Late residence registration

adgrawl wrote:

...My original employer (from whom I have since quit) previously advised me not to register and to retain my tax status in my home country as nearly all of the foreign people working there did, so I'm under the impression that a lot of people simply don't declare themselves residents. I am an EU citizen so I do not require a visa to stay. Thank you very much for your help.

While no-one from here would condone not registering or complying with the rules, nothing will happen to you for not registering. Of course you won't get the benefits of registering or paying your way here. 

There's probably a fine for not registering but realistically, unless you are drawing attention to yourself somehow (or travel via the airport regularly), pay your way elsewhere,  no-one will know you are here, especially if you enter via a Schengen border (not in your own car - ANPR = Automatic Number Plate Recognition), i.e. fly to Austria or somewhere else, get a lift over the border or catch the bus or tran etc 

I don't know your nationality but taking a guess, you're either English or Irish.  UK is not in Schengen of course and neither is Ireland so they'd know you went out and came in from scanning passports,  If it matters to you of course.  On entry to HU, they hardly ever scan passports but then again they know anyway from APIS (Advanced Passenger Information System),

Thanks for your reply. I was just wondering whether it would be worth registering now, whether anyone has had experience with this, and how much the fine might be for late registration. If I decide to stay, should I just wait until I get a new rental contract and then go register with that?

adgrawl wrote:

Thanks for your reply. I was just wondering whether it would be worth registering now, whether anyone has had experience with this, and how much the fine might be for late registration. If I decide to stay, should I just wait until I get a new rental contract and then go register with that?

Obviously I couldn't say break the law but then again, some of the laws around these countries are so inane, one wonders what they were thinking.  And of course, there's no concept of person registration in the UK so it's an anathema to do those things. Similarly, I was caught out once with some bureaucrat in Romania demanding to see my passport to establish my residence. UK passports don't have addresses in them!   Stupid system.

I also know from living in Austria that the 3 day registration law was widely ignored by everyone.  I mean, if you went 200km to visit a friend for a week, you'd hardly want to mess around wasting time going down to the town hall to register yourself.  People have better things to do.

So basically if you clear off from HU every so often and don't spend more than 90 days here in any 6 months, then you'd be within the law as far as I know.  Practically speaking, you might as well wait until you get another job/contract here so you can do it the right way but then again YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) and I'm no expert.