Skip to content
Vertrekklaar
Menu
NederlandsLog inStart your step-by-step plan
Other country

Step-by-step plan · No visa required

The step-by-step plan for Hungary

From "we want this" to being settled, in 31 steps. Read phase 1 in full here. Test your departure date along the way. Then you'll know whether you want the rest.

31 steps5 phases57 official sources7 only for your situationchecked on 11 September 2026

Phase 1 starts below ↓The whole plan: € 199 one-off, no subscription.

What it looks like

Not a PDF, not a checklist. A plan that knows what needs to happen now.

Every step sits in its place in the order, with the lead time, the counter and the official source. You tick off, your partner ticks along, and the plan counts back from your departure date: what has to start when, and what is running now.

Below is phase 1, exactly as it appears in the plan.

The dashboard of the step-by-step plan for Hungary: the current phase, the open steps, the next step and the deadline bar.

The route

  1. Orientation

    6 steps

    Open · You are here

  2. Closing the Netherlands

    11 steps

    In your plan

  3. The move

    5 steps

    In your plan

  4. Registration in Hungary

    4 steps

    In your plan

  5. Arrival

    5 steps

    In your plan

Phase 1 is the question "can we, and do we want to?". From phase 2 the arranging begins.

Phase 1 · Orientation

6 of 6 steps open

Nobody stops you, and yet Hungary has a hard clock: by day 93 at the latest you're registered. And the treaty from 1986 does something few treaties do — your occupational pension goes to Hungary, where it's untaxed, while your AOW stays Dutch instead.

By the end of phase 1 you know the clock of day 93, you know which part of your income is taxed where, and the family is behind the decision.

Step 1.1

Being allowed to stay is not the same as being registered

Lead time:
reading step
Costs:
none

As a Dutch citizen you need no visa and may be in Hungary for the first ninety days without conditions. If you stay longer, the registration certificate for EEA nationals is mandatory — and Hungary names the day: you lodge the application by the ninety-third day after entry at the latest.

The certificate itself costs 1,000 forint and is valid indefinitely. What most people don't know: the address card that goes with it you pay for separately and in advance since 2025, and without proof of payment the immigration office terminates the procedure.

Checked against the official source

The official sources for this step

Step 1.2

Know how tax and healthcare work there

Lead time:
an evening of research
Costs:
none

The tax. The treaty dates from 1986 and has never been amended. It places pensions from past employment exclusively with the state of residence — and Hungary declares a pension that falls under a tax treaty to be nyugdíj, and nyugdíj is tax-free there. So your occupational pension is, after the wage tax exemption in the Netherlands, taxed nowhere.

The AOW is the exception, and exactly the other way round from what you'd expect: a pension from a social security system may be taxed by the paying state. So the Netherlands keeps the AOW, and Hungary exempts it. And the government pension stays Dutch, unless you're a resident and a national of Hungary.

Healthcare. Hungary is a treaty country. With a Dutch statutory pension you go through the CAK: an S1 form, registration at the health insurance department of the kormányhivatal, and you get the TAJ card with which you receive full care.

Checked against the official source

The official sources for this step

Step 1.3

Explore the region, and count the language in

Lead time:
weeks, preferably with an exploratory trip outside summer
Costs:
an exploratory trip is a serious cost item

Budapest has the international schools, the English-speaking doctors and prices heading towards Western Europe. Around Lake Balaton and in the south-west — Somogy, Baranya, Zala — many Dutch people already live in village houses that cost a fraction of home. The west near Sopron and Győr is an hour from Vienna; the east is empty, cheap and far from everything.

Hungarian is related to no neighbouring language, and outside Budapest and the tourist spots it is the only language at the counter, at the GP and at school. Go and look in January, not in July: the summers are hot, the winters cold and grey, and heating an old village house is a real item.

Step 1.4

Map out what it's going to cost

Lead time:
1-2 hours with the calculator
Costs:
none

The paperwork is cheap: the certificate costs 1,000 forint, the address card 5,700, the driving licence doesn't need exchanging. The surprise is the car: Hungary charges a registration tax on every car you bring, without exemption for relocation goods, and a purchased home carries four percent transfer tax.

Step 1.5

The family conversation

Lead time:
weeks, not hours
Costs:
none

Discuss the language before you choose the place. For adults who work from home, Hungarian is a hobby; for children at a village school it's the whole day. Whoever goes to Budapest buys convenience and pays for it; whoever goes to Lake Balaton or the south-west buys space and a language none of you speaks.

Step 1.6

Choose your target date

Lead time:
decision moment
Costs:
none

From here everything counts back. This journey has two clocks you start yourself: day 93 for the registration certificate, and sixty days after the car's arrival to set the origin check in motion. Put them both in your diary on the day your date is fixed.

Phase 1 read

You know what you're getting into. Now the arranging begins.

You've read phase 1 of the step-by-step plan for Hungary. The full plan has another 25 steps ready for you: Closing the Netherlands, The move, Registration in Hungary and Arrival.

The plan counts everything back from your departure date, watches your deadlines and documents, and shows only the steps that apply to you.

The step-by-step plan for Hungary

€ 199

one-off · no subscription · instant access

Continue with the full plan · € 199

Also included: deadlines watched · documents with expiry dates · only your steps · your partner ticks along · all cancellation letters · questions to Auke.

✎ Auke reads along

Stuck somewhere? Ask your question at the step. Auke reads it himself and answers within two working days.

Not ready yet? Send yourself your date and phase 1 →

Phase 2 · Closing the Netherlands0 of 11 steps open

This is where the lesson sits that makes this journey different: you apply for the wage tax exemption for your occupational pension, not for your AOW — because that stays Dutch instead.

  1. 2.1Gather your basic documents1-4 weeks
  2. 2.2Arrange the healthcare transitionapply 6 weeks before departure
  3. 2.3Know where you'll pay tax, and apply for the exemption — for the right partone good conversation, then an application of weeks
  4. 2.4Deregister and tell the SVBderegistering is possible from 5 days before departure; the whole takes 4-8 weeks
  5. 2.5Partner comes along without a job of their ownonly if this applies to you
  6. 2.6Partly staying in the Netherlands: the eight-month ruleonly if this applies to you
  7. 2.7The house in the Netherlands: sell, let or keeponly if this applies to you
  8. 2.8Children who stay in the Netherlands: DUO, healthcare and the houseonly if this applies to you
  9. 2.9Cancel what stops: job, rent, energy, subscriptions and schoolstart three months before departure; most notice periods are one month
  10. 2.10Stay reachable: DigiD, your phone number, your bank and your postarrange it before you leave; afterwards it takes weeks
  11. 2.11Student debt, remote work or your own business: what moves with youreport it before you leave; the consequences run for years
Open all steps · € 199
Phase 3 · The move0 of 5 steps open

No customs, but the most expensive step of this journey: the registration tax on the car, without exemption for relocation goods — and sixty days to get started on it.

  1. 3.1Choose your form of move and ask for quotesquotes 2-3 weeks; the drive itself two days
  2. 3.2The car: registration tax, and sixty days to get startedonly if this applies to you
  3. 3.3Pet along: chip, rabies jab and the EU pet passportonly if this applies to you
  4. 3.4Arrange your first accommodation, because the registration asks for an addressbooking can be quick; do it before you leave
  5. 3.5Tell the Dutch tax authority: the M return and the provisional assessmentan evening
Phase 4 · Registration in Hungary0 of 4 steps open

One counter that opens everything — and that stops without proof of payment for the address card. Then the S1 to the kormányhivatal, and with the TAJ card you're in.

  1. 4.1Apply for the registration certificate, by day 93 at the latestonline or at the counter; the certificate often straight away, the address card by post
  2. 4.2Hand in your S1 at the kormányhivatal and get your TAJ cardone visit, the card by post
  3. 4.3Open an account and arrange your access to the authoritiesdays
  4. 4.4Choose a GP, before you need onedays to weeks
Phase 5 · Arrival0 of 5 steps open

The licence stays, and the house is free to buy — except when there's land attached. Then one hectare applies, and not one metre more.

  1. 5.1The driving licence: nothing to exchangereading step
  2. 5.2Living and buying: free, except agricultural landweeks to months
  3. 5.3After five years: permanent residenceone application, after five years
  4. 5.4School for the childrenonly if this applies to you
  5. 5.5Landedthe moment itself

7 of these 25 steps only appear when your answers call for them: a pet, a car, a partner without a job, children staying in the Netherlands. That is the difference between a step-by-step plan and a checklist.

Three questions

Can't I find all this for free?

Yes. Everything in the plan comes from official sources, and they're listed at every step. Phase 1 above is the proof. What you buy is the work around it: which of the 25 following steps apply to you, in which order, with which deadline, and a nudge when something needs doing.

Does this apply to my situation too?

The plan first asks who is coming along, what is coming along and how you're leaving the Netherlands. Steps that don't apply to you don't appear; steps that only apply to you do. Is your situation slightly different from what's written? Ask your question at the step; you'll get an answer within two working days.

What if the rules change after I buy?

Then your plan changes with them. Twice a month we check every source; whatever changes is in your plan the same week, with the date. Your access lasts for your whole departure.

Ready to begin?

The step-by-step plan for Hungary: 31 steps, your documents and your costs in one place, with the timing watched. Pay once, and it's yours.

Start your step-by-step plan · € 199Read more about Hungary first