Hungary investment project permits: group approval and the hatósági ígérvény

The residence permit issued for the purpose of carrying out an investment rests on sections 24 and 27 of Act XC of 2023 on the entry and stay of third country nationals, known as the Harmtv. The employer first obtains an official undertaking, the hatósági ígérvény, from the minister responsible for investments, and only then do the individual worker files run at the National Directorate General for Aliens Policing.

What the hatósági ígérvény is

The hatósági ígérvény is Hungary's group level, advance approval. Under section 24 of the Harmtv., a permit issued for the purpose of carrying out an investment requires the employer delivering that investment to hold an undertaking from the minister responsible for investments confirming that a stated number of third country workers may be employed on the project. The undertaking attaches to the project and to a headcount ceiling, not to a named worker.

Two things change compared with the ordinary case by case route. First, the labour market judgement moves up to project level: the ministry weighs whether the investment justifies foreign headcount, rather than whether one welder matches one advertised vacancy. Second, the per worker files that follow move faster, because they share one legal basis, one annex list and a headcount question that has already been settled.

For the employer this means the schedule is planned backwards from the undertaking. Until the minister responsible for investments has decided, an application filed with the National Directorate General for Aliens Policing is missing the annex that holds the legal basis together. An employer who assembles the worker documents first and approaches the ministry afterwards queues twice for the same start date.

Employer duties: accommodation and departure

The legal basis carries two duties that investment employers routinely underestimate.

Section 26 of the Harmtv. ties accommodation to the investment site and sets housing separated from the local population as a condition for workers employed to carry out the investment. This is not the general adequate housing test familiar from the guest worker routes. Here the accommodation is attached to the project site, and the employer maintains it for the whole duration of the investment.

Section 27 (1) of the Harmtv. makes the employer responsible for the worker leaving the country within six days of the employment relationship ending. Those six days are calendar days and they run from the end of the employment relationship, not from the closing of the project. On a twenty five person ceiling where every contract expires on the same date, that is a twenty five person departure operation inside a single week, with booked flights and valid travel documents. The common failure mode appears here: the investment slips, the employer terminates the contracts early, part of the passports are at an embassy for renewal, and the six day deadline expires through no fault the employer can fix in time.

The defence is mechanical. Require at least six months of passport validity on the planned project closing date for every worker in the ceiling, and set the termination date only after the departure is booked, never before.

How it compares with the other Hungarian routes

The three routes are not interchangeable. The investment route exists where there is an identifiable investment and a ministerial undertaking behind it; there is no variant in which a general labour shortage earns a headcount ceiling. Where a project does not reach that threshold, the per worker path remains, and its mechanics are set out in our posts on the guest worker residence permit and the National Card.

On cost, the administrative service fee for the residence permit application stays the main line item in the worker stage and is payable according to the fee schedule of the National Directorate General for Aliens Policing. The undertaking is a separate procedure on the project side, and its duration depends on how well documented the investment is, so file the investment contracts, the site data and the headcount plan with the first submission rather than in rounds.

If you are planning third country headcount for a Hungarian investment, the starting points are the undertaking and the housing, not the recruitment. Comparing the project site, the planned headcount and the construction schedule shows which route protects the start date.