As of 1st March, entry rules for commercial and business travelling from and to Hungary have significantly been amended.
As a general rule, a Hungarian citizen entering the border may be subjected to a medical examination by the authority and, depending on its result, must be quarantined at home or in official custody for 10 days. As a general rule, a non-Hungarian citizen may not enter the border, from which the police could grant an exemption upon request if certain circumstances are proved. In addition to this general rule, the decree laid down special rules that, inter alia, generally allowed for business entry of foreigners and the return of Hungarian citizens from a business trip and in both cases, persons were exempt from the quarantine obligation.
As of 1st of March, however, the general rule in the case of commercial or business trips is that Hungarian citizens shall be quarantined upon their return and the entry of a foreign citizen may be permitted upon an individual decision. Nonetheless, entry and return for business purposes are still possible without restrictions if the country of destination of the Hungarian citizen or the country of origin of a foreign businessman is
- an EU Member State, an EEA Member State or a state with the same status,
- an EU candidate country,
- the United Kingdom, or
- one of the states specified in the decree of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, such as India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, China, South-Korea, Russia or Turkey.
We would like to draw your attention to an important detail. In the case of a Hungarian citizen, the trip must take place from Hungary and they may not enter a country other than the aforesaid states during their travels if they wish to be exempted from the medical examination and quarantine. (The decree on travel restrictions regards persons with permanent residence in Hungary as Hungarian citizens.)
It is essential for both Hungarian and non-Hungarian citizens to have plausible documentation of commercial or business travel. If there is any doubt at the border crossing regarding the authenticity of the certificates, then Hungarian citizens may face a medical examination and eventually a 10-day quarantine at home or in official custody while non-Hungarian citizens may face refusal of entry, following which it would be only possible for them to request entry based on one of the narrow and probably non-existent, justifiable general reasons, if the police allow it.
Finally, it is important to mention that the special rules for travel between affiliated companies have remained unchanged, so executives or employees of affiliated companies can come from any country or return to Hungary after visiting an affiliated company in any country.