Residence in Hungary: the registration certificate on day 93, and the address card you pay for in advance

Hungary does what most EU countries do — a registration after three months — but is one of the few to name the day. And since 2025 it has a snag nobody expects: a separate bill for the address card.

The clock: by day 93 at the latest

As an EU citizen you may be in Hungary for ninety days within a period of a hundred and eighty days without conditions. If you stay longer, you apply for the registration certificate for EEA nationals — and the law says: by the ninety-third day after entry at the latest.

You lodge the application at the regional directorate of the immigration office, the OIF, of your place of residence, or online via Enter Hungary. The fee is 1,000 forint, the certificate is valid indefinitely as long as your passport or identity card is valid, and whoever brings everything complete often gets it handed over straight away at the counter.

The documents

You bring:

• your passport or identity card;
• proof of your purpose of stay: an employment contract or business registration, proof of enrolment at an educational institution, or with own means bank statements and your pension decision;
• proof of healthcare cover — for pensioners the S1 from the CAK — or of sufficient means to pay for care;
• proof of accommodation, such as your rental contract;
• a passport photo.

The address card: pay in advance, or the procedure stops

The registration certificate comes with an address card, the lakcímkártya, the little card that proves your address at every counter in Hungary. Until 2025 it came free with it. Since 1 February 2025 you pay for it separately: 5,700 forint per person aged fourteen and over, 2,000 forint for a younger child.

You pay the amount in advance, by bank transfer to the OIF, with your name, your date of birth and the word "lakcímkártya" in the reference. The proof of payment goes with your application. If it's missing, the office terminates the procedure — not a postponement, but a rejection. The card itself then comes by post.

If you later move within Hungary, you report the new address at the district office and get a new card.

The order that works

First an address, because the application asks for accommodation and the card is sent there. Then the payment for the address card, because without proof there's no procedure. Then the S1 in hand, because that's your proof of cover. Then the application, by day 93 at the latest. And only then the bank and the health insurance department of the kormányhivatal, which both ask for the certificate and the address card.

After five years

After five years of uninterrupted legal residence you're entitled as an EU citizen to permanent residence. The registration certificate and the address card are then the proof of your years — another reason to arrange them on time and complete.