Hungary is a realistic move from Ukraine if you match a residence route to your situation early. The short version: a one-bedroom rents for about €600 a month in the bigger cities, typical net salaries run around €1,100, personal taxes sit at 15% flat, and permanent residence usually takes about 5 years of legal stay. Here is how the move actually works for Ukrainian citizens.
Getting in: your route options
As Ukrainian citizens you can enter visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180, which makes scouting trips easy. Living in Hungary is a separate matter: you need a residence permit tied to a reason.
- Remote work: Hungary runs the White Card, income bar around €3,000/mo, 1 year, renewable once. Straightforward program; time on the White Card does not count toward permanent residence.
- Work: a job offer plus a work permit; for higher-paid qualified roles ask employers about the EU Blue Card, which speeds up residence across most of the bloc.
- Study: university admission converts into a student permit, usually with part-time work rights and a post-graduation job-seeker option.
- Family and ancestry: joining an EU spouse or partner, or claiming citizenship by descent if you have an EU-citizen parent or grandparent.
What life in Hungary costs
Budget roughly €600 for a one-bed plus about €780 for essentials and transport, per person. English friendliness scores 55/100 here.
Healthcare here rates 62/100 in this model and everyday safety 78/100, while public transport comes in at 70/100.
Paperwork is the hard part: Hungary scores 65/100 for bureaucratic friction, so budget real time for registrations and appointments.
The rental market has real competition (55/100) but is manageable with planning.
The local language (HU) is one of the harder ones to pick up, rated 20/100, which is worth knowing if residence later requires a language test.
Coming from Ukraine, one thing worth knowing early: Hungary has a moderate Russian and Ukrainian speaking community, mostly concentrated in the capital.
What you would pay in tax
If you keep earning from abroad and register as self-employed, Hungary charges flat-rate taxation (atalanyado) with 40/80/90% notional cost ratios; kata now heavily restricted, plus 18.5% + 13% szocho on the reduced base.
The notional-cost ratios make modest freelance incomes very lightly taxed.
Hungary is workable but not built around remote earners, rated 68/100. The full picture, including the company route and the special regimes, is on the taxes in Hungary page, and the take-home index ranks all 27 countries on what actually reaches your account.
The long game
Permanent residence in Hungary takes about 5 years of legal residence, and citizenship about 8 years from arrival, subject to language and integration requirements. If an EU passport is part of your plan, weigh this timeline against neighbouring countries before you commit.