Visa requirements for Hungarian citizens are administrative entry restrictions imposed on citizens of Hungary by the authorities of other states.
As of 10 July 2018, Hungarian citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 180 countries and territories, ranking the Hungarian passport joint 9th with passports from Malaysia and Slovenia in terms of travel freedom according to the Henley Passport Index.
Video Visa requirements for Hungarian citizens
Historical perspective
Travel restrictions have been considerably relaxed since the end of communism and the removal of Hungary's border fence with Austria in May 1989.
During the communist era, travelling to the West was a long and difficult process for Hungarian citizens. The first step was to obtain an invitation, preferably from a relative in the country to be visited, and a promise of full financial support. With such an invitation, and assuming a passport could be obtained, a Hungarian could travel westwards once a year. However, in the absence of such an invitation, travel to the West was possible only once every three years. The Communist-era visa restrictions restricted Hungarian artists and musicians since it hindered their ability to travel abroad. As a result, many chose to leave Hungary and settle in the West, such as famed cellist János Starker, who emigrated to the United States in 1948 because it was impossible for him to tour abroad with a Hungarian passport.
Domestic events in Hungary have affected the visa requirements imposed on Hungarian citizens by Western countries. The Revolution of 1956 and the ensuing domestic repression resulted in the United States deciding to expedite all Hungarian visa requests.
The end of communism in 1989 led to a rapid relaxation of visa restrictions. Visa-free travel for Hungarians was introduced by several countries, including Sweden in 1986, the United Kingdom in 1990, Germany in 1990, France (1990), Spain in 1990, Belgium in 1991 South Korea in 1991 and Chile in 1992. 1993 saw Israel, South Africa, Portugal and Tunisia abolish the requirement for ordinary Hungarian tourists to obtain visas in advance of departure. Canada and Slovakia followed in 1994. Italy waived prior visas in 1995, Mexico in 1997, Austria in 1997, Japan (1997), Slovenia (1998), Panama (1998), Morocco (1999). New Zealand scrapped requirements for visas in 2000 followed by Croatia that same year, and Brazil in 2001, Hong Kong in 2002, Serbia in 2003, Ukraine in 2003 and Peru later that same year of 2003.
Despite the tremendous increase in the number of visa waiver agreements, there have also been setbacks. In June 2001, the visa-free travel agreement between Hungary and Russia came to an end, and both countries now require visas of one another's citizens.
Hungary's accession to the European Union on 1 May 2004, along with its fellow V4 companions, radically boosted reciprocal visa-free arrangements.
Hungarians can now not only travel visa-free to any member state of the EU, but also have a right to settle there. A valid Hungarian passport or identity card is sufficient for any stay shorter than three months. For periods longer than three months, a residence permit is needed. Hungarians are allowed to settle in any EU country for more than three months if they work or study there, or if they are financially self-sufficient. By virtue of the agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA), those rights also apply to Hungarians in Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. The same rights also extend to Hungarians in Switzerland as a result of the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons. Following the accession to the European Union in 2004 and the Schengen Area in 2007, visa requirements were also lifted by several other countries including Georgia (2005), Bosnia and Herzegovina (2005), Macedonia (2005), Colombia (2005), Moldova (2007), Botswana (2008), Taiwan (2008), Australia (2008), and Thailand (2011).
The Hungarian government's decade-long efforts to have U.S. visa requirements abolished for Hungarian citizens finally came to fruition on 17 November 2008 when the United States decided to include Hungary in its Visa Waiver Program. The inclusion of Hungary in the Visa Waiver Program was considered a major event there. Kinga Göncz, the country's then foreign minister, even went as far as to describe it as "a landmark in our relations [with the United States], since the visa waiver was essentially the single unresolved issue." However, Hungarian President László Sólyom, who had promised upon his election in 2005 never to visit the United States as long as fingerprint requirements were part of U.S. visa procedures, refused to sign the agreement on the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, fearing it would give the United States too much access to Hungary's criminal registry. His refusal did not affect Hungary's inclusion in the program.
Recently visa requirements for Hungarian citizens were lifted by Qatar (July 2012), Kyrgyzstan (July 2012), Armenia (January 2013), Jamaica (March 2013), Turkey (February 2014), Papua New Guinea (March 2014), Bahrain (October 2014), the United Arab Emirates (May 2015), Timor-Leste (May 2015), Samoa (May 2015), Indonesia (June 2015), Kazakhstan (July 2015), Sao Tome and Principe (August 2015), Tonga (November 2015), Palau (December 2015), Marshall Islands (June 2016), Tuvalu (July 2016), Solomon Islands (October 2016) and Belarus (February 2017).
Hungarian citizens were made eligible for eVisas recently by Ethiopia (1 June 2018), Angola (March 2018), Djibouti (February 2018), Egypt (December 2017), Azerbaijan (January 2017), Tajikistan (June 2016), India (August 2015) and Myanmar (October 2014).
The number of visa-free destinations for Hungarian citizens grew exponentially over the last few years, in 2009 Hungarian citizens could travel to 131 countries without a visa, to 142 in 2010 and 153 in 2012.
Maps Visa requirements for Hungarian citizens
Visa requirements map
Visa requirements
Disputed areas, partially recognized countries and restricted zones
Visa requirements for Hungarian citizens for visits to various territories, disputed areas, partially recognized countries and restricted zones:
Diplomatic passports
A Hungarian ordinary passport, with visa-free access to all of the world's developed countries, is a very convenient travel document by international standards. However, it is not as handy as a Hungarian diplomatic passport, which has even less visa restrictions attached to it. Several countries offer visa-free access to holders of a Hungarian diplomatic passport, but not to ordinary passport holders. This is notably the case with the People's Republic of China since 1992, Russia (since 2001). and India (since 2003). As of July 2009, Hungarian diplomats can enter all G8+5 countries without a visa. The Hungarian diplomatic passport holds the distinction of being the only travel document in the world granting such visa-free entry to all G8+5 member states.
In total holders of various categories of official Hungarian passports have additional visa-free access to the following countries - Algeria (diplomatic passports), Azerbaijan (diplomatic or service passports), Belarus (diplomatic or service passports), China (diplomatic or service passports), Cuba (diplomatic or service passports), Egypt (diplomatic passports), India (diplomatic or official passports), Indonesia (diplomatic or service passports), Iran (diplomatic passports), Kazakhstan (diplomatic or service passports), Laos (diplomatic or official passports), Mongolia (diplomatic or official passports), Russia (diplomatic and service passports), Tajikistan (diplomatic or service passports), Turkmenistan (diplomatic or service passports) and Uzbekistan (diplomatic passports), Vietnam (diplomatic, official, service or special passports), Yemen (diplomatic passports). Holders of diplomatic or service passports of any country have visa-free access to Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Mali and Zimbabwe.
Right to consular protection in non-EU countries
When they are in a territory with no Hungarian consular facilities, because Hungarian citizens are also citizens of the EU, they have the right to get consular assistance from any other EU country with a diplomatic mission in that territory.
See also: List of diplomatic missions of Hungary.
Non-visa restrictions
Many countries have entry restrictions on foreigners that go beyond the common requirement of having either a valid visa or a visa exemption. Such restrictions may be health related or impose additional documentation requirements on certain classes of people for diplomatic or political purposes.
Passport validity length
Many countries require passports to be valid for at least 6 months upon arrival. However, some countries have bilateral agreements with other countries to shorten the period of passport validity required for each other's citizens or even accept passports that have already expired (but not been cancelled).
In the absence of specific bilateral agreements, countries requiring passports to be valid at least 6 months on arrival include Afghanistan, Algeria, Anguilla, Bahrain, Bhutan, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire, Curaçao, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq (except when arriving at Basra and Erbil or Sulaimaniyah), Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, Laos, Madagascar, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Myanmar, Namibia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Somaliland, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen and Zimbabwe.
Countries requiring passports valid for at least 4 months on arrival include Micronesia and Zambia.
Countries requiring passports valid for at least 3 months on arrival include European Union countries (except Denmark, Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom), and always excepting EU/EEA/Swiss nationals); Albania; Belarus; Georgia; Honduras; Iceland; Jordan; Kuwait, Lebanon; Liechtenstein; Moldova; Monaco; Nauru; Panama, Saint Barthélemy; San Marino; Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.
Bermuda requires passports to be valid for at least 45 days upon entry.
Countries that require a passport validity of at least one month on arrival include Eritrea, Hong Kong, Macao, New Zealand and South Africa.
Other countries require either a passport valid on arrival or a passport valid throughout the period of the intended stay.
Blank passport pages
Many countries require a minimum number of blank pages in the passport being presented, generally one or two pages. Endorsement pages, which often appear after the visa pages, are not counted as being available.
Vaccination
Many African countries, including Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Zambia, require all incoming passengers to have a current International Certificate of Vaccination.
Some other countries require vaccination only if the passenger is coming from an infected area or has recently visited one.
Israeli stamps
Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen do not allow entry to people with passport stamps from Israel or whose passports have either a used or an unused Israeli visa, or where there is evidence of previous travel to Israel such as entry or exit stamps from neighbouring border posts in transit countries such as Jordan and Egypt.
To circumvent this Arab League boycott of Israel, the Israeli immigration services have now mostly ceased to stamp foreign nationals' passports on either entry to or exit from Israel. Since 15 January 2013, Israel no longer stamps foreign passports at Ben Gurion Airport, giving passengers a card instead that reads: "Since January 2013 a pilot scheme has been introduced whereby visitors are given an entry card instead of an entry stamp on arrival. You should keep this card with your passport until you leave. This is evidence of your legal entry into Israel and may be required, particularly at any crossing points into the Occupied Palestinian Territories." Passports are still (as of 22 June 2017) stamped at Erez when travelling into and out of Gaza. Also, passports are still stamped (as of 22 June 2017) at the Jordan Valley/Sheikh Hussein and Yitzhak Rabin/Arava land borders with Jordan.
Iran refuses admission to holders of passports containing an Israeli visa or stamp that is less than 12 months old.
Armenian ethnicity
Due to a state of war existing between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the government of Azerbaijan not only bans entry of citizens from Armenia, but also all citizens and nationals of any other country who are of Armenian descent, to the Republic of Azerbaijan (although there have been exceptions, notably for Armenia's participation at the 2015 European Games held in Azerbaijan).
Azerbaijan also strictly bans any visit by foreign citizens to the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh (the de facto independent Republic of Artsakh), its surrounding territories and the Azerbaijani exclaves of Karki, Yuxar? ?skipara, Barxudarl? and Sofulu which are de jure part of Azerbaijan but under control of Armenia, without the prior consent of the government of Azerbaijan. Foreign citizens who enter these occupied territories will be permanently banned from entering the Republic of Azerbaijan and will be included in their "list of personae non gratae". As of late 2017 the list contains 699 persons.
Upon request, the authorities of the largely unrecognized Republic of Artsakh may attach their visa and/or stamps to a separate piece of paper in order to avoid detection of travel to their country.
Criminal record
Some countries (for example, Canada and the United States) routinely deny entry to non-citizens who have a criminal record.
Persona non grata
The government of a country can declare a diplomat persona non grata, banning their entry into that country. In non-diplomatic use, the authorities of a country may also declare a foreigner persona non grata permanently or temporarily, usually because of unlawful activity. Attempts to enter the Gaza strip by sea may attract a 10-year ban on entering Israel.
Fingerprinting
Several countries mandate that all travellers, or all foreign travellers, be fingerprinted on arrival and will refuse admission to or even arrest those travellers that refuse to comply. In some countries, such as the United States, this may apply even to transit passengers who merely wish to quickly change planes rather than go landside.
Fingerprinting countries include Afghanistan, Argentina,Brunei, Cambodia, China when entering through Shenzhen airport, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Japan, Malaysia upon entry and departure, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States.
Additionally, the United Arab Emirates conducts iris scanning on visitors that need to apply for a visa.)
See also
- Visa requirements for the European Union citizens
- Hungarian passport
- Hungarian identity card
- Visa policy in the European Union
References and Notes
- References
- Notes
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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