Hungary’s draft would close the guest investor route from 2027
Edward Nguyen
Comments close on 12 November; the draft would have visa, permit and extension applications not finally decided by 31 December 2026, with the fee paid by then, handled under the rules in force that day.
A draft law that Hungary’s Ministry of Interior posted on a page dated 4 November 2026 would remove the guest investor visa and the guest investor residence permit from Act XC of 2023 on 1 January 2027. Applications not finally decided by 31 December 2026, with the fee paid by then, would continue under the rules in force that day, and permits already issued would stay valid for their term.
What the draft changes
The draft is a 74-page text of 61 subtitles on policing, the prison service, firearms and other laws; the guest investor change is the 55th. The consultation page and the attached summary do not mention it; the draft text and the explanatory memorandum do.
Section 180 would leave only the guest self-employed ground in Section 6 (1) a) of Act XC of 2023. The repeals sit in Section 182: the Act’s subtitles on the guest investor visa and on the guest investor (the 8th and 13th), subtitle 144/A, five further provisions and the guest investor wording in three others.
Section 211 (2) would bring the 55th subtitle into force on 1 January 2027; other parts of the draft would enter into force on 30 December 2026, or later in 2027. The explanatory memorandum gives the aim as phasing both documents out of the legal system from 1 January 2027.
Which applications and permits would survive
Section 181 would replace the Act’s existing Section 290/A, which holds transitional rules from a 2024 amendment, with a new Section 290/A that sets the transition.
| Situation | What the draft says | Paragraph of 290/A |
|---|---|---|
| Application to issue a visa or a permit, or to extend a permit, not finally decided by 31 December 2026 | Decided under the rules in force on 31 December 2026; it counts as filed only if the administrative fee was paid by that date | (1), (2) |
| Visa or permit issued before 1 January 2027 | Valid for its term; the permit cannot be extended, apart from an extension application inside row 1 | (3) a) |
| Holder of a valid visa who files a permit application after 1 January 2027 | May still file under Section 22 (5) as in force on 31 December 2026, which allows 30 days from first entry; the permit cannot be extended | (4), (5) |
| Family-cohabitation permit tied to a guest investor permit | Valid for at most 10 years, then not extendable | (3) b), (6) |
| Visa-exempt national lawfully in Hungary (Annex II to Regulation (EU) 2018/1806) | From 1 January 2027 cannot file a permit application | (9) |
The draft would also require a permit to be withdrawn where the available data show that the pledged investment no longer exists (paragraph (11) b)).
What the route requires today
Under the Act in the version Net Jogtár shows for 1 October to 31 December 2026, the visa is valid for six months, and the permit for up to ten years, extendable for the same purpose by up to ten more.
The route asks for at least EUR 250,000 in certificates of a real estate fund registered with the Hungarian National Bank, which must meet conditions on its assets and its manager and be held directly for five years, or a monetary donation of at least EUR 1,000,000 for education, scientific research or the arts to a higher-education institution maintained by a public-interest asset-management foundation.
An earlier article compares the capital that EU investor routes ask for.
What it means for a Vietnamese investor
- Section 290/A (9) would bar a national of an Annex II country from filing a permit application from 1 January 2027. Vietnam is in Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2018/1806, the visa list, in the version consolidated to 30 December 2025. The bar does not reach a Vietnamese citizen, for whom the visa is the route under both the Act and the draft.
- Section 182 would repeal the visa subtitle from 1 January 2027, and Sections 180 to 182 add no route for a visa application filed after 31 December 2026. This means a Vietnamese applicant holding no guest investor visa would have to file the visa application, with the fee paid, by that date.
- A permit issued before 1 January 2027 would run to the end of its term, with the right to work (paragraph (13)), and the draft says it could not be extended, unless an extension application was filed and paid for by 31 December 2026.
What this article has not established
As at 7 November 2026 the text is a draft in public consultation, with no law number in the document read. What reaches Parliament, if it does, may differ, and no document read says whether or when it will be submitted.
The memorandum’s text for Sections 180 to 182, the draft’s own explanatory paragraph [15] and the impact sheet state the aim but give no reason why the route is being ended. The impact sheet lists no group size and no count of holders or applicants.
The explanatory memorandum words two points differently: it lets family members apply for a cohabitation permit or its extension up to the validity of the sponsor’s permit, against the text’s 10-year ceiling, and it speaks of applications in progress on 1 January 2027, against the text’s not finally decided by 31 December 2026.
Not read: the text of the repealed subtitles beyond Section 22. No ministerial statement on the guest investor change was found in the searches made on 7 November.
The draft exists only in Hungarian, and the English wording here is a translation.
Related programmes
- HungaryGolden visa Open
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