Mark.Bradford

Hi guys;
Myself and Hungarian partner have been together for over 13 years now and we have a 12 year old son; we are considering selling up and moving to Eger later in 2022. I will be semi retired and may travel back to UK occasionally to carry out 3 month consultation work. We will buy a property outright and will have at least £850 month income coming in from a rental property here in UK plus money from my NHS Pension. I have multiple questions:

Would we be better off as a married couple?
How would I gain citizenship/would I need to to remain in country?
Healthcare options?
We would be bringing car and caravan - is this possible?

Lots of other questions but any assistance, greatly appreciated.

ecurb

Welcome!

As almost everyone who has arrived in Hungary from the UK has done it under the UK's EU membership, we do not have much knowledge about doing it as a '3rd country national'.
But your partner being, a Hungarian citizen (and EU citizen), will be the easiest route to getting permanent residency which will be your immediate goal.

The path to citizenship (naturalisation) does require you to be resident for some minimum period (8 years?), I think it is less (3 years) if you are married to a Hungarian, but you have to have been married for sometime (3 years?).
A lot of this information is easily located on the Internet.
But there are also some requirements to be proficient in the Hungarian language and culture.

So you will have plenty of time to investigate all this once you have residency.

I am sure there are some difficulties bring a RHD British car to Hungary long term. So decide if this car you have is important enough for this.

A (touring) caravan may not be so difficult.

Hopefully that gets the ball rolling, and others add to my comments.

Jack_Russells4ever

Welcome Mark, Not sure of your age but my understanding is once you have enough years here to become a citizen if your over 65 you will not have to pass the Hungarian proficiency test to obtain a Hungarian naturalization citizenship.. Someone correct me if I am wrong. I am not advocating you try to not learn Hungarian I am just saying if your here and meet all the other requirements you should be able to skip the proficiency requirement.

Peter_in_Hungary

Hungary is a family centered society both culturally and to some extent legally as well. IMO life will be easier if you are married. Your first task would be to get residency - easier if you are married to a returning Hungarian, I'm not sure what would be required to show / prove a long term partnership but there will certainly be more hoops to jump through.
Entry into Hungary to settle now that the UK is a 3rd country will be different now and more difficult than from an EU country but if you are married to a Hungarian with a child of that marriage then acceptance is fairly automatic. You will have to look into what personal goods you can bring with you without import tax if any.

When we came to Hungary I got my permissions at the Embassy before we came and this made life much easier once we were here, just because it was one bit less to do at a very disruptive time. but that was a long time ago (26 years) so I don't know f this is still possible - worth a question at the Embassy. (Hungary was not in the EU at that time)

If you haven't done so already it is probably worth getting your child registered as a Hungarian citizen with a Hungarian birth certificate (through the Embassy in London). This will make things easier once you get here. Given your partner is Hungarian I make the assumption that your child speaks (some) Hungarian as well as English because in my experience mums like to speak to their children in their mother tongue when dads not there - but it is probably worth your partner increasing the Hungarian at home to up the childs language skills (and yours) to make life easier when you drop into the Hungarian society.

850GBP is a reasonable salary here and as rental income it will be taxed in the country in which the property is located so the rent will be subject to UK tax. Because the NHS pension is a work related pension from government employment it will also be taxed in the UK. (But you do get a UK personal tax allowance) Your UK state OAP when it happens is subject to Hungarian tax, and because pensions at the moment are tax free there is no tax to pay. (private work related pensions are also taxed in Hungary and so are also tax free).

You will be able to bring in a UK car but once here it's value will be very low because it is RHD and Hungary has a high import tax which will be levied and once here you will have a car that is more difficult to drive. Unless you are very attached to the car then IMO it would be better to get a LHD car. (I have an acquaintance who recently bought in a RHD car from the UK because it was just over 1/3 cheaper than an equivalent LHD car. They did it because that was the only way they could afford the car they wanted).

Caravans won't be a problem but trailers in Hungary have their own identity so have their own number plates, require MOTs, pay road tax based on their max gross weight and need their own insurance, so they cost money sitting in the drive.

Peter_in_Hungary

Correct- but you will have to speak basic Hungarian and have to write a (very) short CV at the interview, your wife / husband will also have to attend the interview presumably to prove that you are a) married and b) still together. Marriage certificate to be shown as will the child / childrens birth certificate all either Hungarian or officially translated into Hungarian.

vorsman

Caravans are the same as trailers ie require registration, mot, insurance etc. Also remember a UK caravan will have the door on the wrong side. Now the UK is outside the EU there will probably be import duty as well as registration duty.. As for a car I would say not. It is possible that previous rules could be enforced which were the case in some Eastern European countries where RHD cars could not be registered as they were deemed a safety hazard. This had to be suspended when the EU ruled it illegal as it was discrimination against an EU member country. Not any more thanks to Brexit. Also registration fees are extremely high in Hungary and now they will be able to whack on an import duty as well.

FenTiger

You stated you will buy a property outright but from my experience since moving here in July 2020 there are not as many decent properties as a few years ago.
Where will you live before buying a house?
If with your partner's family you may start to think that is where you want to live. If your partner has any siblings you may hit snags around ownership of the house in the future. A sibling may ask for more money than their share is worth.
We have yet to find a house! We are living with the mother-in-law and space is tight here. I thought about getting a cabin built but should my mother-in-law die the cabin may become part of her estate! That's the interpretation I have been given although I think it is wrong because the cabin would be portable, I.e. it could be lifted onto the back of a lorry and moved elsewhere.
I'm also hitting similar issues over building an extension/annexe/house on mother-in-law plot. Again, I have been told that could become part of mother-in-law property and plot when she dies. This would mean giving a sibling or siblings a share of what you had invested.
Sorry this doesn't make good reading. But you need to consider the issues I have mentioned above.
As mentioned above I think something has been lost in the translation.
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jameswm

Hi Mark, depending on your Hungarian language skills...as far as I understand, you can apply for Hungarian citizenship, based on your marriage of 5+ years with a child (10 years without), even without living in Hungary, via the embassy in London - as long as your Hungarian language is satisfactory. I did this recently, although at the time I had lived here for 15 months.

https://www.kormanyhivatal.hu/hu/bud...sitasi-eljaras
https://washington.mfa.gov.hu/page/s...naturalization