For almost 29 years, our Legal Partnership has been dealing with obtaining residence permits and permanent residence permits for third-country nationals for income and work purposes, and we very often represent such third-country nationals in proceedings before the Immigration and Nationality Office.
In this article, we would like to dispel some misunderstandings and mention some common mistakes in practice, which can easily lead to the rejection of an application for a residence permit or, in some cases, to the issue for a shorter period of time than requested.
One common misunderstanding is that a residence permit for work purposes can be used with any employer. In fact, the opposite is true, as in Hungary the Authority gives the opportunity to work for a specific employer or company, which has to submit a so-called request for labour force in advance for the government office responsible for labour matters to find a Hungarian citizen worker for the company that has submitted the request for labour force for the given position. In the light of the above, it is worth taking the notification of the request for labour force very seriously, and not just as a mandatory administrative task, because if the employer omits some important employment conditions that the third-country worker in question has (for example, Russian language skills) and a Hungarian citizen applies for the position, then either the employer must hire the Hungarian citizen or notify a new request for labour force, which in the latter case may delay or, in less fortunate cases, even prevent the success of the residence permit procedure.
It is also important to pay attention if you would like to prove your residence in Hungary with a rental contract, as the authorities will only issue a residence permit for the duration of the rental contract, so you could lose valuable months if the permit could be otherwise issued for a longer period.
It is perhaps clear from the above simple article that it is worth seeking the opinion of a professional with experience and knowledge of the subject if you would like to have a realistic chance of obtaining a residence permit, although the Hungarian State – like other European and American states – does not guarantee the issuance of residence permits to anyone, so it is not a procedure like setting up a company, where the applicant – if he has submitted all the documents required by law – can be absolutely sure that he will have a registered company.
BALÁZS & KOVÁTSITS Legal Partnership