Hungarian passport holders have needed a UK ETA since April 2025. Two years of validity, multiple entries, up to six months in Britain per visit — applied for online in minutes.
6 months
Maximum stay per visit
2 years
ETA validity
Multiple
Entries permitted
3 working days
Typical decision time
100% online
No embassy visit
Overview
Hungary's connection to Britain grew rapidly after EU accession in 2004, and the Hungarian community in the UK became one of the larger Central European populations there. Budapest and London are linked by a dense low-cost network, the traffic runs heavily in both directions, and the flow of family visits, work travel and city breaks is steady across the year.
Since April 2025 that journey has required an Electronic Travel Authorisation. Hungary remains firmly a non-visa country and nothing about what Hungarian citizens may do in Britain has changed — the ETA is a digital pre-travel permission applied for online and attached to the passport number. What is new is completing it before departure.
The mechanics are quick and undramatic. The application takes about ten minutes, is usually decided within them, and produces no document — the authorisation lives against your passport number. Wizz Air, Ryanair, British Airways, easyJet and Jet2 all check it before boarding, and a passenger without one is refused at the gate rather than dealt with on arrival.
At a glance
Eligibility
You do not need a visa, but you do need an ETA. Hungary is a non-visa national country for UK purposes, so Hungarian citizens travel to Britain as visitors for tourism, family visits, business, conferences or short courses without any consular application. The ETA precedes that permission and does not reduce it — the six months Hungarian visitors have always been allowed is unchanged.
Every traveller needs their own, at any age. Children and infants need an ETA linked to their own passport and cannot be added to a parent's application. Hungarian families visiting relatives in Britain need a separate authorisation for each person travelling.
The exemptions apply widely because of the size of the Hungarian community in Britain. Hungarian citizens holding a UK visa, settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, or indefinite leave to remain do not need an ETA, since their existing status carries the permission. Many Hungarians who moved to Britain before Brexit hold EUSS status, so check before paying.
The Hungarian személyi igazolvány no longer works for travel to Britain. It stopped being accepted in October 2021 for most travellers, so a passport is required and the ETA attaches to its number. Hungarian citizens with EU Settlement Scheme status are the exception and may still use an identity card.
Stay & validity
An approved ETA is valid for two years from the date it is granted, or until your Hungarian passport expires, whichever comes first. Within that window there is no limit on entries, and each visit can last up to six months. For families split between the two countries, one application covering two years of visits is a real simplification.
The passport-expiry rule is the one to check first. The ETA is bound to the passport number you enter and ends when that document does. Hungarian passports are issued for ten years for adults, five years for those under eighteen and three years for young children. Families applying together should check each expiry date individually rather than assuming a uniform two years.
Britain does not require six months of onward passport validity, only that the passport covers your stay. Hungarian travellers are used to the Schengen rule for third-country nationals and sometimes assume symmetry, but for a trip to Britain only the British requirement applies.
Six months per visit is the maximum for a single entry rather than an annual allowance. It matters most for Hungarians going to Britain for work — an ETA is a visitor permission and confers no right to work at all. Hungarians who worked in the UK under free movement and do not hold EU Settlement Scheme status now need an appropriate work visa. Nor can repeated visits substitute for residence, since Border Force considers entries cumulatively.
Pricing
Live fees for Hungarian passport holders, shown all-in — the Home Office charge and our service fee together, with nothing added later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Hungary
Requirements
Everything Hungarian passport holders need before starting an application. The first five items apply to every applicant; the rest are specific to your nationality.
Passport bio-data page — a clear colour scan or photo showing your photograph, full name, date of birth, passport number and expiry date
Recent digital photograph — full face visible against a plain background, taken within the last six months, with no headwear other than for religious or medical reasons
A valid email address, which is where the approval is sent and which you should keep accessible while travelling
A credit or debit card to pay the Home Office ETA fee and our service fee together
Your travel and accommodation details — Border Force can ask about the purpose of your visit and where you are staying
Simple process
Four steps, entirely online, with our team checking every field before anything reaches the Home Office.
Enter your passport details exactly as printed, answer the suitability questions and upload your photograph. Most applicants finish in under ten minutes.
Our team checks your photo, passport number, name spelling and declarations against Home Office requirements before anything is submitted.
Your application goes to UK Visas and Immigration with the government fee paid, and we track its status until a decision is issued.
There is no sticker, label or document to print. The authorisation is held digitally against your passport number, and we explain exactly what to show at check-in.
Applications from Hungary are decided automatically in the great majority of cases, and most applicants receive approval within minutes. The Home Office asks travellers to allow up to three working days, and a small proportion are referred for manual review, usually where a photograph fails the automated check.
Apply at least a week before travelling. The Budapest–UK routes are dense and inexpensive, so trips are frequently booked at short notice and last-minute applications are common. A photograph that fails the automated check turns an instant approval into a wait of up to three working days.
Many Hungarian routes to Britain operate at early or late hours to keep fares low — a dawn departure from Budapest or a midnight arrival at Luton. That leaves no margin at all if something needs resolving at check-in, which is a further reason to have the authorisation settled well ahead of the day itself.
On arrival
An approved ETA gets you on the plane. This is what happens once you land — and your nationality is one of those that can use the automated gates.
Your nationality is eligible to use the automated gates at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Edinburgh and most other UK ports, alongside British and Irish citizens. The gate reads your biometric passport chip and checks your ETA against it electronically.
Children aged 10 or 11 can use the gates when accompanied by an adult using them at the same time. Younger children must be seen at a staffed desk, so families with under-tens should join the officer queue together.
The gates do not stamp passports. Your arrival is recorded digitally, and your six-month permission runs from that date. Keep your boarding pass and booking confirmations if you need to evidence your arrival date later.
The gates refer a proportion of passengers to Border Force at random or where the chip does not read cleanly. This is routine, is not a sign of a problem with your ETA, and usually adds only a few minutes.
Getting there
Budapest has an extensive British network built largely by Wizz Air, whose home base it is, alongside Ryanair and the full-service carriers. Direct services reach London and a wide spread of UK regional airports, and Debrecen adds further options for eastern Hungary.
Best time to go
Hungarian visitors arrive from a continental climate into a maritime one, and the difference is starkest in the extremes — a British summer is far cooler than a Hungarian July, and a British winter far milder than a Hungarian January. Britain is wetter throughout and has considerably longer summer evenings in the north.
May, June and September are the strongest months for weather and value together. All three sit below the July and August peak in British prices, and September benefits from the end of the British school holidays while the weather in the south often holds into October.
The Hungarian school calendar offers useful counter-cyclical windows. The autumn and spring breaks both fall outside the British peak and are good times for a family city break. The long summer holiday from mid-June to the end of August overlaps heavily with the British peak, and Hungarian outbound fares rise at the same time as British prices do.
One practical note. Britain is one hour behind Hungary year-round, with both changing clocks on the same dates. Because so many Budapest–UK services fly at unsociable hours to keep costs down, allow more slack than the timetable suggests — and settle the ETA days rather than hours before a 5am departure.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Hungary — we check for every one of them before submitting.
Hungarian usage places the family name before the given name, and travellers routinely enter it that way. The ETA must follow the order printed in the machine-readable zone of the passport, which uses the international convention. Reversing it creates a mismatch between the authorisation and the travel document that an airline check can flag.
The Hungarian identity card has not been accepted for travel to Britain since October 2021. You need a passport, and the ETA is linked to that passport number. The exception is for Hungarian citizens with EU Settlement Scheme status, who may still use an identity card and need no ETA at all.
Free movement ended with Brexit. Hungarians who worked in Britain previously and do not hold EU Settlement Scheme status cannot return and work on an ETA — it is a visitor permission only. Arriving as a visitor intending to take a job is grounds for refusal at the border.
The ETA must match the machine-readable zone, where á, é, í, ó, ö, ő, ú, ü and ű are stripped to plain Latin letters. Entering the accented characters, or confusing ő with ö in the transliteration, causes a mismatch at the gate.
Many Budapest–UK services fly at dawn or late at night to keep fares low. A photograph rejected by the automated check means a wait of up to three working days, and an early departure leaves no margin whatsoever to resolve anything.
Many Hungarians who moved to Britain before Brexit hold settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme. That status already carries permission to travel and an ETA is neither required nor useful. Check before applying.
Passport number mistyped
By far the most common problem. The authorisation attaches to the number you enter, so a single wrong character produces an ETA that does not exist as far as the airline's check is concerned.
An undeclared conviction or refusal
The Home Office asks about criminal convictions and previous immigration refusals or removals. History found later is treated far more seriously than the original matter would have been if declared.
A photograph that fails the check
Shadows across the face, glasses, a patterned background or a cropped chin all cause the automated check to reject an image, which turns a routine approval into a manual review.
Conditions
These conditions are set by the UK Home Office and do not vary by nationality. The passport-linking rule in particular catches out a great many otherwise well-planned trips.
Your authorisation is held digitally against the passport number you enter. There is nothing placed in your passport and nothing to print for the border. If you renew or replace that passport, the ETA does not transfer — you must apply for a new one on the new document.
Every person travelling needs their own ETA, including babies and children. A child cannot be added to a parent's application, and each traveller needs their own valid passport to apply against.
An approved ETA lasts two years from the date it is granted, or until the expiry date of the passport it is linked to, whichever comes first. This is the single most misunderstood rule in the scheme — a passport with eight months left produces an ETA with eight months left.
Within its validity you can travel to the UK as many times as you like. Each individual visit can be up to six months. There is no formal annual cap, but repeated long stays that add up to the majority of the year will attract questions at the border.
One ETA covers England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and it is also accepted for travel to Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. You do not need a separate authorisation for the Crown Dependencies.
An ETA lets you board your flight, train or ship. The decision to admit you is made by Border Force on arrival, who can ask about your funds, your accommodation, your onward plans and the purpose of your visit.
Consular services
The United Kingdom maintains an embassy in Budapest, but it plays no part in issuing an ETA. The application is completed online and decided digitally — there is no interview, no appointment and no passport submission. The embassy handles consular assistance, visa routes where an ETA is not appropriate, and support for applicants whose circumstances require a human decision.
FAQs
The questions Hungarian passport holders ask most often about travelling to the United Kingdom.
No. Hungarian citizens do not need a visa for tourism, business visits, short study or transit in the United Kingdom. Since April 2025 they do need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), a digital permission linked to the passport rather than a visa. It is applied for online in about ten minutes and usually approved the same day.
No. Follow the order printed in the machine-readable zone at the bottom of your passport photo page, which uses the international convention of given name first. Entering the name in Hungarian order is a common error and creates a mismatch between the ETA and the passport that the airline check can flag.
In most cases no. The Hungarian identity card has not been accepted for travel to Britain since October 2021, and you need a passport. The exception is for Hungarian citizens with EU Settlement Scheme status, who may continue to use an identity card — and who do not need an ETA at all.
No. Free movement ended with Brexit, and the ETA is a visitor permission that confers no right to work in the UK labour market. Hungarians who worked in Britain previously and do not hold EU Settlement Scheme status need an appropriate work visa. Arriving as a visitor intending to find a job is grounds for refusal at the border.
Up to six months per visit. The ETA is valid for two years, or until your Hungarian passport expires if that is sooner, and permits unlimited entries within that period. Six months is a per-visit maximum rather than an annual allowance.
No. Hungarian citizens with settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, indefinite leave to remain, or a valid UK visa do not need an ETA. Your existing status already carries permission to travel, so applying would be money spent unnecessarily.
Yes. Every traveller needs an ETA regardless of age, including babies, and each is linked to that person's own passport. Children cannot be added to a parent's application. Hungarian passports run for five years for under-eighteens and three years for young children, so check each expiry date — the ETA ends when the passport does.
Yes. Hungarian citizens, like all EU nationals, are eligible for the automated ePassport gates at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Edinburgh and most other UK ports, provided the passport is biometric and the traveller is aged 10 or over. Children aged 10 and 11 must be accompanied by an adult using the gates at the same time.
Only for courses lasting up to six months, such as a summer school or a short language programme. An academic year, a full degree or an exchange running beyond six months requires a Student visa applied for from Hungary before travel. You cannot switch from within the UK after arriving on an ETA.
Yes. A single ETA covers the entire United Kingdom and is also accepted for Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. There are no internal immigration checks between the four nations, so a trip combining London and Edinburgh needs only one authorisation.
Your nationality is already set to Hungary. Complete the form in under ten minutes, and our team will check every detail before it reaches the Home Office.
Other nationalities
Requirements, routes and border formalities differ by passport. Here are the guides for other eligible nationalities.
