The permit is tied both to the employer and to the job title: changing work means a new application from scratch.
Hungary lets qualified professionals in but keeps them on a short leash. The procedure itself is convenient: you apply online through the state Enter Hungary platform, appear in person only to give biometrics within 15 days, and the legal deadline is 70 days. Permanent residence comes after three years, citizenship after eight years in the country, and dual citizenship is allowed.
The weak spot is status security. The Hungarian Card is tied to both the employer and the position: changing jobs means a new application from scratch, and a change of employer must be reported within 5 days. The law gives no grace period to find a new job, and a work-purpose permit ends together with the employment relationship. The state does not publish refusal statistics.
Labour policy is tough. The guest worker quota is frozen at 35,000 for 2026 "to prioritise the Hungarian workforce", new guest worker admissions closed on 6 June 2026, and since 1 January 2025 the ordinary work permit is issued to citizens of only three countries. Since December 2025 agencies also apply this restriction to family members already living in Hungary on family permits who want to work; lawyers challenge it under the EU directive. A July 2025 package added reporting duties and applied them to people who already had status.
On paper families fare better: there is no minimum residence period before reunification, a spouse may work without a work permit after a year on a family permit, and children attend kindergarten and school on the same terms as citizens. No income threshold for reunification is published; you need "sufficient resources" with no figure.
Day to day the key is the address card: without it and a residence permit a bank will hardly open an account, and some banks also ask for proof of income. A "social coexistence" exam has been introduced for renewals; practice is still settling.
The index score ignores nationality. This is what changes for citizens of specific countries.
Visa-free short stays of up to 90 days in 180, as in the rest of the Schengen area. For living and working, the same Hungarian Card route as for everyone.
Since 1 January 2025 only they can get the ordinary work-purpose residence permit, in addition to the Hungarian Card.
Can obtain citizenship by a preferential procedure, with no residence requirement.
EU temporary protection is extended to 4 March 2028. Since 31 July 2026 new applicants must show they left in line with their military obligations; people who already hold the status are not affected.
When we checked on 9 August 2026 we found no separate nationality restrictions on the Hungarian Card. Like most foreigners, they cannot get the ordinary work permit, which is reserved for citizens of Armenia, Georgia and the Philippines.
The place interval 37-56 shows where the country lands when the data is nudged and the index is recalculated. One place of difference in the table means nothing; a difference of a league means something.
The thin mark on each bar is the average across 97 countries
The strongest category here is Family rights: 78 out of 100, against a 97-state average of 72.2. The weakest is Status security: 44 against 57.9. Above the world average: 4 out of 7.
All 97 states are calculated for one applicant: 35 years old, income of $2,500 and $3,856 a month before tax, passport not counted, the most accessible route that is actually in use.
Your passport, your income and your family do not change the table. They change which of its lines apply to you. A different income makes entry read differently, a family makes the family category read differently, and your passport makes everything read differently.
By law the combined residence and work application takes 70 days. In practice a decision usually comes in about 60 days, but 3-4 months also happen. If you file a renewal at least 30 days before expiry, you may keep living and working until the decision.
Not with the Hungarian Card, which requires an employment contract. The self-employed have a separate permit, and remote workers the White Card with a €3,000 a month threshold, but it does not lead to permanent residence or allow family.
The first application fee is 26,000 forints via Enter Hungary, 39,000 in person or €110 at a consulate; renewal is 26,000 forints. About €175 per person over five years: one of the cheapest countries in our sample.
Yes, together with your job: status rests on the employment relationship, the law gives no grace period to find new work, and changing employers takes a new application.
National permanent residence after 3 years of continuous residence; time on the Hungarian Card counts. Citizenship after 8 years living in Hungary, with an exam on constitutional basics in Hungarian; dual citizenship is allowed.
Qualified professionals get in quickly and cheaply, but the job market is closing: the guest worker route is stopped, the ordinary work permit is limited to three countries, and status depends entirely on the employer. Family life and schooling are on good terms.
97 states, 26 indicators, seven categories, 2,522 scores. Every score has a source and a source class: primary means the texts of laws and government portals; reliable secondary means reports by international organisations, tax reviews by audit firms and specialist legal publications; weak means community posts and single secondary sources. The classes add up to a confidence level for the country, and a country with low confidence gets neither a score nor a place.
Every indicator is scored against a fixed ruler, not against its neighbours. Adding new countries therefore does not move the old ones, and a change in a score means a change in policy and nothing else.
A high place does not mean a good country. It means one thing: the state machine treats newcomers predictably and by the rules. Living there may be expensive, dull or hot; that is not our question.
Checked 01/10/2026. Facts come from the country's index card and official websites.
We make mistakes and we will go on making them: policy changes faster than any database. Our answer is not a pose of infallibility but a visible trail of corrections. Every correction is published: what it was, what it became, the source and the reason for the error. The corrections log opens with the second issue, together with the first block of changes.