POSTERN

Hungary

Guest Investor Programme. Hungary's golden visa: a 10-year residence permit for investing at least €250,000 in an approved real-estate fund, or donating €1 million to a Hungarian higher-education institution. A direct residential-property purchase route was struck from the law before it ever took effect.

Free · The law behind every answer · Checked Sep 27, 2026

Guest Investor Programme

A 10-year residence permit issued directly (no prior temporary stage), covering spouse, children and, unusually, parents; renewable once for a further 10 years while the investment or donation is maintained.

Who qualifies

You keep your U.S. citizenship.

1

Does it fit your family?

One question, from the program’s own rules.

Savings you could move or invest?

Not legal advice.

2

What it takes.

Investment
About $275,000.
Time
About 1–3 months to place the qualifying investment or donation, then a 21-day decision on the residence permit once the file is submitted.
Cost
$275,000–$1,100,000 depending on the route (fund units or education donation), plus fund/legal fees of $5,000–15,000 and a per-person filing fee of roughly $200–550.
The hard part
Meeting the residency conditions if the family later wants citizenship, not the investment itself, which is fast once funds are ready.

Dollar figures are converted from the local currency at the rate the program’s research used; the official figure is in the local currency.

3

Citizens by 2039.

If your first permit is issued in 2027 and you keep living there, this is the road.

  1. 2027
    First residence permit

    10 years, renewable for 10 years at a time.

  2. 2030
    Permanent residence

    National residence card: three unbroken years on a qualifying permit (White Card, guest-worker, study and several other permits do not qualify), a Hungarian cultural-knowledge exam since 1 January 2025, housing, income and health insurance. The EU residence card takes 5 years.

  3. 2038
    Apply for citizenship

    With a language test and a civics test.

  4. 2039
    Citizenship
Language
No separate language exam: the civics test is taken in Hungarian.
Civics
A basic civics test, in Hungarian, before an examination board. Over-60s and people schooled in Hungarian are exempt.
Time away
Eight years of continuous residence before applying, counted only from the date you registered a Hungarian address while holding permanent residence status.
Two passports
Yes. You keep your U.S. citizenship.
  • The guest-investor permit is not on the list of permits barred from the national residence card, so after 3 years a family can apply for it and start the 8-year citizenship clock.
  • We read Section 23 to mean the 8 years run only from permanent residence (so about 11 years in all on a 3-year national residence card); some guides count all legal residence.
  • HU-GUEST-INVESTOR: that it leads to the national residence card is our reading of the OIF's list of barred permits, which does not name it; the OIF does not state it outright.
  • The Act sets no day-count for absences, and no overall processing time was found (the Minister has three months, extendable by three, to put a file to the President).
  • How long the decision takes isn’t published; we allow a year.
The law behind these dates
4

Living there.

Time you must spend there
No minimum-day presence requirement to hold the residence permit itself, but the family needs to actually live in Hungary to accrue the years toward naturalisation.
Tax
Becomes Hungarian tax resident only if physically present enough or centring life there; the residence permit itself does not require living in Hungary full-time.

We never file a tax return. We tell you what applies and brief the professional who does.

5

Start today.

  1. Read the OIF's Guest Investor residence permit factsheet.Open oif.gov.hu ↗
  2. Round up the papers.
    • Proof of the funds to invest: about $275,000, and where they came from
    • Request your FBI Identity History Summary
    • Health cover for the move
6

Or let us run it.

$900for your first year as a founding member. Then $399 a year, automatically.Standard first year: $1,200. Everyone renews at $399.One membership, the whole family. Accounts and activation included.

18 steps, from the first paper to the passport. You do 4 of them: send what we ask for, sign, and show up. We run the rest, and keep every permit renewed on time. Accounts and activation are included, whether you move now or keep the plan ready. Accounts depend on provider availability. Government, record and approved third-party charges are extra.

Run it for my family →
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ISSUED TO

YOUR FAMILY

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