Moving to Hungary from Ireland

Irish citizens can live in Hungary by right, under the free movement arrangements between the EU, EEA and Switzerland. A couple who both hold Irish passports do not need to qualify through a work, income or investment route, though registration and other local rules still apply. Check the official requirements before you move.

If one of you holds a different passport, that partner's position can differ. For people without a right of residence, our residency index rates Hungary 65/100 (comparatively open). Long-term residency is realistic mainly via the Guest Investor Program (a 10-year renewable residence-by-investment permit) or sponsored skilled employment, with a time-limited digital-nomad White Card covering self-funded remote earners.

For short visits, Irish passport holders can visit visa-free, according to the passport-index dataset. Short-stay entry covers visits; living there takes a residence permit or a right of residence.

Ranked by our match model for a typical couple who both hold Irish passports, using the preset answers of our best places to live list. Your own answers would change the order. We pick the cities, up to five, by how often English Wikipedia readers looked them up over the past year.

1. 1

   1. Budapest

   79% match

   Est. cost

   €2,810/mo

   Avg temp

   12°C

   Safety index

   72/100

2. 2

   2. Szeged

   77% match

   Est. cost

   €2,513/mo

   Avg temp

   13°C

   Safety index

   72/100

3. 3

   3. Debrecen

   77% match

   Est. cost

   €2,536/mo

   Avg temp

   12°C

   Safety index

   72/100

4. 4

   4. Székesfehérvár

   76% match

   Est. cost

   €2,468/mo

   Avg temp

   12°C

   Safety index

   72/100

Our estimate for a couple living centrally runs from €2,468 a month in Székesfehérvár to €2,810 in Budapest. For comparison, we estimate €4,127 a month in Dublin. Use these figures to compare places rather than to set a budget.

Hungary is in our low to medium tax tier (moderate personal income tax); Ireland is in our high tax tier (high personal income tax). Tiers describe each country's own income tax. They do not cover tax you may still owe in Ireland after you leave, or the treaty between the two countries, so check both with a tax adviser before you move.

• Best places to live in Eastern Europe
• Best cities for a couple on €2,500 a month
• Cheapest cities to live in Europe
• Easiest countries to move to
• Safest cities to live in Europe
• Best cities for a couple on €3,000 a month

• Moving to Hungary from the US
• Moving to Hungary from the UK
• Moving to Hungary from Canada
• Moving to Hungary from Australia
• Moving to Hungary from New Zealand

Every country and origin we cover

Every figure here comes from the datasets behind our city and country pages:

• Short-stay entry: the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT license), which records the entry rule for short visits on each passport.
• Residency index, routes and thresholds: the OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed against published immigration rules, figures as of June 2026. It is a summary, not legal advice.
• City ranking: our match model, the one behind the quiz, run with a typical couple's preset answers and both partners holding Irish passports. It ranks up to five of the country's best-known cities: of the cities in our quiz (100,000 people or more, capitals and a few towns movers seek out, such as Faro), the five most read about on English Wikipedia over the past year. It folds suburbs into their main city and leaves out countries with a residency index under 40 and areas under a US State Department Level 4 advisory, as our best-cities lists do.
• Costs: our cost model, a country-level cost-of-living index scaled for city size, from our city dataset (last rebuilt June 2026).
• Tax tiers: three coarse bands we assign by hand from each country's top marginal personal income tax rate and overall tax reputation.