A non-Hungarian citizen whose ascendant was a Hungarian citizen or who is able to substantiate of being a Hungarian origin may be naturalized if he or she proves that he or she possesses an adequate language proficiency of the Hungarian language.

I. Act LV of 1993 on Hungarian Citizenship:

The Hungarian citizenship is regulated by the Act LV of 1993 on Hungarian Citizenship. This Act thoroughly details the procedure and the obligatory conditions upon which citizenship can be attained by a non-Hungarian citizen.

II. Simplified Naturalization Procedure:

Pursuant to Section 4, Subsection 1, Paragraphs b) and d) and Subsection 3, preferential conditions apply, that is, a non-Hungarian citizen whose ascendant was a Hungarian citizen or who is able to substantiate of being a Hungarian origin may be naturalized if he or she proves that he or she possesses an adequate language proficiency of the Hungarian language which will be examined by the clerk of the competent office, thus no official language exam is needed. Furthermore the applicant has to have a clean criminal record and not being indicted in any criminal proceedings before the Hungarian court is also a condition as well as the fact that his/her naturalization should not be considered to be a threat to public policy or to the national security of Hungary.
The simplified naturalization procedure begins with the submission of a request in a standard form in which the surname and forename by birth, marital status, date and place of current and previous marriages, name of spouse’s parents, ascendants name, place and date of birth, child’s and siblings’ name and other personal information, home address, nationality, education etc. should be given. Apart from that, the applicant is required to submit further documents which support that the conditions detailed in the Hungarian Citizenship Act are met.

III. Required documents:

These mandatory documents contain the applicant’s birth certificate, documents verifying marital status as well as documents supporting the compliance with the conditions set in Section 1 and Section 4. Moreover, a Hungarian CV, passport or ID card, 2 ID photos are needed. All of these documents shall be submitted with an official Hungarian translation enclosed or with diplomatic recertification.
If the applicant’s wish is such, a request for the change of name can be submitted at the same time the request for naturalization is submitted to the competent office.

IV. Filing of the request:

The application may be filed with any Hungarian registrar, any regional directorate of the Office of Immigration and Naturalisation or any consular officer at Hungary’s foreign diplomatic missions. It will be adjudged by the President of the Republic on recommendation of the Minister of Public Administration and Justice which will occur in 3 months after the application is submitted. In practice, though, the naturalization procedure can take 4 or 5 months as the procedure can be suspended, there could be corrections and resubmissions following it.
The procedure ends with the release the certificate of naturalization which is sent to the mayor of jurisdiction or the director of the competent foreign mission of Hungary in 15 days. After that, the applicant is obligated to take the oath or pledge of allegiance which can be done in 1 year, otherwise the citizenship is denied. The applicant has a right to change only once where he or she would like to take the oath or pledge. After taking the oath/pledge the applicant receives the Hungarian citizenship. It is important to note though, that attaining the Hungarian citizenship does not mean that a Hungarian passport is automatically received as one of the conditions for applying for a Hungarian passport is the existence of the citizenship itself.

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