Hungarian Golden Visa and other business residence permits for entrepreneurs
Everybody is talking about the new Hungarian Golden Visa, which is a fantastic possibility for third-nationals, because of its amazing benefits, for example: 10+10 years validity, possibility of family reunification from the beginning, one significant investment is enough to get it etc. In addition, there are many other possibilities for third-nationals who want to expand their business from a third-country to Hungary or from Hungary to the EU. In the following article we check the new rules on business immigration or better known “residence permit for the purpose of gainful activity”.
We have already published a well-detailed article about the Hungarian Golden Visa, which real name is Guest Investor Residence Permit, you can check it here, but this is not our topic for today.
Previously, there was one type of business residence permit which has been became two categories from this January:
- Guest Self-employment Residence Permit, and
- Hungarian Card.
The most significant questions before you apply:
- Does the applicant hold a degree?
- Does the applicant’s family member want to apply for family reunification in the future?
The Hungarian Card is for applicants who hold IT, natural science or engineering science degree, other type of degrees are not acceptable. Yes, this is quite a strict rule. If you do not have a degree from the mentioned list, you can apply for guest self-employment residence permit. There are two options for third-national in this case:
- establishing a Hungarian company, or
- being a Hungarian self-employed.
The latter is very interesting, because third-nationals were not able to request for self-employment in Hungary. From this year, if they have a guest self-employment residence permit, they can start their Hungarian self-employment.
The other difference is the validity of course. The Hungarian Card is valid for 3 years and can be extended for another 3 years. The guest self-employment permit is valid for 1 year and can be prolonged for another 2 years, but the maximum period is 3 years.
Family reunification is possible from the beginning in the case of the Hungarian Card, but when you have a guest self-employed permit you have to wait 1 year and family reunification is possible from the second year.
There is a bonus residence permit for the final part. It is specifically for digital nomads, called White Card, which is valid for one year and can be extended for another 1 year. There are many details without which the application is certain to fail, here is one: the third-country national is considered to have sufficient resources to cover their subsistence if the third-country national’s MONTHLY legal income is equal to or exceeds EUR 3,000 net for at least 6 months prior to entry.
In the case of the White Card, family reunification is not possible.
Prudence is the keyword when you want to plan your business plan in connection with immigration. This is the reason why we support our Clients with all of the neccessary services, including accounting, legal and business immigration services etc.
If you are interested in other residence permit or you are curious about the Hungarian Golden Visa, write with confidence.