Visa information

Hungary offers three named routes in the 2026 guide: a 10-year Guest Investor residence permit, a White Card digital-nomad permit, and an employment permit via a Hungarian employer, with the EU Blue Card also listed. The guide scores Hungary 54/100 for visa and bureaucracy — the routes are clear, but the paperwork stage is measured in weeks, not days, on every plan tier.

The three routes the guide names

Guest Investor residence permit — a 10-year permit via investment (see the thresholds below).

White Card digital-nomad permit — the route for remote workers, tested against monthly income (see below).

Employment permit — via a Hungarian employer; the guide also lists the EU Blue Card on the same line, without separate conditions.

The guide also lists a residence permit “for other purposes” with proof of means — in its retirement text, not its visa list — as a further route that works for retirees (see the Retirement page).

The investment and income tests — what the sources actually say

For the Guest Investor permit, the guide gives two investment figures: ~€250k fund investment or ~€500k property. It gives no fund eligibility rules, no property conditions beyond that figure, and no processing detail, so none is stated here.

For the White Card, the test is ~€3,000/mo. The guide's visa list describes it as for one year renewable, while its remote-work section describes the same permit as for up to 2 years — both phrasings are the guide's own, and this page reports both rather than blending them into a single term.

For the employment permit, the guide states only that it runs via a Hungarian employer (with the EU Blue Card listed alongside); it prints no salary threshold, so this page does not invent one. At the guide's exchange rate of $1 ≈ Ft340, euro figures convert for planning at roughly that relationship to the dollar.

What the paperwork costs — plan budgets, not government fees

The guide does not list individual government visa fees. What it gives is a bundled “Visa, permits & translations” budget line in each move plan — its own note describes that line as covering government fees, apostilles and translations, with the luxury tier adding an immigration lawyer — and those lines are the only sourced cost figures for the application itself:

• $800 — Affordable plan (you file yourself)
• $1,150 — Mid-range and Retirement plans
• $2,750 — Luxury plan (the plan notes the luxury tier adds an immigration lawyer)

The Retirement plan carries one further, separate line: $2,150 for “Retirement visa, lawyer & pension certification”, covering an immigration lawyer, apostilled pension letters, medicals and translations.

Application steps and timelines, by tier

The guide builds the application into each plan's timeline rather than printing a single step list. The common sequence across the plans and checklists is:

• Choose the route first and print its requirements; the Affordable checklist starts with “Visa route chosen and requirements printed.”
• Gather and legalise documents — apostilles and translations are named in every tier; the Retirement paperwork stage adds pension or income letters certified and apostilled, a police certificate, a medical, and birth and marriage certificates translated.
• Check your passport — the Affordable checklist requires a passport valid 18+ months.
• Arrange health insurance before you file (see the Hospitals page for the guide's first-year insurance budgets).
• File — yourself on the Affordable tier, or with a lawyer or agent on the Mid-range, Luxury and Retirement tiers.

Paperwork-stage durations in the guide: ~10 weeks filing yourself (Affordable), ~8 weeks with a lawyer or agent filing (Mid-range), ~6 weeks with a lawyer filing everything (Luxury), and ~14 weeks for the Retirement paperwork stage. After the move, the settle stage includes registering your address and opening a bank account.

Renewals and the path to residency — the honest limit of the guide

What the sources say about duration is specific but narrow: the Guest Investor permit is a 10-year permit, and the White Card is described as one year renewable in the visa list and up to 2 years in the remote-work section. Neither the guide nor the site data gives renewal conditions for the Guest Investor or employment routes, any years-to-permanent-residency or citizenship timetable, or any absence limits, so this page does not state them. Treat the durations above as confirmed in the guide's own wording, and the longer pathway as something to confirm with an immigration lawyer or the consulate before you rely on it.

Frequently asked questions