Trying to get lakcímkártya as an EU citizen, but some confusion

I am a bit amazed that your friend can not direct you he really should know, the process (if you are EU citizen) really should be quite straight forward. The only challenge is to find the right office but travelling in Budapest should be easy. Better to have an appointment though, but through phone or internet it should be fine. If you have Portugese passport and a renting contract no reason to worry. Again if your friend is an immigration specialist, he should be able to help you. On notarization, yes I have had my experiences, but in Hungary this is cheap and effective (apart from the time you have to spend (but better to do this) and not only for the rental document, if you are married just do the marriage certificate as well and some other documents which you might feel which are useful (did you already change your driving license, do you have an employer, ...)

Also (for the future) open a local bank account, but with a rental contract it really should be easy.

thank you for the reply. re: the immigration friend, she is more of an acquaintance who works for an NGO specializing on refugees, so she doesn't really do stuff with EU citizens. and I don't want to overextend on someone I'm not close with.

I found the correct office, my flat is in Erzsébetváros, and the kormányablak office there is on Erzsébet körút.

my contract has not been notarized by a lawyer or anything tho, just 2 witnesses signed it. would that be enough? if I understood correctly, you're saying I would have to get it notarized for it to be accepted?

so I would have to make an appointment at that^^ office, to go and get the lakcímbejelentő lap (address form). then I would have my landlord sign it.
then I would make an appointment at the same office, and come back with all the other docs, and this signed address form.
is my understanding correct? thank you again

I had no issues whatsover, admittedly I bought rather than rented, but the renting contract with all the stamps should already be sufficient, but in my experience the more documents you bring (copies/translated/notarized) will be helpful. Will not cost too much and might come in handy. As a Schengen passport holder really should be easy. If you have a job that will clearly help. The capital you indicate is not massive but being Portugese should give you quite some entitlements already.

Being an officer of the office I would ask why are you here, a job is a good reason and so is a relationship. Any documentation will help in my view, but technically I would say no reasons to refuse you (perhaps they will do difficult).

when you say stamps do you mean that one specific stamp, and I have to bring that stamp along with 1000huf? or are there more stamps?

the rental contract is already translated, it's in both Hungarian and English.

I'm here because my girlfriend is Hungarian and I just want to live here for now. also interested in studying the language. is that reason enough to allow me, without seeking employment/having a job?
I was thinking of tutoring some students in English studies, but without an employer or anything. is it not smart to tell the officer this, because then I'd fall under the lines of "seeking employment"?

one other thing, do you think the "deceleration of border crossing" is necessary? I honestly don't have any proof of when I came in, because I was able to travel freely due to Schengen.

I appreciate the responses

When I moved to HU as an EU citizen, the process was exactly as described here: https://www.angloinfo.com/how-to/hungar … u-citizens

I had to go to immigration to get a registration card and for that I had to prove that I have a job.

This is the official page of the immigration office: http://oif.gov.hu/index.php?option=com_ … mp;lang=en

I don't think you need to do any of these complicated and strange things.  As an EU citizen, you need to register, then everything is the same as an HU citizen.

As an EU citizen, you should only need to get a registration card.  So you can just go with your passport and the signed rental contract and your money (or card) for the fee plus anything else relevant and then just register and your lakcim card will arrive in the post.

When I registered I went to the main BMBAH (immigration office) - click here.   

I did take along my house ownership contract, marriage certificate (and the official translation) and  my kids birth certificates (which are Hungarian anyway).   They did look at them.  YMMV.

I did NOT have to prove I had a job or prove anything about my finances.  Don't forget as an EU citizen, you are entitled to be in the country to seek work.

It was easy at the BMBAH and the guy spoke excellent English.

Of course, things are different now for British citizens but back then it was remarkably easy.

fluffy2560 wrote:

As an EU citizen, you should only need to get a registration card.

This happens when you're getting the registration card. They gave me a lot of shit years ago when I moved to the country, had to bring them a signed statement from my employer (couldn't have a work contract at that point without registration) containing my salary.

Having to prove income or enough savings to support yourself when registering is pretty standard in all EU countries I know of.

atomheart wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

As an EU citizen, you should only need to get a registration card.

This happens when you're getting the registration card. They gave me a lot of shit years ago when I moved to the country, had to bring them a signed statement from my employer (couldn't have a work contract at that point without registration) containing my salary.

Having to prove income or enough savings to support yourself when registering is pretty standard in all EU countries I know of.

As far as I know there's no requirement to prove your income if you an EU citizen.  The key element is being here more than 90 days which then means registration.  For many years, it was enough to say you were looking for work in whatever country which as an EU citizen, you are perfectly entitled to do.   In some countries, it was even possible to claim government allowances.   

OP can find the actual EU information at Europa.eu by clicking here.  Note it says in the example that there's no requirement to prove income.

When I first came we had all that but it was taken care of by my employer.  At that time HU was not in the EU.   I had a grey booklet and after a year, it was replaced by a brown booklet.

But after a time away and when HU was already in the EU by then and my previous documents had expired years before,  when I registered again, they never asked me a thing about my employment at all. 

They were more interested in the other documents - the house, the marriage and the kids.  They took all these details but at no point did they ask me anything about my work.  As was said above, there's no requirement to prove income if  looking for work.

fluffy2560 wrote:

OP can find the actual EU information at Europa.eu by clicking here.  Note it says in the example that there's no requirement to prove income.

From your link:

Marta is Portuguese and moved to Spain 4 months ago to try to find a job there. At the moment, she is living at a friend's house. The Spanish police asked her to register her residence at the town hall and to prove she had sufficient means to support herself while in Spain.

...

As a jobseeker, you don't need to register as a resident for the first 6 months.

But some EU countries require you to report your presence here to the relevant authorities within a reasonable period after arrival: often at the town hall or local police station.

Following the link:

If on holiday, you only have to register if you stay more than 3 months
Hans is Austrian and spends his summer holiday every year on the Italian coast. Last summer he stayed in Italy for 2 months in his own flat. He reported his presence but the Italian authorities asked him to register at the town hall as well and to prove he had sufficient means to support himself in Italy.

Maybe as a "job seeker" you have special status, but then you're expected to actively look for a job, i.e. register with authorities, if they recommend you jobs, submit application, etc.

But OP will find out the requirements for sure when he goes to BMBAH...

fluffy2560 wrote:

As far as I know there's no requirement to prove your income if you an EU citizen.

Above I've linked to BMBAH page tha says otherwise...

Hi, from my experience, and I am also dual citizen of a non-EU country (Serbia) and an EU country (Italy), no record of border crossing was needed and I managed to get by only with a statement written and signed by me that I will cover my medical costs.
No medical insurance was needed for me.
No document about my funds, bank statements either (btw. better not write online how much money you have).
And they didn't ask me if I would be seeking employment.

It was a totally different story to do the same for my mother, who does not have EU citizenship. And the clerks were really, really unpleasant - talking to us from the other side of a glass window and not caring that we could not hear a thing they were saying.
In the end, a lawyer was needed.

If you need to get the documents notarized - I don't know (I own an apartment), but either ask a lawyer, go to kormanyablak and ask there or go to Immigration and ask there.
After your registration at the Immigration is done, you'll get a lakcimkartya automatically and just need to pick it up at the kormanyablak.

Hope I could help.

Whereas I appreciate and also agree with the various posts, you can be confronted with bureaucracy quite  a bit, your mothers maiden name misspelled in your tax-card, your home adress with wrong postal code, your ....
When visiting a notary better to have stamps on all what is possibly needed. Will set you back 50 EUR or so, but having all at hand can help.
Technically not much needed for a EU citizen, but tax-declaration, well application, ... Bureaucracy still exists.

atomheart wrote:

Marta is Portuguese and moved to Spain 4 months ago to try to find a job there. At the moment, she is living at a friend's house. The Spanish police asked her to register her residence at the town hall and to prove she had sufficient means to support herself while in Spain.

...

That was a bit selective.  The OP is Portuguese and an EU citizen.   It would have been better to post the whole thing (my highlighting):


"No need to register your residence immediately

Marta is Portuguese and moved to Spain 4 months ago to try to find a job there. At the moment, she is living at a friend's house. The Spanish police asked her to register her residence at the town hall and to prove she had sufficient means to support herself while in Spain.

As a jobseeker, Marta is entitled to stay in Spain for at least 6 months without having to register her residence there. She only has to prove that she is a jobseeker who is actively looking for a job. The Spanish authorities cannot require her to demonstrate she can support herself financially."

and the other one:


If on holiday, you only have to register if you stay more than 3 months

Hans is Austrian and spends his summer holiday every year on the Italian coast. Last summer he stayed in Italy for 2 months in his own flat. He reported his presence but the Italian authorities asked him to register at the town hall as well and to prove he had sufficient means to support himself in Italy.

But Hans is entitled to stay in Italy for up to 3 months without providing any documents other than his identity card. If he stays for such a short period only, the Italian authorities can ask him to report his presence, but not to register.

Job seeking is a right under the EU treaties.   Actively looking for a job does NOT need registration with the authorities.  You can maintain your own records.  Reporting presence vs registration is an interesting distinction.

atomheart wrote:

Maybe as a "job seeker" you have special status, but then you're expected to actively look for a job, i.e. register with authorities, if they recommend you jobs, submit application, etc.

But OP will find out the requirements for sure when he goes to BMBAH...

I wouldn't call it special status.  It's just a treaty right. I think these complications set out by the OP will not be an issue.  The procedure outlined by the OP originally seems to be something to do with refugees or others who are obviously not EU or EEA (EU and EEA have same rights as HU citizens).    The healthcare provision might be an issue practically if the OP does not have an EHIC card or an alternative BUT they don't have a right to impose any of that more restrictive stuff on the applicant nor ask for the evidence.

There's an interesting diversion is the change for UK Brexit affected people which contains some elements of EU citizen rights. 

We have registration cards but not (PR) permanent residence cards.  Since the transition period ended (31 Dec 2020), we have 1 year to change our registration.   To get the PR card, if we are already registered, we do NOT need to provide ANY additional information other than fingerprints (which is the same for HU citizens on their ID cards now).  There's no requirement to prove anything further.   Here's the BMBAH link - click here.


And here's what it says (my highlighting):

Starting from 1 January 2021, UK citizens and their family members living in Hungary before the end of the transition period – as beneficiaries of the Withdrawal Agreement – are eligible for obtaining a national permanent residence permit without examining the criteria for the duration of their preceding stay, existence of Hungarian residence, means of subsistence or health insurance. The new residence status is based on the documents certifying the preceding legal residence in Hungary.

Registration certificates and permanent residence cards issued for UK citizens along with residence cards and permanent residence cards issued for third country national family members of UK citizens are valid until 31 December 2021 the latest.

cdw057 wrote:

Whereas I appreciate and also agree with the various posts, you can be confronted with bureaucracy quite  a bit, your mothers maiden name misspelled in your tax-card, your home adress with wrong postal code, your ....
When visiting a notary better to have stamps on all what is possibly needed. Will set you back 50 EUR or so, but having all at hand can help.
Technically not much needed for a EU citizen, but tax-declaration, well application, ... Bureaucracy still exists.

Might smooth the way but not really required.   You can apply for changes to the government anyway if they made a mistake.   They always have a provision for corrections. 

Sometimes it is a matter though to argue about it in Hungarian which for some reason seems to be always magically effective.   I'm arguing with the NEAK (Health Fund) now and Mrs Fluffy arguing rather than me always seems to work far better.  I expect government to work equally for all regardless of origin and here, it certainly doesn't.

Don't forget that documents issued by EU governments are legally accepted in all EU states.   

When I told them my mother's name, they just wrote it down.  Never had to prove anything about it.

markons wrote:

....

It was a totally different story to do the same for my mother, who does not have EU citizenship. And the clerks were really, really unpleasant - talking to us from the other side of a glass window and not caring that we could not hear a thing they were saying.
In the end, a lawyer was needed.

If you need to get the documents notarized - I don't know (I own an apartment), but either ask a lawyer, go to kormanyablak and ask there or go to Immigration and ask there.
After your registration at the Immigration is done, you'll get a lakcimkartya automatically and just need to pick it up at the kormanyablak.

Hope I could help.

Yes, I know that feeling.  When I went back in the 1990s,  Immigration was just horrible and the people working there really offensive.  They made a point of repeatedly telling me I had no special privileges in Hungary.  I was accompanied by some turbo powered professionals too - professional translator and a senior representative of the employer.  They didn't care one bit.

In EU times, they were actually quite cheerful and friendly.   Post-Brexit, no idea but perhaps back to being a bunch of ***holes for the evil British. Certainly expecting the worst next time I visit. 

We didn't get anything notarised for BMBAH.  Our house documents were stamped by a lawyer anyway.  Maybe that helped.   I remember doing something similar to notarisation in the Netherlands - I just went to my bank with a copy of my passport and asked them to stamp that it was a correct copy.  That seemed to  be enough.  And it didn't cost anything.  The bank clerk checked it over and stamped the copy.

My lakcimkartya just came in the post.  Didn't need to pick it up.