Hungary Digital Nomad Visa

Under section 52(4) of Government Decree 35/2024 (II. 29.), in the wording set by Government Decree 88/2025 (IV. 24.) and in force since 15 July 2025, subsistence is deemed proved if the applicant's lawful net income reaches or exceeds EUR 3,000 in every month of at least the six months before the application for issue or extension of the permit is submitted, and the holder must have that income in every month of the stay in Hungary. The information page of the National Directorate-General for Aliens Policing still gives the earlier test of six months before entry, the wording that applied until 14 July 2025.

It is evidenced by a bank statement for the previous six months, or by a certificate of regular income issued by the employer or by the tax authority. Income, however, is only one of four material conditions, and the other three are routinely overlooked because the figure of EUR 3,000 is the only thing remembered.

The first is health insurance. The applicant must show access to comprehensive health insurance services covering all healthcare services, or show that the costs can be met personally.

The condition is satisfied in three cases: qualifying as a person with health insurance under social security, having access to Hungarian health insurance services under an international convention, treaty or agreement, or being able to meet the costs on the strength of the very documents proving means of subsistence.

The second is the condition of exit, that is the condition for return or onward travel: a valid passport, together with a valid ticket for the journey or the money to cover its cost. The third is the documents proving the purpose of residence, and this is the heaviest part.

A person working under an employment relationship abroad needs a certified statement from the employer setting out the scope of the employer activities, the provision on remote electronic work and its authorised duration, and the duties and position of the applicant; the real and actual operation of the employer must also be certified.

A person running a company with proven profits needs documents on the real and actual operation of the company, the job title and position held, the scope of its activities and the ownership of shares.

That real operation is verified by a document certifying registration of the company by the public authorities, an authentic instrument or a certificate from the tax authorities proving regular income or profit, or other credible means.

On an extension, documents on conditions that have not changed need not be submitted again

The permit is a category of its own in statute, section 62 of Act XC of 2023, and its definition has two branches. The first is a person with a verified employment relationship in a country other than Hungary who performs that work from Hungary using an advanced digital technology solution.

The second is a person holding a share in a company with verified profits in a country other than Hungary who performs the work or manages that company from Hungary by the same means.

A negative condition sits inside the granting condition: the applicant may pursue no work at all in Hungary and may hold no capital share in a Hungarian company.

The maximum term is one year, extendable once by a further year at most and only for the same purpose. During the validity of the permit and after its expiry, no residence permit may be applied for in the country on any other ground.

The holder may not be granted a national residence card, so the route opens no path to long-term residence.

Subsection 3 of that section excludes ten groups. Among them are persons who meet the conditions for the other work-related permits including the National Card, the Hungarian Card and the Corporate Card.

The list also covers holders of a residence permit for the purpose of studies or participants in a short supervised traineeship forming part of their studies; persons posted on the territory of Hungary; and applicants for or holders of refugee status or of temporary or subsidiary protection.

It continues with persons with tolerated status, persons whose expulsion has been suspended, holders of an EC settlement permit or an EU residence card, persons arriving in the Union under an intra-corporate transfer, and persons admitted as highly qualified workers.

The permit is withdrawn if the holder works for or on behalf of an employer in Hungary, or acquires a capital share in a Hungarian company.

Section 238 further requires withdrawal where the holder ceases to meet the conditions in subsection 2 or falls under any of the circumstances in subsection 3. The conditions must therefore hold throughout the life of the permit and not merely on the day of filing

The file passes three separate marks, and those three are routinely collapsed into one, so they have to be set apart. The time period of procedural administration is 21 days, and the time allowed for remedying missing documents and for other procedural conducts is not counted inside those 21 days.

The authority acting on the case adopts a decision as to merits within 30 days of the date of submission.

An application lodged through the Enter Hungary platform, meanwhile, is deemed received only once the administrative service fee has been paid and the facial photograph, the fingerprints and the signature specimen have been recorded within 15 days of the date of receipt.

The authority sends out a notification at the point the application is deemed received.

The type D visa used to collect the residence permit is single-entry, authorises a stay of no more than 30 days and is valid for three months.

If the holder does not enter Hungary within three months of the date of approval and does not begin the approved residence, the approved permit becomes invalid and the accrued right of entry and residence ceases.

A further mark is tied to the travel document and is seldom reckoned in advance: the authority fixes the expiry date of the permit so that the travel document remains valid for at least three months beyond that expiry, so a passport close to its own expiry will itself shorten the residence granted.

An extension application is filed no earlier than 90 days before the expiry date and no later than thirty days before it. And on a refusal the time to appeal is only 8 days from notification, lodged with the authority of first instance or at the Hungarian mission where the application was submitted.

An appeal is dismissed without examination as to merits if it arrives after the deadline, is not submitted by an authorised person, introduces new facts the appellant knew of before the decision was taken, or is submitted without stating its grounds

Where the application goes depends on two things: whether the applicant already holds a residence permit, and whether their entry is visa-exempt.

A person without a residence permit whose entry is not visa-exempt must file outside Hungary, before a diplomatic or consular mission of Hungary in the country of their nationality or of their habitual residence.

Other places may also be authorised to receive applications, such as honorary consuls, trade representations and external service providers, so the competent mission itself has to be asked.

Where the country of nationality or habitual residence has no receiving place at all, an application may exceptionally be filed in a country of lawful stay, provided the reasons for that exceptional filing are proved.

No separate visa application is required, because the application for the residence permit comprises the application for the visa authorising entry to collect it.

A national of a visa-free country who holds no residence permit may file inside Hungary during lawful residence, electronically through the Enter Hungary platform or in person at the competent regional directorate for the applicant place of accommodation.

An extension application, by contrast, may be filed only in Hungary and only through Enter Hungary.

Accommodation is a condition to be proved rather than a detail to be declared:

Ownership or right of use of a property suitable for housing must be shown by a residential lease contract, a document on accommodation provided by courtesy, a document of ownership, or documentary evidence of an accommodation reservation together with evidence of payment.

Once issued, the permit document is delivered by post to the address given as the place of delivery in the form, and may be collected in person at the regional directorate only on proof that the holder is not in a position to receive it at that address.

As for residing in fact, two ninety-day marks pull in opposite directions, and they only become visible when set side by side. An extension is available only where, before filing, the holder resided in Hungary on that permit for at least 90 days within any 180-day period.

Meanwhile section 238(b) of Act XC of 2023 requires withdrawal of the permit where the holder has left the territory of Hungary for longer than 90 days. One mark demands presence, the other forbids absence, and both are measured on the same number

Family members of a White Card holder, or of an applicant for one, shall not be granted a residence permit for family reunification, and this is not an administrative policy but a provision of statute.

Section 71(4) of Act XC of 2023 lists the permit types whose holder cannot stand as a sponsor for reunification, and the White Card sits at point f of that list.

The same list carries the seasonal employment permit, the work permit issued for the implementation of an investment, the employment-purpose permit, the guest worker permit, the permit for study and training including the job-seeking and business-starting variants, the traineeship permit and the voluntary activity permit.

Section 62(6) states the same thing from the other side: the residence in Hungary of a White Card holder may not be used to found a residence title for any third person. The single exception is a child born in Hungary, and that exception too is statutory rather than a matter of discretion.

Section 71(5) provides that a third-country national child born on the territory of Hungary during the validity of the permit must be issued a residence permit for the purpose of family reunification.

That subsection states expressly that it applies even where no further residence title may be founded on the parent permit under the Act.

The permit for the child is issued once the birth has been notified. The practical consequence is that where two people come together the second must stand on a residence ground of their own, and a child born outside Hungary falls outside that exception

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the Hungary passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a Hungary passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Hungary passport reaches 199 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

The statute creating this category contains no tax provision for it: every mention of tax in its text sits elsewhere — section 214 assigning enforcement of payment obligations to the state tax authority, and provisions on the right to query data from it.

No concession, no exemption, no separate filing duty. Nor does the tax authority publish guidance for the category: its information sheets do not name this permit and do not mention digital nomads.

The tax position is therefore settled by the general tax law, and this requires a comparison of two definitions, which this cell records as a joining rather than a quotation. Section 3(2) of the Personal Income Tax Act of 1995 gives four classes of tax resident: Hungarian citizens with the stated exception.

Persons with the right of free movement exercising residence of more than ninety days and present for at least 183 days in the calendar year. Persons holding a right of long-term residence under the law on foreign nationals, and stateless persons; and the remainder, assessed on permanent home, centre of vital interests and habitual abode.

The second class does not reach this category, because that 183-day threshold applies only to persons exercising free movement rights, that is nationals of the European Economic Area, not third-country nationals.

Nor does the third, and here the two lists must be set against each other.

Section 74(1) of the immigration act lists exhaustively the statuses constituting a right of long-term residence: the immigration permit, the settlement permit, the temporary, national and community settlement permits, the temporary residence card, the national residence card and the EU residence card.

The permit under this category is not among them; it is an ordinary residence permit, and the immigration act moreover bars its holder from receiving a national residence card.

The holder therefore falls to the fourth class, assessed on the facts: having a sole permanent home in Hungary; or a centre of vital interests in Hungary where permanent homes exist in more than one place; or a habitual abode in Hungary where no centre of vital interests can be established.

The Act defines the centre of vital interests as the state to which the individual is most closely bound by personal, family and economic ties; a permanent home as a place arranged for lasting occupation and actually occupied; and provides that a lengthy but temporary stay abroad does not alter the permanent home.

The consequence for scope: section 2(4) makes a tax resident liable on all income, while a foreign tax resident is liable only on Hungarian-source income or income Hungary may tax under a treaty.

One provision of the immigration act carries weight for tax and so stays in this cell: section 62(2)(c) forecloses Hungarian-source income at the outset by barring both work and the holding of capital in the country.

The detail of that condition, together with the term and the exclusions of the category, belongs to the outcome cell and not to the tax cell.

Read this cell within its scope: the immigration act covers conditions and duration and says nothing about tax; the tax act states tax-residence tests and the scope of liability for all individuals and never names this category.

How the fourth class applies to a person present in Hungary for at most two years is a question of applying facts rather than of rule, and no source answers it in advance

The fee schedule contains no line named White Card, and that has to be said first: the fee attaches to the permit type, not to the route, so the White Card falls under the general residence permit fees in Section III.

What decides the amount is not the route but where and how the application is filed. Filed abroad at a Hungarian mission: EUR 110, covering both the residence permit procedure and the visa authorising entry to collect the permit.

Filed inside Hungary in person: HUF 39,000. Filed inside Hungary through the Enter Hungary system: HUF 26,000. The HUF 13,000 gap between two ways of filing the same application is the most striking figure on the schedule.

Extension of the permit: HUF 26,000. Replacement or exchange of the residence document: HUF 20,000. And one counter-intuitive rate: the fee to appeal a refusal, lodged at a mission, is EUR 160 — higher than the application fee itself.