Students frequently ask us to help them in obtaining Hungarian citizenship. They have little information on how to do it as there are two ways to obtain Hungarian citizenship and our students do not know which of the two categories they belong to.
Simplified Naturalization
Simplified Naturalization is a process for people whose ancestors lived in Hungary and had Hungarian citizenship are entitled to this simplified procedure [including historic or Greater Hungary] and had Hungarian citizenship. This fact must be verified by official documents such as the birth and marriage certificates of the Hungarian ascendants. To obtain these is a task of no ease but professional people in the government offices can give you a helping hand. Also, you can obtain Hungarian citizenship in this way if you as a foreigner have a Hungarian spouse. If the two of you have a child then you may request Simplified Naturalization after 5 years of marriage. If you have no child then the required duration is 10 years.
Those who are learning Hungarian and are entitled to the Simplified Naturalization interview are required to pass B1 [basic] language exam in Hungarian language. It is a misbelief that marriage and a common child or Hungarian origin will exempt you from learning Hungarian. You are required to be able to communicate in Hungarian on a basic level, which is checked in a 20-minute interview at the given consulate or the Hungarian government office on submitting the request and the official documents. Moreover, students living outside Hungary may receive an unexpected phone call for an interview within a few months following the interview in person.
Our school is ready to prepare you for the above language exam. Our students have managed to prove their ability to communicate in Hungarian in these interviews. We published a book to help you in preparing for the exam. It includes the FAQs [frequently asked questions] both in Hungarian and English. Mind you, preceding the exam you must be able to communicate in Hungarian on a basic level in writing and, more importantly, in speaking for it is not enough to learn the given questions answers only to pass the interview. There is more on the book below: https://hungarianlesson.eu/books/
Basic exam in the Constitution of Hungary Hungarian
Naturalization can be requested by foreign citizens who have no Hungarian ascendants or who are not married to a Hungarian citizen but have had a registered residential address in the territory of Hungary for at least 8 years. (The duration of 8 years starts at the date of release of the plastic address card. More than a few people submit the request for the citizenship before time because they count the years from the date of their arrival in Hungary.) Those who were born in Hungary and have a foreign citizenship or who came to live in Hungary before the age of 18 may apply for the Hungarian citizenship as adults. Refugees may also submit their application. In cases like these they need to wait for the commencement of the procedure for as little as 5 years only. We cannot give you the full list of the relating legal rules. You will get the required information in the Immigration Office or the Government Office before you submit the request. As there are several laws and rules it is worth sometimes to hire a lawyer who has sufficient experience in immigration and naturalization. You save time in the naturalization procedure if you are well-informed and the rules are changing from time to time.
Foreign citizens who meet the conditions of naturalization are obliged to take an exam in basic knowledge of the Constitution of Hungary (known as Citizenship Exam). This exam requires you to have at least B2 (upper intermediate) or rather C1 (advanced) knowledge of Hungarian language as there are as many as 40 topics to prepare for in the exam. The first 20 topics cover the culture, the history and the scientists of Hungary and the other 20 topics are in the legal rules of the Constitution. You must be able to answer questions on the Constitution of Hungary, the history and operation of the European Union, the tasks of the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the government and the relating officials, the process of the elections and referendums, the operation of the courts and the rights and obligations of the Hungarian citizens, and so on. The above is to prove the level of difficulty of the topics. The exam is not easy to take as it expects you to have a special vocabulary which is not used in everyday communication, that is, you are expected to have a high level of knowledge of the Constitution as well as the Hungarian language. We are frequently asked to prepare people for this exam. We start with a general aptitude test to assess your knowledge. If you do not reach the required level it is not possible to go any further. If you are a beginner you will not be able to pass the exam as it is near impossible to swot this amount of information and vocabulary. A complete beginner will not reach the required level within as little time as one or two months. We
can start your preparation only if you have passed the upper-intermediate [B2] language exam. Success is warranted only in this case. You can apply for our course in naturalization below:
The book of our school is likely to be published in 2024. Right now, the only book available is ‘Basic knowledge of the Constitution’ [Alkotmányos alapismeretek] by Mária Ugróczky. The language of this book is extremely hard even for the native speakers of Hungarian. Therefore, we use numerous teaching materials and PowerPoint presentations in our courses to make learning exciting and relatively simple for you.
True, it may sound a bit frustrating to know how much time and energy you must take to learn Hungarian and to obtain the desired Hungarian citizenship. However, we keep on giving you a helping hand and we never cease to support you in the learning process. We guide you with our language teaching experience of several years to help you to reach your goal as quickly as possible in an enjoyable fashion.
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