Course for Hungary – we issue the Schengen visa ourselves
Do Russians need a visa for Hungary in 2019? Alas, as in 2018, Russian citizens need a visa to visit Hungary. Even 25 years ago, this country was a member of the Warsaw Pact, was socialist and was friends with the USSR against the declining capitalist West. Today, Hungary is a parliamentary republic that is a member of NATO and the European Union, and in order to visit it, you need to apply for a Schengen visa. In this article I will tell you how to get a visa for Hungary, what documents are needed, where to apply and how to travel cheaply to this country.
When I was little and when the Soviet Union was just falling apart, I knew of the existence of several countries that were allies and younger brothers of the USSR. I knew about Bulgaria because my parents went there shortly before I was born. For them, this trip has become one of the happiest memories in a difficult life. I knew about Poland because my mother went there in the early 90s to buy goods to sell at local markets at a small margin. At that time, tens of thousands of residents of the new Russia became shuttles, which suddenly began to live in a country with an unstable economy and a terrible deficit. He also knew about Hungary, because Icarus buses were produced there. Know more about Pljevlja.
In those years, these buses were perhaps the most common on Soviet-Russian roads (a total of about 150,000 Ikarus were delivered). As the years passed, “Ikarus” from the largest bus company in Europe turned into a modest company specializing in private orders. But a lot of texts! I go directly to the topic of the article.
How I managed to gather in Hungary, I have already told briefly. After buying ridiculously cheap airline tickets, the question of getting a visa arose. As you know, visa documents can be submitted at the visa center or directly at the country’s embassy / consulate.
In the first case, the visa will cost a little more than if you do everything yourself, since the visa centers charge for the service. True, you can apply for a Hungarian visa in three cities: Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg. I first applied for a Schengen visa for Hungary in 2014, but even now nothing has changed in this procedure.
Regardless, the visa for Hungary for Russians in 2019 is issued in the same way, with the exception of one nuance, which I will talk about below.
We are planning a visit to the Hungarian Embassy
You can come to the Moscow Consulate of Hungary to submit documents only with prior notice, which takes place online. The official website of the Hungarian Embassy in Russia will help you with that, you specifically need this page.
You will be redirected to a page where everything is written in Hungarian, so before you continue, select Russian in the upper right corner. Now you need to click on the “calendar” tab to choose the date and time of your visit to the embassy.
It is important to know! In summer, the flow of tourists to Hungary increases, so you need to make online reservations in advance. Otherwise you run the risk of opening the calendar and seeing only the red squares, which means that all the places to visit the embassy are occupied.
Enrollment opens in about a month and a half, or if you want to apply in early June, you need to catch the recording deadline in mid-April.
Advice! If you haven’t had time to sign up for the slot you want, don’t rush into despair. You can chase after him. Almost every weekday morning the calendar is updated (someone refuses to visit for various reasons) and then green or orange slots appear (green – there are vacancies, red – no vacancies, orange – there is one vacancy on the left).
My search for a free place was successful – I was able to sign up for the date and time I set to visit the embassy. One or two people can apply for one place (depending on the weather). Once you select a cell, a small questionnaire will appear that you need to fill out.
By the way, you can specify both the foreign and the Russian passport. Moreover, using two passports, you can reserve two seats (for example, if you do not know when it will be more convenient for you to go to the embassy. You can not reserve two seats with one passport (the system will not allow you to). would come to another person.
After filling in all the fields, click on the “Submit” button. After that, to the e-mail you specified, you will receive an e-mail asking you to confirm the selected date and time. . To do this, you will need to follow the link.
Collecting visa documents
A visa for Hungary for Russians in 2019 is usually issued within a week. The main thing is to collect a complete package of documents, which is shown below (it can also be found on the embassy website).
Short list of documents
- application form;
- two photographs;
- international passport;
- a copy of the main page of the foreign passport;
- a copy of the pages of the Russian passport (main page, registration, data on previously issued passports, marital status);
- a document confirming your financial independence (salary certificate for the last three months, bank statement on the movement of funds for the last three months);
- original health insurance for the entire duration of your trip;
- proof of residence for the duration of the trip.
IMPORTANT nuance. As of 14 September 2015, Russian citizens must go through the procedure of taking fingerprints in order to obtain a Schengen visa. That is, he will now not be able to submit documents for a wife, sister or girlfriend without their presence. The procedure is simple and fast, but there are nuances. I am quoting the story of blog reader Alexandra, who applied for a visa at the Moscow embassy after September 14 (preserved spelling and punctuation).
Now in the consulate, next to each window on the right, there are beautiful devices for taking photos and taking fingerprints. The devices are new and only worked 5 days before my visit. The peculiarities are as follows: as I noticed, all the men scanned their prints very quickly and sat waiting for their ladies (with the exception of those who applied only for themselves), but women and girls had to suffer, almost all read their prints very poorly , especially the little fingers))) after 20 minutes there were a lot of wet wipes and tubes of hand cream on all the shelves (the scanner was wiped with napkins, and the fingertips were coated with cream), but the atmosphere was cheerful, everyone mocked and laughed and the Hungarians themselves). As a result, everyone was exhausted, but satisfied (because in the end, everything went well). Yes, and by the way, there was no order at all.
I recommend filling it out in English (manually or on a computer), although filling it out in Russian is acceptable. I filled in on the computer and in English.
For those who decide to fill out the questionnaire themselves, I recommend watching the video on this topic. To do this, follow the link below.
Photography
The list of documents required to apply for a visa states that the photographs must meet the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). You can find various information about these requirements on the Internet. According to some data, the photos should be 3.5 x 4 centimeters, according to others 3.5 x 4.5 centimeters. I made both options =), but in the end it turned out that the Hungarians don’t care. I don’t know about the other embassies, but they were willing to accept photos in both the first and second versions. By the way, it says everywhere that there should be two photos, but for some reason they took only one from me – the one that is pasted on the application form.
The embassy’s website, in the FAQ section, states that a visa for Hungary for Russians in 2019 is issued if there is one (I would still take two) 3.5-by-4-color color photographs. It must have been made no more than six months ago.
Passport and Russian passport
Foreign passport (in the list of required documents is called a travel document). Here everything is simple: it must have at least two free pages, and the foreigner must be valid for three months after returning from the trip. Also, don’t forget to make a copy of your passport (main page and pages with previously issued Schengen visas, if any).
In principle, you will not need a Russian passport, but you must make copies of a certain number of pages (main, with registration, marital status, passport issuance information).
Financial information and health insurance
If you work, then you must take a certificate of income from work for the last three months. At the same time, it is not necessary to make a certificate in the form of 2-NDFL. It also does not matter in which language it will be: Russian or English.
I am often asked which salary should be stated in the certificate. I will answer like this: the more, the better, but seriously, I would not indicate a salary of less than 20 thousand rubles.
If you are not working or not formally employed, get a bank statement of cash flow for the last three months. This paper should show that money is occasionally received in your account.
Health insurance must be purchased with a minimum coverage of $ 30,000 or $ 50,000. You can buy it in the office of any insurance company and online. .
You can also buy insurance near the door of the embassy in Hungary – a minibus with the inscription “Insurance” is parked along the road. By the way, here you can make all the necessary copies of documents. According to readers, it doesn’t always pay off there.
Flight and accommodation certificate
And here everything is quite clear. Print the purchased airline tickets (return trip) or the confirmation that arrived in your mail after the purchase.
You must also print a hotel reservation. It is not necessary to pay in advance for the place of residence. Yeah, a couple of times things like this:
- I booked the first available hotels on Booking.com.
- I printed out the reservation for the embassy and handed in the documents.
- Later I chose the hotels and hostels (more thoroughly) in which I lived.
I will not urge you to follow my example, as the Hungarian Embassy warns that if the reservation of the declared hotels is canceled, the visa may also be canceled. To be honest, I’ve never heard of such incidents, but you still have to decide for yourself whether to take the risk or not.
A printed proof of renting an apartment on Airbnb is also suitable as proof of residence. On my last trips there I look for all the accommodation.
If you are not flying to Hungary, but traveling by car, then you can say in writing about your planned trip and submit documents for the car. Don’t forget the green card.
Consular fee
The consular fee is 35 euros. Moreover, you can pay it only in euros – the equivalent in rubles will not be accepted. For those who don’t know or forget it, there is an ATM of OTP banka in the consular department to help you exchange your wooden ones for the single European currency.
Once the entire package of documents for obtaining a Hungarian visa has been collected, all you have to do is wait for the selected date for their submission. How to get to the Hungarian Embassy in Moscow, and how to get to this country, I will tell you in the very near future.
Are you going to Budapest? I recommend that you first get to know the city with the help of a bus tour, and then try each of the sights of the Hungarian capital on your own.