Your first weeks in Hungary: which clock runs out first

What should you sort out first in your first weeks in Hungary? Not the registration, even though it is the best known. That can wait until day 93 at the latest. The shortest clock runs for anyone arriving with their own car: within sixty days of arrival you must set the car's Hungarian registration in motion, and anyone stopped with a Dutch number plate after that loses plates and papers. The rest of the first weeks is a chain: almost every card waits for the previous one.

Which clocks run from day one?

Clock	Deadline	Runs from
Car into the Hungarian registration	60 days at the latest	the day the car enters Hungary
Applying for the registration certificate	day 93 at the latest	the day of entry
Paying for the address card	before applying for the registration certificate	5,700 forint per person, 2,000 under 14
TAJ card	immediately, within 8 days at most for a complete application; otherwise 60 days	your application at the kormányhivatal
Tax card	15 days	your application at the NAV
Free cash withdrawals	statement before the 20th, then from the following month	your statement at the bank

Why the car comes before everything

Anyone living in Hungary may not drive a foreign-registered car there. For your own car there is a deadline: within sixty days of import you must set the origin check and the Hungarian registration in motion. Once you have done that, you may keep driving in the meantime.

For private persons the fine is half, but you lose the plates. If you are stopped after that, the police take your registration certificate and your number plates on the spot. A private person pays half the amount for companies: 200,000 forint for a car up to 2,000 cc, 400,000 forint above that. If you can prove within eight days that you were allowed to use the car after all, the fine is 30,000 forint. The police also report the offence to the tax authority.

How the registration continues and what the registration tax costs is in car and driving licence in Hungary.

The chain of cards

It starts with an address you can prove. With that you apply for the registration certificate at the immigration office, and you pay for the address card in advance and separately for each family member. Without proof of payment the office stops the procedure. The address card comes by post.

With the address card you get the TAJ card and the tax number. Both are free the first time. The kormányhivatal makes the TAJ card straight away if your application is complete; the NAV has fifteen days for the tax card. If you come with a pension and an S1, you hand it in with the TAJ application: the form only becomes insurance once it is registered in Hungary. How that works is in healthcare in Hungary.

Children need their own registration certificate. From age six they come along to the immigration office themselves. Why that matters for school is in school in Hungary.

Money in the first weeks

As an EU citizen you can't be refused a basic account. The free cash withdrawals, twice a month together up to 300,000 forint, require a Hungarian address and a statement at your bank. If you make it before the twentieth, it applies from the following month. Until then you pay your bank's normal fees.

What can wait

You don't have to exchange your Dutch driving licence. The obligation to exchange after two years only applies to a licence without an expiry date, and a Dutch licence has one. If you still want a Hungarian licence, you can get it later at the kormányablak.

A dog that arrived with a multi-year vaccination needs a new rabies jab in Hungary within a year; that is in taking your pet to Hungary. And permanent residence only comes up after five years of continuous residence.

Which step comes when and how the deadlines work out for your situation is in the step-by-step plan for Hungary.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 4 of 5 of the journey, step 4.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Hungary or go straight to step 4.1 in the open plan.