Hungary’s White Card does not let holders sponsor their families

Hungary’s White Card lets a remote worker employed abroad, or the part-owner of a business abroad with verified profit, live in Hungary for up to a year, with one extension of up to another year. Under the Act on the general rules on the entry and residence of third-country nationals, a White Card holder cannot sponsor a family-reunification permit.

Eligibility and Vietnamese nationality

Act XC of 2023 lets a Government decree name the countries whose nationals can obtain an employment permit, a guest-worker permit or a National Card. Section 62, the White Card provision, carries no clause of that kind. Neither the Act nor Government Decree 35/2024, in the versions current in October 2026, mentions Vietnam.

This indicates that neither text sets a nationality condition for the White Card. The conditions concern work, income, accommodation, means of subsistence, health cover and listed exclusions.

The permit covers a verified employment relationship with an employer outside Hungary, or a share in a business abroad with verified profit, with the work or the management done from Hungary by advanced digital means. The Act also requires that the holder does not work in Hungary and holds no share in a Hungarian business.

For the employment branch, the decree asks for an authentic certificate from the employer that includes the provision on remote electronic work and its permitted duration. For the business branch it asks for a document with data on the business’s real operation and the applicant’s ownership share.

Real operation can be shown by a registration document, a public document or tax-authority certificate of regular revenue or profit, or another credible means.

The income test changed in July 2025

Since 15 July 2025, an applicant must show lawful net income of at least EUR 3,000 in every month of at least the six months before submitting the application, and must have that income in every month of the stay in Hungary. The same test applies to an extension, under section 52(4) of the decree as amended by Government Decree 88/2025.

The earlier text measured the six months before entry into Hungary. The page of the National Directorate-General for Aliens Policing on the permit, last edited on 11 March 2026, still uses the “before entry” wording.

One year, one extension, a limit on absence

The White Card is valid for up to a year and may be extended once, for the same purpose and for up to another year. While the holder has it, or after it expires, the holder cannot apply in Hungary for a residence permit on any other ground. The holder cannot obtain a national residence card, and time on a White Card does not count towards one.

Beyond the general grounds in section 226(1), the authority must revoke the card if the holder no longer meets the conditions of section 62(2), leaves Hungary for a period longer than 90 days, works for or on behalf of a Hungarian employer, or acquires a share in a Hungarian business. The text contains no clause that adds shorter absences together.

An extension requires, under the Act, a stay in Hungary of more than 90 days within any 180-day period before the application; the authority’s page says at least 90 days. It is filed in Hungary through the Enter Hungary online interface, between 90 and 30 days before expiry. The end of the foreign job or business must be reported within five days.

Family: one exception

Section 71(4)(f) of the Act bars a family-reunification permit where the sponsor holds a White Card, and section 62(6) bars founding another third-country national’s residence title on the holder’s stay in Hungary. The authority’s page applies the first bar to family members of applicants as well.

One exception exists: a child born in Hungary during the validity of the holder’s permit must be issued a residence permit for family reunification under section 71(5). Act XXV of 2024 added it with effect from 11 May 2024, the day after that Act’s promulgation.

Section 71(2) names a spouse among the family members the chapter covers; an earlier comparison of who counts as a spouse sets Hungary’s rule beside those of four other countries.

Filing from Vietnam

The Hungarian foreign ministry’s visa-exemption table lists only diplomatic and service passports for Vietnam. This means holders of an ordinary passport need a visa, and the authority’s page says an applicant who cannot enter visa-free must file abroad, at the Hungarian mission in the country of nationality or habitual residence.

The application already includes the application for the D visa that allows collecting the permit. The visa allows a single entry and a stay of 30 days and is valid for three months. The permit becomes invalid if the holder does not enter Hungary within three months of its approval.

The Hanoi embassy’s own pages differ on the channel. Its Hungarian page says short-stay and long-stay residence-permit visa applications are lodged and collected at a visa centre, while its English page says an applicant must appear in person at the embassy. Neither page names the White Card.

The decree sets 30 days for the decision on a White Card application, and the authority’s page also gives 21 days as the processing time. The authority’s fee page, last edited on 3 March 2026, lists EUR 110 for issuing a residence permit with the visa for collecting it, and HUF 26,000 for an extension. It has no separate White Card line.

Documents from Vietnam

Under section 180(2) of the Act, a public document issued abroad has probative force only if the Hungarian mission in the issuing state legalised it, unless a statute, treaty or reciprocal practice provides otherwise. A document not in Hungarian is accepted only with a certified Hungarian translation, unless a statute provides otherwise.

Article 16(1) of a 1985 Hungary–Vietnam treaty on legal assistance in civil, family and criminal matters says public documents issued by the competent authorities of one party need no legalisation, certification or equivalent formality in the territory of the other.

Hungary did not object to Vietnam’s accession to the Apostille Convention, and the Hungarian-language page of its embassy in Hanoi states that from 11 September 2026 Vietnamese public documents need an Apostille for use in Hungary.

Vietnam’s Decree 293/2026 puts administrative documents directly related to commercial or customs operations outside the Apostille, except documents that were subject to consular certification before the Convention took effect for Vietnam. An announcement of the Embassy of Viet Nam in Hungary, reproduced on the Hanoi embassy’s English page, says such documents still need consular legalisation. Private documents are outside the Apostille unless notarised or certified.

Tax

The Personal Income Tax Act counts a person exercising the right of free movement and residence as resident after at least 183 days in a calendar year in Hungary, and a holder of a long-term residence entitlement or a stateless person as resident. For everyone else, residence turns on a permanent home, then the centre of vital interests, then habitual abode. A resident is taxed on all income.

A White Card is a residence permit, not a long-term residence entitlement. This indicates that the permanent-home test, not a day count, applies to a holder.

Under Article 15 of the 1994 Hungary–Vietnam tax treaty, a Vietnamese resident’s pay for employment work in Hungary is taxable only in Vietnam if all three hold: at most 183 days in Hungary in any 12 months, an employer not resident in Hungary, and pay not borne by a permanent establishment there. This means Hungary may tax that pay once presence exceeds 183 days in any 12 months.

What this article has not established

Which channel the Hanoi embassy currently uses for residence-permit applications, and whether missions accept White Card files specifically, were not established.

Whether a family member could hold a permit on an independent ground, such as a separate White Card, was not established.

No official interpretation was found of whether absences shorter than 90 days add up, or of how the ban on work in Hungary applies to a holder who works from Hungary for an employer abroad.

Whether Vietnamese business registration and tax certificates count as commercial documents outside the Apostille, whether the 1985 treaty is still in force in full, whether Article 16(1) reaches documents filed in a residence-permit procedure, and how it relates to the Apostille requirement, were not established.

No minimum profit figure for the business branch and no guidance from the Hungarian tax authority on White Card holders were found. Treaty rules on business profit and dividends were not analysed.