Hundreds of Hungarian citizenships have been withdrawn: how and who can strip you from citizenship?
Hungarian citizenship is among the most valuable in the world since it entitles you to get a passport, allowing visa-free travel to 187 countries on the globe. Furthermore, having a Hungarian citizenship means you also acquired an EU citizenship and free access to the Schengen zone. This is why many Hungarians (or non-Hungarians) try to get it from Ukraine and Serbia and move to Germany, Austria and other Western European countries. But how can Hungarian citizenship be withdrawn from you? And why did the Hungarian President strip hundreds of people of their citizenship?
Acquiring Hungarian citizenship: 5 options
Acquiring Hungarian citizenship is not easy, but obtaining it has a lot of advantages. You become eligible for citizenship by simplified naturalisation provided you speak Hungarian (or at least can sing in Hungarian like Csángó Hungarians who live in Moldova, Romania) and prove your Hungarian descent. Being a child or spouse of a Hungarian citizen also makes you eligible for Hungarian citizenship.
You can also get Hungarian citizenship if you spend enough time in Hungary, own a permanent residency, or invest hundreds of thousands of euros here. However, you must take exams successfully, which require a proficiency-level command of the Hungarian language. We summed up those options in THIS article and wrote about the exam HERE.
How can a Hungarian citizenship be withdrawn?
According to the Hungarian citizenship law adopted in 1993, which has since been amended several times on significant points, Hungarian citizenship can be withdrawn from persons who acquired it by violating laws, particularly by providing false information or concealing data or facts, thereby misleading the authority. However, withdrawal is impossible if more than twenty years have passed since the acquisition.
The good news is that the person affected has the right to appeal and turn to the Budapest Metropolitan Court to file a lawsuit against the written decision of the authority responsible for citizenship matters. The duration of the administrative lawsuit does not count towards the deadline for the withdrawal of the citizenship.
The Hungarian President, Tamás Sulyok, makes the final decision on the withdrawal. However, he does not act alone. He only accepts (or refuses) the proposal of the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, Gergely Gulyás. The presidential decision enters into effect after the Minister signs it and appears in the Hungarian Official Gazette. However, the Hungarian Official Gazette never provides reasons for the withdrawals.
Dozens of people lose their Hungarian citizenship each year
For example, by 8 July 2024, the Hungarian President withdrew the citizenship of 21 people, most born in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, while one of them was born in Munich. Therefore, 24.hu believes that the persons affected acquired Hungarian citizenship by simplified naturalisation, but later, it became apparent to Hungarian authorities that those people had misled them with false information.
Zsolt Semjén stated in March 2024 that the number of people who had received Hungarian citizenship by simplified naturalisation in the 13 years prior was 1,175,934.
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