Hungarian citizenship
On 26 May 2010 the Hungarian National Assembly approved with an overwhelming majority the amendment of Act LV of 1993 on Hungarian citizenship and introduced a procedure called Simplified Naturalisation.
This new regulation has simplified the procedure and reduced the administrative burden. Every non-Hungarian citizen is eligible for preferential naturalisation if:
- he or any of his ancestors was a Hungarian citizen or if he serves reason to believe his or her origin is from Hungary,
- he proves his knowledge of the Hungarian language,
- he has no criminal record and is not under prosecution,
- his naturalisation does not violate the public and national security of Hungary.
(So this means you don’t need to have property in Hungary or have Hungarian parents.)
Since 2010 Hungarian Language Solutions has been helping speakers of English to prepare for their citizenship interview.
For the past eight-plus years we have been working with a number of learners - these people had their interviews and passed in Hungary, Israel, Munich, New York, LA, London, Brazil, Montenegro, Ottawa and Lebanon.
We use our own materials, but every lesson plan is customised for your needs (the type of learner you are, strengths and weaknesses, etc.) There is also a language book we recommend for extra homework. We ask everyone taking our Citizenship Course to work extremely hard and if possible, study every day!
After their interviews we always ask our learners for their feedback on what happened during the interview and how they benefited from what they learnt from us. Based on the feedbacks lesson plans have been customised accordingly. We have put a lot of work into this and at the end of the process a first-class basic course evolved that will equip you with all the things you need to know from a language point of view.
We are not legally qualified but have walked this journey with around 70 people since 2010. So based on our experience we would say if you know you are eligible you won't need to spend a huge amount of money to use a lawyer, we will be able to help you with everything from writing your bio, filling in your forms, translating your documents into Hungarian to correspondence with the Consulate.
Based on the fact that all of our clients have been successful we are confident we can provide you with everything to prepare for this exciting milestone.
Spouses of Hungarian citizens are also eligible
Since 1 March, 2013 spouses of Hungarian citizens are also eligible for Hungarian citizenship (Simplified Naturalisation) if they have:
- for at least
- for ten years been legally married to a person who is a Hungarian citizen on the day the spouse submits his/her application form, or
- for five years been legally married to a person who is a Hungarian citizen on the day the spouse submits his/her application form and have a child together;
- they have no criminal record and are not under prosecution and their naturalisation does not violate the public and national security of Hungary;
- they prove their knowledge of the Hungarian language.
How it started
In Sao Paulo there is a large Hungarian community and back in 2009, we were working with a family, teaching the whole family Hungarian. The father, born in Transylvania spoke native Hungarian, but the son, daughter and mum all took lessons. It is a very special feeling to work with a family and we are still getting goosebumps when we think about how much we loved working with this amazing family. They were taking individual, general Hungarian lessons to improve their Hungarian and to reconnect with the family’s Hungarian heritage. Around the end of 2009 they told Renata they spoke to someone from the consulate and that person informed them there was a new piece of law coming out and they would be eligible to acquire Hungarian citizenship. At that point, noone was hundred percent sure exactly what the interview would look like, but we started preparing thinking ‘we don’t know exactly how high the bar is so we are going to do our 110 percent and more to make sure they pass.’ Of course, they did and became Hungarian citizens: first the father with the two grown-up children, and later, when the law was amended to allow spouses to become citizens, the mother also became a proud Hungarian citizen.
And so our journey started… We believe we were the first company in the world who developed a course preparing people for the Hungarian citizenship interview. We haven’t even advertised, but our clients started recommending us and very soon, we had more and more people contacting us for information and to take our Hungarian Citizenship Course.
If you are not sure if you qualify or not, or if you know you do and would like to start your Hungarian citizenship journey with us, please contact us for a chat and to book a free trial lesson.
Teaching method
During our Hungarian Citizenship Course, our aim is that the language learner becomes a competent speaker who is able to understand and communicate with the interviewer without the help of a third person and arrange their own matters in Hungarian. In order to do this we use:
- A model-based approach: we act out short conversations with learners – these are based on how a native speaker would use the language when submitting their papers to apply for Hungarian citizenship.
- A cultural element: we teach them about our culture and infect them with the love of Hungarian culture so that they become independent language learners seeking out Hungarian literature, music and films and use them for learning purposes.
- An intercultural approach: we are genuinely interested in learning about the learner’s culture and life in their native country (all in Hungarian, of course).
- Building a community: We have a closed FB group where our learners are very generous sharing information about their citizenship journey and all things Hungarian.