue your case  directly.   

IRS is a law unto itself.   

I knew one "accidental American" who was born there during WW2.  He'd never lived there for any period of time except as a child.  He left there and returned to the UK and never has been there again except for short periods to visit a relative.

Yet, the IRS is on him.  He did visit on his British passport but that shows he was born somewhere like New York.  They said he had to go through the US citizens queue even with a foreign passport.   He told me he now avoids  any contact with the USA, avoiding any flights likely to go near there or be diverted.  He fears arrest by the IRS as he's always ignored them. 

The US is very unusual in taxing its citizens wherever they are regardless of their residence status elsewhere.  I seem to remember the only other one that does that is The Philippines.

Yes, my son doesn't owe the IRS a penny but they owe him at least $8,000.
He is almost afraid if he entered the US again it would be cheaper for them to take him out then to pay him what they owe.
He has his own way of seeing things for sure.
My cousin lived in the Phillippines for over a decade. He wife is a local.
Not sure why he didn't have health insurnace ver there as he was living on US disablity.
Not sure exactly why he found himself in the hospital over there but since he couldn't pay the bill they wouldn't let him ut of the hospital.
His sister had a go-fund-me page to get him springed from hospital/jail.
It was something like $14,000 that he owed them.
He said the place was a dump with straw mattresses that were falling aprt ect.
Not worth a dime let alone $14,000.
He did get out after a stay of 2 weeks, not sure how he paid the bill, perhaps his church group gt him out.
I never asked, sometimes it's best to not know. He is back in the US now and paying to get his wife US citizenship.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....
Yes, my son doesn't owe the IRS a penny but they owe him at least $8,000.
He is almost afraid if he entered the US again it would be cheaper for them to take him out then to pay him what they owe.
He has his own way of seeing things for sure.
My cousin lived in the Phillippines for over a decade. He wife is a local.
Not sure why he didn't have health insurnace ver there as he was living on US disablity.
Not sure exactly why he found himself in the hospital over there but since he couldn't pay the bill they wouldn't let him ut of the hospital.
His sister had a go-fund-me page to get him springed from hospital/jail.
It was something like $14,000 that he owed them.
He said the place was a dump with straw mattresses that were falling aprt ect.
Not worth a dime let alone $14,000.
He did get out after a stay of 2 weeks, not sure how he paid the bill, perhaps his church group gt him out.
I never asked, sometimes it's best to not know. He is back in the US now and paying to get his wife US citizenship.

I used to work with a guy who had problems with the IRS at one point.  He told me that the first thing to do is to pay any bill and then argue about it after.   If you couldn't afford it, I am not sure what would have happened.   I've always thought about his advice and tend to think the same.  Pay quickly, it then stops the clock. Then one starts working on the appeal/complaint to get the money back.   

Probably your cousin couldn't get any insurance.   The model was probably the same as the US version given US involvement there over history.  US is very unusual as a developed country not having government  provided universal healthcare services.

I keep thinking if one thing would end us being here in Hungary is the healthcare services.  In the UK, nearly everything (not dental) is free if over 60.  Here, my 75 year old MIL needed some medicines which the docs had prescribed.  12K HUF/month for a packet of 28.  That's on top of all the other stuff she needs to keep going.  I don't see how it's sustainable on a small pension. 

If OV wanted to do something to win votes, he should properly fund the health services. Free meds for over 60s etc and proper social care.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....
Yes, my son doesn't owe the IRS a penny but they owe him at least $8,000.
He is almost afraid if he entered the US again it would be cheaper for them to take him out then to pay him what they owe.
He has his own way of seeing things for sure.
My cousin lived in the Phillippines for over a decade. He wife is a local.
Not sure why he didn't have health insurnace ver there as he was living on US disablity.
Not sure exactly why he found himself in the hospital over there but since he couldn't pay the bill they wouldn't let him ut of the hospital.
His sister had a go-fund-me page to get him springed from hospital/jail.
It was something like $14,000 that he owed them.
He said the place was a dump with straw mattresses that were falling aprt ect.
Not worth a dime let alone $14,000.
He did get out after a stay of 2 weeks, not sure how he paid the bill, perhaps his church group gt him out.
I never asked, sometimes it's best to not know. He is back in the US now and paying to get his wife US citizenship.

I used to work with a guy who had problems with the IRS at one point.  He told me that the first thing to do is to pay any bill and then argue about it after.   If you couldn't afford it, I am not sure what would have happened.   I've always thought about his advice and tend to think the same.  Pay quickly, it then stops the clock. Then one starts working on the appeal/complaint to get the money back.   

Probably your cousin couldn't get any insurance.   The model was probably the same as the US version given US involvement there over history.  US is very unusual as a developed country not having government  provided universal healthcare services.

I keep thinking if one thing would end us being here in Hungary is the healthcare services.  In the UK, nearly everything (not dental) is free if over 60.  Here, my 75 year old MIL needed some medicines which the docs had prescribed.  12K HUF/month for a packet of 28.  That's on top of all the other stuff she needs to keep going.  I don't see how it's sustainable on a small pension. 

If OV wanted to do something to win votes, he should properly fund the health services. Free meds for over 60s etc and proper social care.

I know some cancer patients in the US are complaining about opium tinture not being covered by their insurance. They are paying out $465. to over $600. per month to help with their pain.
Dang, at those prices I'd probably find myself a st. dealer....

fluffy2560 wrote:

.....

I keep thinking if one thing would end us being here in Hungary is the healthcare services.  In the UK, nearly everything (not dental) is free if over 60.  Here, my 75 year old MIL needed some medicines which the docs had prescribed.  12K HUF/month for a packet of 28.  That's on top of all the other stuff she needs to keep going.  I don't see how it's sustainable on a small pension. 

If OV wanted to do something to win votes, he should properly fund the health services. Free meds for over 60s etc and proper social care.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

I know some cancer patients in the US are complaining about opium tincture not being covered by their insurance. They are paying out $465. to over $600. per month to help with their pain.
Dang, at those prices I'd probably find myself a st. dealer....

There's always Canadian or Mexican pharmacies.  How they can sell the same stuff for huge amounts less than the USA just shows how much price gouging is going on.   

US is very unusual in its healthcare practices.   People are rationing their insulin in the USA.  This is just going to kill  people over time and/or lead to lifetime of disability.   From over here, it's looking like government sponsored abuse of human rights.  Looks like it's out of control.

fluffy2560 wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

.....

I keep thinking if one thing would end us being here in Hungary is the healthcare services.  In the UK, nearly everything (not dental) is free if over 60.  Here, my 75 year old MIL needed some medicines which the docs had prescribed.  12K HUF/month for a packet of 28.  That's on top of all the other stuff she needs to keep going.  I don't see how it's sustainable on a small pension. 

If OV wanted to do something to win votes, he should properly fund the health services. Free meds for over 60s etc and proper social care.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

I know some cancer patients in the US are complaining about opium tincture not being covered by their insurance. They are paying out $465. to over $600. per month to help with their pain.
Dang, at those prices I'd probably find myself a st. dealer....

There's always Canadian or Mexican pharmacies.  How they can sell the same stuff for huge amounts less than the USA just shows how much price gouging is going on.   

US is very unusual in its healthcare practices.   People are rationing their insulin in the USA.  This is just going to kill  people over time and/or lead to lifetime of disability.   From over here, it's looking like government sponsored abuse of human rights.  Looks like it's out of control.

It's a real crime how people in the US are treated with the low level of health care they get.
Of course if you have the bucks then it's all 5 star...
My sister is 74 and lives on a small SS payment. She works part -time to survive.
Has several jobs, one answering  phones every other weekend at a senior care home and a couple days per weeks she cleans helps an elderly couple with their cleaning, food shoping and fixing a meal for them.
When is she going to be considered elderly?
She has the gov. medicare for seniors but she pays something like $170. a month for it plus 20% of any doctors bill.
Meds are not covered either.
It's like she works these part-time jobs just to have enought to pay for health care.
Like my husband always said, "only rich people can get sick".
If you are a "immigrant" into the US however you get free medicare that covers meds and dental.
No wonder the US is about to explode. People have had enough of being used and not getting much back in return.
Of course if you are really low income the gv. will help pay fr either your medicare or medicad coverage, but I mean dirty poor with no assests to speak of.
You can have a very limited amount of savings and a car that not worth blue book price.
It really hurts middle income people.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....
When is she going to be considered elderly?
She has the gov. medicare for seniors but she pays something like $170. a month for it plus 20% of any doctors bill.
Meds are not covered either.
It's like she works these part-time jobs just to have enought to pay for health care.
Like my husband always said, "only rich people can get sick".
If you are a "immigrant" into the US however you get free medicare that covers meds and dental.
No wonder the US is about to explode. People have had enough of being used and not getting much back in return.
Of course if you are really low income the gv. will help pay fr either your medicare or medicad coverage, but I mean dirty poor with no assests to speak of.
You can have a very limited amount of savings and a car that not worth blue book price.
It really hurts middle income people.

The thing about the USA is that middle America - land of Mom and Pop stores - is where there's a foundation of the capitalist system.  Small businesses means a success and self-sufficiency.   I like this idea but I also worry about those at the edges who need serious help.  The government is supposed to look after everyone.  So much for "We the people...."

It's outrageous your sister has to work at 74 and still has to struggle to pay the bills.   But working to pay for healthcare seems to be the way it's going. Kind of a tax on being elderly.   What did those lifelong taxes actually pay for?  Where's the return on that payment?   Most rich people pay very little taxes because they know how to structure their affairs to pay as little as possible.  Seems unfair to me.

When my mother was raising 4 children on her own for a couple of years, she never asked the US gov. for a penny even though we were ,"entitled" to aid.
She never wanted us to depend on the gov. for anything.
She also wanted us to hold our heads up and not feel like we were,"poor".
Of course when she was forced to start working full time at age 14 the US had no child welfare laws or aid for seniors,no SS or welfare system.
It does sort of burn me when I used t see full grwn healthy looking adults of working age using  gov. stamps to buy food, cart loads of food.
Having said that, the way the US gov. wastes money I now think we all should get a piece of the pie without feeling any shame about it.
They owe us big time.
The difference here in HUngary as they have to sign a paper stating you will NEVER ask fr any gov. aid in Hungary as a resident, in the US anyone with a SS number can get help if needed, even if they purchased the card on the black market.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

When my mother was raising 4 children on her own for a couple of years, she never asked the US gov. for a penny even though we were ,"entitled" to aid.
She never wanted us to depend on the gov. for anything.
She also wanted us to hold our heads up and not feel like we were,"poor".
Of course when she was forced to start working full time at age 14 the US had no child welfare laws or aid for seniors,no SS or welfare system.
It does sort of burn me when I used t see full grwn healthy looking adults of working age using  gov. stamps to buy food, cart loads of food.
Having said that, the way the US gov. wastes money I now think we all should get a piece of the pie without feeling any shame about it.
They owe us big time.
The difference here in HUngary as they have to sign a paper stating you will NEVER ask fr any gov. aid in Hungary as a resident, in the US anyone with a SS number can get help if needed, even if they purchased the card on the black market.

That's it really, depending on the government is one thing but taking entitlements is a right.  I am sure no-one would reject a tax rebate.  If you get some kind of welfare as an entitlement, that's just another kind of tax rebate.  In other words, take it if it's "free"!   

I cannot say I signed a paper saying I wouldn't claim anything from the HU government.  I am not sure what I signed of course.  But perhaps there's a bit of difference because  my RP (Residence Permit) says Article 50 (Brexit Withdrawal Agreement).   I am not sure if it conveys any privileges as far as HU SS goes.

Residency for 5 years approved , just need to get my plastic shit now,

Kieran Paget wrote:

Residency for 5 years approved , just need to get my plastic shit now,

Yay! Well done Kieran.  Glad it's worked out in the end. 

Is it on the basis of Article 50 of the Withdrawal Agreement?

No this is third world.

Kieran Paget wrote:

No this is third world.

Yes, it is the 3rd world in many ways.

I don't know what the Article 50 label does for anyone. It says on my card Article 50.

To me the fact that police visited you was a VERY good sign, Hungary a third world I have to disagree, in any case with regards to cost of living.
Frustrating to me (and perhaps to you in the future(, Orban has a lot of hand outs (families, elderly (of course Hungarian born, companies (not mine), somebody has to pay the bill.

Nevertheless congratulations, but be careful what you wish for.

Don't do politics at all, just get on with my life as everyone should, but yes I know about the hand outs and everything else.

Kieran Paget wrote:

Residency for 5 years approved , just need to get my plastic shit now,

Hey Kieran, Awesome news!

Got my plastic card through today, also had my first ever 1v1 conversation in hungarian it was a mare but we got there, so now looking at flights and taking a vacation

Kieran Paget wrote:

Got my plastic card through today, also had my first ever 1v1 conversation in hungarian it was a mare but we got there, so now looking at flights and taking a vacation

If you don't yet have the ID card (the RP is another thing), then wait until you get the appointment from the Kormanyablak for them to issue you with that ID card. 

It'll take a few weeks for the appointment to arrive.

Just an update re: Brexit:

I spent 2.5h of my valuable time at the Kormany Ablak getting a HU ID card application sorted.   We waited hours.   

The stupid thing is that the RP data collected is exactly the same, so they already had everything from previous times.

Makes you wonder how many screws are loose in the collective head of HU public administration.

If anyone has to go to get the HU ID card, then try to make an appointment for it otherwise you'll wait hours.

The reason for waiting  a long time as far as we can see is because of people renewing their passports.   The people waiting all had passports in their hands. Obviously people want their documentation in case they have to run away from here.

For us, COVID was a bonus as we had to make an appointment but the office where we have to go to it is quick anyway. It was just Vienna that there were delays.