Hungary's golden visa has exactly two approved fund managers
About $287,500 into a regulated real estate fund, locked for five years, in exchange for a 10-year Hungarian residence permit with no minimum stay.
Hungary closed its old residency-bond scheme in 2017 and reopened for investors in July 2024 under a program the law calls the Guest Investor Residence Permit. Everyone else calls it the golden visa. Here is what it costs, who it fits and where it stops.
- Capital
- Budapest
- Currency
- Hungarian Forint (HUF)
- Safety index
- 65/100
- English proficiency
- 55/100
- Population
- 9.6M
The investment
Two routes, and only one of them comes back
The law gives you two ways in, and neither one is buying a house. A 500,000 euro property purchase was written into the original 2024 rules and then deleted in January 2025, so skip any site still listing it.
The fund: $287,500, locked for five years
You buy at least 250,000 euros of units in a property fund that the Hungarian National Bank has registered. At least 40 percent of that fund's net asset value has to sit in Hungarian residential property. You hold the units for five years minimum, in a securities sub-account that stays blocked the whole time, waiving the account manager's confidentiality so the authorities can check. Here's the catch. The fund's manager has to appear on the government's qualified market operators register. As of September 2026, that register lists two names: Sprint Asset Hungária and Gránit Alapkezelő.
The donation: $1.15 million, and it's gone
The second route is a gift of at least 1 million euros to a Hungarian university run by a public-interest trust, for teaching, research or the arts. You don't get it back. The good news: at renewal, the donation route asks for nothing more, while the fund route wants proof you still hold the units.
The numbers, off the government's own pages
$287,500
The fund minimum
250,000 euros, held five years
$1.15M
The donation minimum
1 million euros, non-refundable
10 + 10
Years the permit can run
one renewal, and only one
21 days
The decision window
counted after you prove the money
$82
Filing fee, online
HUF 26,000, or $123 in person
Zero
Days you owe Hungary
and none are checked at renewal
The process
Filing it, and the trip Americans can skip
Most guides start you at a Hungarian consulate, collecting a six-month Guest Investor Visa. Americans don't need that step. The National Directorate-General for Aliens Policing, the agency that decides these files, says the permit application can be filed by anyone staying in Hungary legally, either on that visa or, if your passport gets you in without one, visa free. A U.S. passport does.
What doesn't change: the application has to be filed inside Hungary, within 30 days of your first legal entry, and you show up in person for fingerprints and a photo even when you file online through Enter Hungary. If your address is in Budapest or Pest County, book the appointment first.
Two details that rarely make the guides. Documents in English need no Hungarian translation, which is unusual and saves real money; a third language has to go through the state translation office. And proof of income and health insurance belongs to the visa stage, not the permit stage. The agency says in writing that subsistence isn't assessed on a guest investor permit.
This program is smaller than it looks
The last public count came from the Hungarian outlets HVG and Szabad Európa in early 2025. By the end of that February, 192 people had applied for the guest investor visa and 25 went on to file for the residence permit. Henley and Partners, one of the industry's largest firms, currently tells clients the Hungarian program is stalled and doesn't recommend applying until further notice. The rules are open and the forms work. The volume just isn't there, and that's worth pricing in.
The permit
What the card actually lets you do
This is the part Hungary does better than Greece or Cyprus. The permit runs up to 10 year, then renews once for another 10; the authority has confirmed it won't trim that down just because your passport expires sooner.
There's no minimum stay, and not a soft one either. At renewal, the Directorate says it doesn't examine whether you spent 90 days in any 180-day window, nor will it withdraw the permit on those grounds.
You can also work. The permit covers taking a job, running a business, or sitting as a company's chief executive, with no second permit and no employer sponsorship. Your spouse and children file their own family reunification permit, which carries the same work rights, and they can file alongside you, though their stay only begins once yours is granted. Several advisers say dependent parents qualify too, though the government pages don't say so. Confirm it before you plan around it.
The details that decide the file
Check the manager, not the fund
Only managers on the qualified market operators register count. The immigration authority keeps no list of the funds themselves.
The money is frozen, not just held
Units sit in a securities sub-account blocked for five years, and you sign away the account manager's confidentiality.
Show where the money came from
Bank certificates, sale contracts, inheritance papers. A file is refused if the authority doubts you can finish the investment.
You still need a Hungarian address
A lease, a deed, or a written offer of accommodation. No address, no permit, even with the fund units already bought.
Report changes within five days
Any change to the data behind your investment goes to Enter Hungary within five days of it happening.
Budget past the purchase
Fund fees, translations, advisers and a health policy for the visa stage sit on top of the money you invest.
The money
Hungary taxes the yield, not the visitor
Stay under 183 days in any 12 months and you're not a Hungarian tax resident. The permit by itself doesn't make you one. What the fund pays out is taxed at Hungary's flat 15 percent income tax. The part people miss is American: the U.S. ended its tax treaty with Hungary; it stopped applying to tax years starting January 2024. No tie-breaker if both countries claim you, no capped rates, and your U.S. return follows you anyway.
About that 40 percent
The fund has to keep 40 percent of its assets in Hungarian homes, so what that market does is your problem, too. Hungary's central bank, the MNB, put national house prices 18.8 percent above the level fundamentals justify by mid-2025, with growth of 23.9 percent nationally and 29.9 percent in Budapest by that autumn. Its May 2026 report says overvaluation kept climbing, and private investors turned into net sellers. Your capital sits in that for five years with no guaranteed return.
Who Expatsi works with on this
Arton Capital
Golden Visas
Arton Capital brokers golden visas and counts Hungary among its programs. The first question to put to them is which of the two approved managers they have actually closed a file with, and what that fund charges on top of the units.
Moneycorp
Currency Exchange
A quarter of a million euros crosses in one transfer, and the rate you get that morning can matter more than any fee you negotiate. Moneycorp handles the currency. Ask whether you can hold a rate while the file is pending.
MyExpatTaxes
U.S. Expat Tax Service
Ask what the fund is in U.S. tax terms before you buy it. A foreign investment fund can drop an American owner into the passive foreign investment company rules, and with the treaty gone there's nothing to soften the result.
What Americans ask about Hungary's golden visa
How much does Hungary's golden visa actually cost?
The investment is 250,000 euros, roughly $287,500 at September 2026 rates. On top sit a 110 euro visa fee on the consular route, HUF 26,000 (about $82) to file online or HUF 39,000 in person, fund charges, and whatever your adviser bills.
Do I have to live in Hungary to keep it?
Not for a day. The trade is that time you don't spend there is time that doesn't count. Permanent residence and citizenship both run on actual, continuous residence in Hungary, so a permit held from Ohio keeps you legal and moves you no closer to a passport.
How long does the Hungary guest investor permit take?
The immigration authority gives itself 21 days once your proof of investment is in, and that clock excludes the wait while you complete the purchase. Advisers who run these files end to end quote four to six months.
Does this lead to a Hungarian passport?
Only the long way. Naturalization asks for eight years of residence plus a constitutional exam in Hungarian, and permanent residence comes first. Sources disagree on whether that takes three years or five, which tells you how rarely this gets walked to the end.
Can I get my 250,000 euros back?
The units are redeemable after the five-year block, unlike the donation, which is gone the moment it lands. Whether you get the same amount back depends on how the fund performed. Nobody guarantees the return, and renewal at year ten requires you still hold units.
Can I buy an apartment in Budapest and get residency?
No. That option existed on paper for about a year and was removed in January 2025. You can still buy a home, and you'll need an address to register anyway, but the purchase earns you nothing toward the permit.
Can my spouse and kids come with me?
Yes, through a separate family reunification permit that carries the same unrestricted work rights. They can lodge it at the same time as yours, but nobody's stay counts until the main applicant's permit is granted. Dependent parents are widely advertised and thinly documented.
Six figures is a big bet on one country
The Expatsi Test scores countries against your budget, your paperwork and how you want to live, then shows you which ones are worth a closer look.
Why not you?