Criteria and conditions

Hungary

Country Report: Criteria and conditions Last updated: 19/04/23

Author

Hungarian Helsinki Committee Visit Website

Under Hungarian law, family reunification applicants are the family members of the refugees (sponsors of family reunification) residing in Hungary, not the refugees themselves. The following family members may be family reunification applicants: spouse, if they had married with the sponsor before the refugee reached the territory of Hungary, minor children (including adopted and foster children) of the sponsor, the parent or legal guardian of UAM refugee, dependent parent of the sponsor, and siblings and direct relatives of the sponsor if they are unable to provide for themselves for their health condition.[1] Family members have to apply at the Hungarian consulate accredited to their country of origin or of residence. According to the law, family reunification applicants shall lawfully reside in the country where they submit the claim. Refugees’ family members are often themselves refugees in countries neighbouring the country of origin. In most cases, the family members stuck in the first country of asylum are unable to obtain a legal status there (and documentary proof thereof) that would be considered as ‘lawful stay’ in the sense of Hungarian law. Therefore, the family members have to first obtain some kind of documents to prove the legality of their stay in the country where they reside. In some cases, consulates helped clarify that person’s ‘lawful stay’. In one case of the HHC, the NDGAP gave its consent for the sponsor parents to initiate the procedure in Hungary instead of their applicant minor children at the consulate because the accredited Hungarian consulate was closed for indefinite period of time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although family members are required to apply at the competent Hungarian consulate, it is the NDGAP that considers the application and takes the decision. The applicants are required to prove their relationships with the sponsors. The consulate records the biometric data of the applicant when submitting the application. The applicant has to prove their subsistence income, accommodation, and a comprehensive health insurance (or sufficient savings to fund medical treatment) in Hungary, or the sponsor (who is the recognised beneficiary of international protection in Hungary) may do so by declaring that they undertake the support of the applicant’s family member. The requirements regarding the volume of funds verifying the subsistence are not defined in the law. In the experience of HHC lawyers, this causes uncertainty on the one hand. On the other hand, usually the income considered as sufficient must be quite high compared to the Hungarian labour market, and to the widespread practice of employment in the grey area, which furthermore makes it possible to verify only part of the actual income. According to Hungarian law, there is no time limit to initiate the family reunification.

In Hungary, only refugees are entitled to family reunification under preferential conditions within three months following the recognition of their status.[2] They are exempted from fulfilling the usual material criteria: subsistence, accommodation, health insurance. No preferential treatment is applied to beneficiaries of subsidiary protection. The reasons for fleeing their countries of origin of beneficiaries of subsidiary protection are often similar to those of refugees. They rarely have the means to fulfil the strict material conditions for family reunification. It demands sacrifice and even luck to find a job or multiple jobs where the beneficiary could earn a salary that is high enough to meet the criteria of the family reunification. Consequently, the lack of any preferential treatment de facto excludes many beneficiaries of subsidiary protection from the possibility of family reunification, which often has a harmful impact on their integration prospects as well. In 2022, 5 families of international protection beneficiaries (3 refugee sponsor, 1 beneficiary of subsidiary protection sponsor, 1 already Hungarian citizen sponsor who was a beneficiary of international protection earlier) could reunite with the assistance of the HHC despite the difficulties detailed above. This trend is promising regarding respect of the rights to family life and to family reunification. However, the uncertainty of the expected financial means and the discretional right of the NDGAP to decide case-by-case about the sufficiency of these financial means remain.

The authorities are strict regarding necessary documents, which makes family reunification more difficult. They request that all the documents bear an official stamp, proving that they are originals, as well as an official stamp from the Hungarian consulate. All documents have to be translated to English or Hungarian and bear an official stamp, which is very costly. The decisions made by the NDGAP are predominantly based on these documents and there is relatively small space for other ways to prove family links. In 2020, some of the family members could not prove their family link with the sponsor because the submitted certificates turned out to be falsified/not accepted as original by the NDGAP without the family members’ knowledge of any falsification. The NDGAP rejected the applications at first and second instance. The HHC represented these families successfully before the court, and the NDGAP had to re-examine the applications. In the new procedures, both families’ reunifications were granted. According to Hungarian law, DNA tests could solve the question of family links in several cases when the documents are missing. Since 2017, however, DNA tests cannot be initiated by the applicants. Instead, they have to be ordered by the NDGAP. No DNA tests have been ordered for the purpose of family reunification in 2021. There is no data for 2022 in that regard.

Hungary does not accept certain travel documents, such as those issued by Somalia for example. Nevertheless, unlike other EU Member States, Hungary refuses to apply any alternative measure that would enable for a one-way travel with the purpose of family reunification in such cases.[3] Consequently, certain refugee families are de facto excluded from any possibility of family reunification based on their nationality or origin. The NDGAP suggested to one of these families to apply for a ‘Schengen visa’, as the Schengen Code allows the use of separate sheet for visa stickers. However, in the procedure for a Schengen visa application, the family members of refugees could not refer to the preferential conditions of family reunification, and therefore they would be still deprived of their right based on their nationality or origin.

The NDGAP collects no data on the numbers of family reunification applications which were submitted by family members of beneficiaries of international protection, neither could they provide any information on the outcome of these procedures. [4]

 

 

 

[1] Section 19 (2)a-b and (4) a-b of TCN Act.

[2] The favourable rule was amended by Section 29 Decree 113/2016. (V.30).

[3] Alternative measures applied by other Member States include the issuance of a specific temporary laissez-passer for foreigners (e.g. Sweden, Netherlands, France, Austria, Italy), the acceptance of specific travel documents issued by the Red Cross for the purpose of family reunification (e.g. Austria, UK) and the use of the so-called EU Uniform Format Form, based on Council Regulation (EC) No 333/2002 of 18 February 2002 on a uniform format for forms for affixing the visa issued by Member States to persons holding travel documents not recognised by the Member State drawing up the form (e.g. UK, Germany).

[4] Information provided by NDGAP on 13 February 2023.

Table of contents

  • Statistics
  • Overview of the legal framework
  • Overview of the main changes since the previous report update
  • Asylum Procedure
  • Reception Conditions
  • Detention of Asylum Seekers
  • Content of International Protection
  • ANNEX I – Transposition of the CEAS in national legislation