If you are looking for an EU passport, you might start by taking a look at your family tree. Many EU countries offer citizenship if one or more of your ancestors were local citizens. The procedure varies country by country, meaning not only requirements but also processing time.
If you were not born a Hungarian citizen but acquired Hungarian citizenship through naturalization, the short answer is: yes, your Hungarian citizenship can be revoked. However, that can happen only under special conditions. If you did everything correctly, and especially if you live in Hungary, you have very little to worry about during a citizenship check.
If you are applying for Hungarian citizenship based on ancestry, there is a chance that your ancestor was not born in present-day Hungary. This is because the territory of Hungary shrank significantly after World War I, whereas its predecessor, Austria-Hungary sprawled over most of Central Europe. If your ancestor identified as Hungarian, however, you may still qualify for citizenship without problems.
Family names reflect that a certain set of people belongs together. In Hungary, children traditionally wear their fathers’ family name, while women also often change their name upon getting married. Knowledge about how this works may come in handy not only when preparing for your life in Hungary, but also when researching family documents for your citizenship application.
If you are applying for Hungarian citizenship based on your ancestry, you will need the right documents to prove your eligibility. Should you need help obtaining them, worry not: as part of our genealogy research service, a trusted partner of ours can dig through archives to find every available document to support your application.
The current Hungarian Citizenship Act was accepted in 2010, and it grants citizenship to everyone with Hungarian descendants. Since the new Act came into force, more than 1 million people received Hungarian citizenship, and there are many more eligible.