Moving to Hungary

Hungary attracts more and more people from Poland: engineers for factories in Győr, Kecskemét and Debrecen, staff at service centres in Budapest, and retirees buying a house by Lake Balaton. A move to Hungary from Wrocław is roughly a day's drive, with no ferries and no customs duty, but with a few local rules worth knowing before you go. 4RELO prepares your move from packing to furniture assembly.

The route through the Czech Republic or the Tatras

To Budapest and western Hungary we drive via Brno and Bratislava, then on the motorway via Győr. For the north-east, to Miskolc and Debrecen, the road via Kraków, Slovakia and Košice is shorter. Hungarian roads are tolled electronically for lorries, and large vehicles face restrictions at weekends and on public holidays – so we usually plan unloading for a working day.

Budapest – gallery tenements and hillside villas

In practice Budapest is two cities. Pest is dominated by 19th-century tenement blocks with an inner courtyard and open galleries running round each floor. You enter the flat from the gallery, and the old caged lift in the shaft rarely takes anything bigger than a chair. We carry furniture up the stairs and along the gallery, so wardrobes and beds usually travel in parts.

Buda is green and hilly. Villas and houses on Rózsadomb or in District XII have steep, narrow access roads where a large lorry cannot turn. Here we often transfer your belongings to a smaller vehicle, as described under additional services.

Formalities after moving to Hungary

1. Registration certificate. An EU citizen staying longer than three months registers with the immigration authority.
2. Address card. After registration you receive a Hungarian card showing your address, needed at many offices and for contracts.
3. Tax number and insurance card. To work and use the public health service you need a Hungarian tax number and a social insurance number.
4. Car. Re-registering a car from Poland involves a roadworthiness test and a registration tax that depends on its age and engine.

The furniture itself is transported within the European Union, with no customs declarations. We work under a contract with a VAT invoice, and our business is covered by third-party liability insurance up to PLN 500,000. If you only get your Balaton house after renovation, we will store your belongings in our warehouse in Wrocław.

Relocating an employee to a Hungarian factory

When the employer pays for the move, a detailed offer is usually needed before the order and an invoice afterwards. We prepare a quote broken down into packing, transport and carrying in, and we align the date with the start of work and the handover of company accommodation.

Moving to Hungary – questions