Working in Budapest for about a year

Hey everyone, I am new here, I'll just take a second to introduce myself. My name is Rachel, I am 18 years old and born and raised in British Columbia Canada. I have been to Hungary twice before, and Germany once. I have close family living in Hungary. I am interested in moving to Budapest, Hungary for September of 2006. For about a year. I was wondering if anyone had any information for me? I have been searching the internet but it is hard to find information I am looking for. Where would I get a working visa? How much would this be? What kind of jobs could I look for out there? Would that be hard to obtain one? I would be coming with my best friend who is 19, so we would share a small apartment and that would cut the cost in half. Anyone have any idea of apartment rental prices??
Thanks so much for your time!

Hey there!

I'm actually in Budapest right now, and probably will be for the next few months.

I definitely miss Canada though, being a BC boy myself. Anyways. Hanging out here is fun too

So about your questions. A good place to look for accommodation and jobs is www.budapestsun.com (english language newspaper here) and www.xpatloop.com.

Be wary with the job postings though - there's always some guy who posts jobs about working for his internet company for free accommodation, but it's a total scam. The other apartment rentals are pretty legit though.

Work permits can be hard to get, depending on what you wanna do. It's something you need to arrange when in Canada though. Try calling the hungarian consulate in Vancouver, the guy who I spoke with there is nice and can give you all the info you need.

There are a lot of foreign companies here so depending on what you wanna do it's worth looking into some of those. There are a few irish pubs where you can get away with speaking english only and probably work under the table.

Anyways I hope this helped a bit. I just flew back here last night, so I'm a little tired. Hard to believe the other day I was snowboarding in the Okanagan, and today I'm going for a walk on the Danube.

Good luck! Let me know if there's anything else I can help out with.

Cheers,
Matt

Hello Matt,
Thank you for your response, do you have an email address I can reach you at to ask some questions and discuss this with? or msn? Just let me know. I am pretty new so I don't know how to work this too well.. thanks!

Sure - info@canuckabroad.com

im planning on travelling around budapest march 2007 and the rest of eastern europe til august 2007. Perhaps ill get a few tips from you if you do end up going. good luck !

i have been researching this a lot. and i have come to realize that i cant even apply for a working visa until i have a job set and ready with a letter from my employer proving that i have a job. do you think it would just be easier if i didnt even apply for a work visa, and just got a temporary residential visa and worked under the table? plus i have been looking everywhere and it seems nearly impossible to get a job without actually being in Budapest. I am starting to lose hope in this!

Yeah they don't make it easy. You could try working under the table.

Personally it's probably better to not be in the system at all. You're good for 90 days whenever you enter the country, so after 90 days go spend the weekend in Vienna then come right back over. If you're working under the table anyways, there's no need to get a resident permit.

You could try getting a job at a few of the irish pubs. Becketts comes to mind, they might have a website you can check out.

Hi
Former resident of Gatineau-Quebec, now living in Hungary for about 2 and half years, having residence permit and even a nice little job, here in Pecs. My wife is hungarian and is taking care of a nice home-like hotel: http://www.hotel-kager.hu, located in Harkany, not far from Pecs.
If any of you, my dear fellow Canadians happend to head Hungary, Pecs, please let me know. My wife's hotel is having posted nice discount for canadians, me, I will offer you a beer. Cheers

Florin

my email: euflorin@yahoo.com

How important is a residency permit? Do they check your papers like they do in Spain all the time. I will not be working just living in Budapest.

No prob at all. It's difficult for them to keep track.

I almost had some trouble at the airport - One keener border guard looked at the date on my stamp and counted out three months exactly, then asked her buddy - Who had the typical Hungarian attitude of "Who care? Let him go".

That's the thing - most people really don't care. Some keeners might try to press the issue. I lived in Hungary for a year and constantly traveled back and forth between other countries, and never had a problem. THe only thing that would worry me is that I had a tonne of stamps from Hungary in my passport, and it's impossible for them to actually track any dates (stamps overtop of other stamps, poorly inked, etc). So while that helped many times, it also raised the suspicion level.

Anyways - Stick around in Budapest for a few months, hop over to Vienna for the weekend and come back and you're good for another 3 months.

The Hungarian consulate told me it was actually better to do that than deal with getting a visa!