The step-by-step plan for Hungary

In this step you read which document you need in Hungary, and how much time you get to apply for it.

As a Dutch citizen you need no visa. For the first ninety days you may be in Hungary without conditions. If you stay longer, the registration certificate for EEA nationals is mandatory. That's the proof that you, as a European, live in Hungary and are registered there.

Hungary names a fixed day for it. You lodge the application by the ninety-third day after entry at the latest.

Two things about the costs:

• The certificate itself costs 1,000 forint and is valid indefinitely.
• The address card, the card that proves your address in Hungary, goes with it. Since 2025 you pay for it separately and in advance.

Most people don't know that last part. Without proof of payment the immigration office terminates the procedure.

In this step you see which part of your income is taxed where, and how you get healthcare in Hungary. For your occupational pension the news is good: it's taxed nowhere.

The tax. The Netherlands and Hungary have a tax treaty: an agreement on which country may tax which income. It dates from 1986 and has never been amended. It places pensions from past employment exclusively with the state of residence, so with Hungary.

Hungary declares a pension that falls under a tax treaty to be nyugdíj, the Hungarian word for pension. And nyugdíj is tax-free there.

Per type of pension, that looks like this:

• Your occupational pension falls to Hungary, and there it's exempt as nyugdíj. After the wage tax exemption in the Netherlands, which means your pension fund no longer withholds tax, it is taxed nowhere.
• Your 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.
• A government pension stays Dutch, unless you're a resident and a national of Hungary.

Healthcare. Hungary is a treaty country: a country with which the Netherlands has agreements on healthcare. If you have a Dutch statutory pension, you go through the CAK: the Dutch body that arranges healthcare for people living abroad on a Dutch pension. This is how it works:

• Through the CAK you get an S1 form, the European form that takes your right to care with you to Hungary.
• You register at the health insurance department of the kormányhivatal, the Hungarian government office in your region.
• You get the TAJ card, your Hungarian health card. With it you receive full care.

In this step you choose which part of Hungary suits you. That choice also decides how much Hungarian you'll need.

The regions at a glance:

• Budapest has the international schools and the English-speaking doctors, but prices are 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.

Count the language in. Hungarian is related to no neighbouring language. 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 in an old village house, heating is a real cost item.

In this step you see what the move costs, and where the big items are.

The paperwork is cheap:

• The registration certificate costs 1,000 forint.
• The address card costs 5,700 forint.
• Your Dutch driving licence doesn't need exchanging.

The surprises are elsewhere:

• The car. Hungary charges a registration tax on every car you bring. There's no exemption for relocation goods (the belongings you take with you when you move).
• A purchased home. If you buy a house, four percent transfer tax is added.

Work it out with your own choices in the cost indication.

In this conversation you decide together whether Hungary fits, and you choose where you'll live. You end up with a few conditions on paper that you both stand behind.

Going alone? Then have this conversation with the people you leave behind. The questions below work for them too.

Take three evenings. One conversation is too short for a decision like this. Agree on three evenings, with a week in between:

• Evening 1, why. What do we hope to find in Hungary? What are we leaving behind here? Would that really be different there?
• Evening 2, what we give up. Who and what will we miss? What are we dreading most? What do we do if it disappoints?
• Evening 3, the conditions. What has to be arranged for each of us to say yes? When do we check together whether it's going well, for example after six and after twelve months? And what would be a reason for us to go back?

Write the conditions down. On the kitchen-table card it all fits on one A4 sheet.

Divide the work. Agree who takes on which part of this plan: the papers, the house and the cancellations, the school, the move. That way not one of you carries everything. Invite your partner into your plan; then you can both see what's done.

Is one of you going without an income of your own? Whoever lives in Hungary and doesn't work in the Netherlands usually no longer builds up AOW. For every year you're not insured, you later get 2 percent less AOW. From the moment you're no longer insured, you have one year to take out voluntary insurance with the SVB. Also discuss whether that partner keeps an account and money of their own, and how you decide together on big expenses.

Married, registered or living together? It can make a difference for your partner's residence permit, for co-insurance in healthcare and for inheritance. Check at your registration and at your healthcare further on in your plan what applies to you.

Are children coming? How you tell them depends on their age:

• Up to about four: tell them shortly before the move and keep fixed habits, like the bedtime ritual and the cuddly toy in the hand luggage.
• Primary school: tell them well in advance and let them look along: photos of the school, the neighbourhood and the house. Let them choose something, like their room.
• Teenagers: involve them in the decision itself. For them, saying goodbye to friends weighs heaviest. Agree how they keep in touch and when they see their friends again.

In Hungary kindergarten is compulsory from the age of three, not optional. The kindergarten of your area must admit your child.

Who learns the language, and when? Discuss the language before you choose the place, because it doesn't affect everyone equally:

• For adults who work from home, Hungarian is a hobby.
• For children at a village school, it's the whole day.
• For the partner without work it's often the hardest: they need the language badly, and have precisely no colleagues to practise with.

That makes the place a choice between convenience and space as well:

• 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.

Agree who is going to learn Hungarian, and how. Plan it together, preferably before you leave.

With this step you fix the date on which you go. From here everything counts back.

This journey has two clocks you start yourself:

• By day 93 at the latest you apply for the registration certificate.
• Within sixty days after the car's arrival you set the origin check in motion. That's the Hungarian check on where an imported car comes from.

Put them both in your diary on the day your date is fixed.