Referring to our former articles published in the last year, we continue the introduction on the latest news regarding the Hungarian Residency Bond Program (“Program”) including a possibility of a cheaper option.
This Program
offers a lawful and lifetime Hungarian residence under preferential conditions
for non-EU nationals, who are willing to invest into government residency
bonds.
The Program is
unique in the world in some notable aspects:
-
it allows free movement and relocation in the Schengen
countries;
-
it may serve as a major route to the Hungarian
citizenship;
-
there is no need to travel to Hungary in order to make
an application (the applicants can decide whether they would like to apply at
the local Embassy or Consulate of Hungary, or in Budapest at the Office of
Immigration and Nationality of Hungary – “Immigration
Authority”);
-
the investor’s family (see below in point 4) is also
included in the Program as a joint part of the investment.
1. List of companies responsible
Currently the
following enterprises/companies are entitled to participate in the transaction
of bonds; these companies are also in cooperation with our Law Office:
- S & Z Program Limited Company provides services of the bond transfer for citizens of Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, Yemen, Oman, Iran, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Iraq, Saud-Arabia, Syria, Jordan and Bahrain.
- VolDan Investments Limited provides services of the bond transfer for citizens of Russia, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Belorussia, Uzbekistan, Montenegro, Serbia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
- Hungary State Special Debt Fund provides services of the bond transfer for citizens of China and Vietnam.
- Discus Holdings Ltd provides services of the bond transfer for citizens of the United States of America, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Azerbaijan, Turkey, South Africa, Indonesia, Kenya and Nigeria.
- Innozone Holdings Limited provides services of the bond transfer for citizens of Cyprus and India.
- Arton Capital Hungary Pénzügyi Tanácsadó Kft. provides services of the bond transfer for citizens of the United Arab Emirates, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Malta.
- EURO-ASIA Investment Management Pte Ltd. provides services of the bond transfer for citizens of Singapore.
2. Required fees for the participation in the program
There are two
options for the financing of the participation in the Program:
a.) buying the
dematerialized government bonds worth at least EUR 250.000 for a
duration of five years (which can be prolonged without further payment) and the
administration
fee of EUR 50.000 for the procedure.
The government
bonds are kept and registered by the Hungarian Government Debt Management
Agency Private Company Limited by Shares (hereinafter: “ÁKK”). ÁKK undertakes
that it pays off the full amount of government bond’s nominal value (i.e. EUR
250.000) at the end of maturity.
b.) NEW
OPTION! Only one-time administration fee of EUR 120.000 shall be paid
for this special immigration procedure for the whole family.
In this case no payment will be returned after the 5 years or the prolonged
time period. This EUR 120.000 amount covers also the residency permit for the
family members too, who can jointly apply (see point 4.)
3. Steps to be followed for participating in the Program
3.1 Payment
The investor
can choose between the following secured payment methods:
a) through
the deposit account of the responsible company, managed by Gránit Bank Zrt.
b) through
the escrow account of a Law Office present in Hungary and chosen by the
investor.
In case of
escrow payment an agreement shall be signed by the responsible company, which is
relevant upon the country of the applicant, by the law office and also by the
investor (applicant). This escrow agreement and the escrow certificate ensures
that the amount of the payment (including the procedure fee too) will be kept
ready and safely in escrow until receiving the order or the residency card from
the Immigration Authority upon their positive decision. At this stage the
escrow will be transferred to the bank account of the responsible company.
In case of
unsuccessful procedure of the Immigration Authority upon any ground, the escrow
amount will be returned to the investor in its entirety.
Please note
that according to the regulations of the law, the payment is always processed
after the signing of the assignment agreement between the investor and the
responsible company.
3.1 Application
3.4.1 Attachments
The following
documents shall be attached to the application:
For the investor:
- Good quality passport copy (valid min. for one year)
- Proof of address
For the family members:
- Good quality passport copies (valid min. for one year)
- Birth certificates of children, marriage certificates
If the certificates do not contain information in English, they have to
be officially translated to English or Hungarian, and apostilled.
3.4.2 Further requirements
In
case that the investor applies for a residence permit at the local Embassy or
Consulate of Hungary abroad, an additional administration fee shall be paid for
the consular processing in the amount of EUR 60.
3.2 Procedure
If all
conditions are met, the whole family can get the temporary residence permit
within 1 month (it takes usually 3-4 weeks), which can be converted to a permanent
residence permit after 6 months with a formal application at the Hungarian
Immigration Office.
The residence
permit will be delivered to the applicant in a pre-agreed method, usually via
express mail.
4. Which family members can jointly receive residence
permit?
The investor’s
spouse, their common underage children (under the age of 18), also the underage
children of the investor or his/her spouse are all entitled to apply for
residence permit. All applications can be submitted at the same time, even
though each applicant is treated separately in the procedure, but in case of a positive
evaluation and if completion of documents will not be required, the whole
family will get the residence cards simultaneously.
In case that
you are interested in the Program or you would like to find out more, please do
not hesitate to contact us.
