What to expect at the Hungarian citizenship exam?

There is an exam every month in Budapest

The Hungarian citizenship exam has both a written and an oral part. As a result, you will be required to take the exam in person, at a Budapest location. There is an exam every month, so you can easily find a date that will work for you. 25 people may be seated at each time on a first come, first served basis, so make sure to apply for the preferred date in time, but 5 working days before the exam the latest.

You will be able to apply for the exam in email. There is an application form you should fill in with your personal data on your computer, then you should print it and sign it in blue ink. Then you should scan the form and send it in an email to the relevant authority at kepzes.budapest@bfkh.gov.hu. You will receive a yellow check, through which you can pay the exam fee at any post office.

The exam fee is half the monthly minimum wage, so HUF 116,000 in 2023. If you fail and need to take a repeat exam, the exam fee is only half of the original fee, currently HUF 58,000. Please note: the minimum wage in Hungary is increased yearly, so expect an increased exam fee from January.

If you are already our client and you have purchased the comprehensive citizenship application package from Helpers, the cost of your first attempt is covered by our service fee.

Exam topics in a nutshell

The Hungarian citizenship exam has 40 topics: 20 about history, and 20 about public administration. These topics come in pairs, so when you get assigned a topic to talk or write about, in reality you get one history and one public administration topic.

• A: The history topic covers the history of the people of Hungary from the arrival to the Carpathian Basin to very recent times, including topics like Hungarian membership in the EU and various international organizations.
• B: The public administration topic covers a wide range of subjects, such as general and municipal elections, human rights, or the working of legislation and the justice system.

The Hungarian citizenship exam has two parts: a written and an oral part. In the written part, you have 60 minutes to write about a history and a public administration topic. You do not have to write an essay, an outline is enough. However, make sure it is legible as well as coherent.

In the oral part, you get assigned an exam topic and you are expected to talk about it in detail. Once your topic is assigned, you have 30 minutes to write an outline of both the A and B (history and public administration) component, which you can use for notes when you face the exam committee.

The language of the exam is Hungarian. You can find the list of topics here.

Prepare for the constitutional studies exam

You can learn the exam topics from a textbook that you can buy from the relevant authority or in various book shops.

• Author: Mária Ugróczky
• Title: Alkotmányos alapismeretek (Constitutional studies 101)
• Edition: 7^th edition, 2018

When you apply for the Hungarian citizenship exam, you can also indicate that you would like to participate in a preparatory course. This is a one-day course, held usually about 2 weeks before each exam. Participation is free of charge, but the number of participants is limited, so make sure to register in time to fit within the limit of 15 pupils.

Learn Hungarian first

Since the language of the exam is Hungarian, you will be required to speak at least conversational Hungarian (level B2 according to the CEFR scale). You might already be at that level if you have been living in Hungary for some time, but you will also need some specialized vocabulary, since history and public administration might not come up regularly in conversation.

To help our clients take a successful exam, the language courses we offer through are experienced partners also cover the topics of the Hungarian citizenship exam to make sure you get some practice on those areas of expertise too.

Get expert help from Helpers

Our colleagues at Helpers have assisted with hundreds of successful citizenship applications over the years. While normally we focus on acquiring Hungarian citizenship through ancestry, our scope of activities includes regular naturalization as well. We offer consultation on what to expect, assistance with compiling the application package, and even with language courses.

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