How Much Does Hungarian Citizenship by Descent Cost?

Most three-generation applicants spend between $128 and $320 USD in total, with the ordinary case ~$253. There is no government application fee for the simplified naturalization (honosítás) pathway. The main costs are: Hungarian translation of US vital records, certified at the consulate ($23 per page if you supply the into-Hungarian translation, $40 per page if the consulate translates it into Hungarian — the reverse direction costs more and is not part of this application), state apostilles on US vital records ($2–$25 each), and Hungarian civil registry records — free of charge when issued inside Hungary, and $0–$52 when you have to go through a Hungarian consulate instead. An FBI Identity History Summary ($18, plus a $20 federal apostille) is not a mandatory attachment — include it only if the post serving your consular district asks for one; the calculator includes it, so subtract about $38 if yours does not. Note that the $20 federal apostille applies only to the FBI check: Hungarian-issued records need no apostille at all, and US state records take a state apostille of $2–$25. Cases with more ancestors in the chain cost more due to additional translations and apostilles — a four-generation chain runs $173–$435.

OFFI (Országos Fordító és Fordításhitelesítő Iroda — National Translation and Translation Authentication Office) is Hungary's official translation authority, and there is no US-based “OFFI-certified translator” credential. Who may certify a translation, and for which documents, is set out on this page, under “Who May Certify the Translation — and What That Costs”. The New York Consulate General states that for an English-language document the applicant may prepare the translation themselves and have the consulate certify it, for a consular fee. The fee is charged per page, not per document, and you pay the consulate: under the fee schedule effective 1 August 2026, New York charges USD 23 per page to certify a translation into Hungarian that you supply (fordítás hitelesítése/oldal, idegen nyelv – magyar) and USD 40 per page for the consulate to translate into Hungarian itself (fordítás magyar nyelvre/oldal). Both prices are direction-specific: certifying or producing a translation the other way, into a foreign language, is USD 35 and USD 52. Confirm the current figure with the post serving your district, and ask whether the separate general consular fee applies on top. Note too that not every document needs a translation. §14(5) b) of Act LV of 1993 carves out what a directly applicable EU act provides, and Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 arts. 6(1)(b) and 7(1) let a free multilingual standard form from the issuing registry replace the translation of a birth or marriage record (not a divorce decree) where the receiving authority finds it sufficient. Separately, since 1 January 2024, §14(5a) exempts civil-status extracts issued in English, German or French, though the implementing decree confines that to registering a birth, marriage, registered partnership or death and only where the certificate was machine-personalised and carries no annotation. §14(5b) separately lets a career consular officer accept an extract translation of the material parts instead of a full one.

No. The simplified naturalization (egyszerűsített honosítás) pathway under §4(3) of Act LV of 1993 carries no government application fee. This makes Hungary one of the most cost-effective EU citizenship pathways for those who qualify. Your costs are entirely document preparation: translation and certification, apostilles, and vital record fees.

No. Hungarian birth certificates (anyakönyvi kivonat), marriage certificates, and death certificates issued by Hungarian civil registries do not need apostilles or translation — they are already in Hungarian. Two conditions, not one: the record has to be issued by a Hungarian registry AND be in Hungarian, because §14(5) of Act LV of 1993 attaches authentication to a foreign document and a certified Hungarian translation to a document issued other than in Hungarian. Check first that your ancestor's record is both: if the birthplace is in territory the Kingdom of Hungary ceded after 1920, the register went with the territory, the extract comes from that country's registry at that country's price, and a translation may then apply. This calculator does not estimate that country's own issuing fee, which we have not sourced. On authentication the answer is sourced and it is usually nothing: Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 art. 4 exempts a civil-status document issued by an EU Member State from “all forms of legalisation and similar formality”, art. 3(4) making “similar formality” the apostille, and among the states holding former Kingdom of Hungary territory, Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria are EU Member States. Ukraine and Serbia are outside the Regulation; both are Hague Apostille parties with Hungary, so an apostille is the ceiling there. Confirm with your post before you pay. Where the birthplace is inside Hungary, request certified copies (hitelesített másolat) from the anyakönyvi hivatal (civil registry office) of that municipality. Issuing an anyakönyvi kivonat is free by statute in Hungary — Itv. 2. melléklet I.2 lists it among the no-charge procedures — so if you or a relative can make the request directly from the registry office, the record costs nothing. What costs money is routing the request through a Hungarian consulate, and the Hungarian foreign ministry prices that in US dollars, not euros, because Hungary does not use the euro: $0 to hand over a record the post already holds, $29 for the post to obtain one from Hungary on your behalf, and $52 where ministerial authentication is required.

Probably not — ask before you order. An FBI Identity History Summary is not on Hungary's mandatory-attachments (kötelező mellékletek) list for simplified naturalization, and no US post publishes it as a requirement. The clean-record condition in §4(1)(b) of Act LV of 1993 concerns Hungarian criminal records, which the Hungarian authority verifies itself. Posts do sometimes ask for supplementary documents, so put the question to the post serving your consular district first. If yours does want one, budget $18 for the FBI fee, allow 10–14 weeks via standard mail service (FBI-approved channelers are faster), and expect a US Department of State apostille at $20 per document — a federal apostille, not a state Secretary of State one, and priced per document rather than per application, so a second federal document is another $20 — plus a certified Hungarian translation if the post asks for them. Ask the post at the same time what issue date it will accept and whether it wants any state-level reports; we publish no validity window and no state-check rule, because no Hungarian source states either.