Migrants without work permits coming from Serbia and Ukraine

In the last nine months the number of job roles that are open to non-EU citizens without a Hungarian work permit has risen by 20. Therefore we can meet Serbian shelf-stackers and Ukrainians working in customer service.

As reported by vg.hu, according to EU and Hungarian labour regulations, those coming from outside the EU can only work in Hungary if they receive a permit from a governmental bureau. New regulations had to be introduced due to Brexit, as British citizens will immediately qualify as non-EU nationals in the event of a no-deal scenario. However, Hungarian regulation makes an exception with non-EU countries bordering Hungary, in essence Serbia and Ukraine – those arriving from these countries do not need a work permit for certain positions.

In the last few years labour shortages have become a common occurrence in certain positions. Due to the low salaries they offer, companies are not able to find employees for some of their roles. In these instances they try to meet their demand by employing people from non-EU states.

From time to time, the Ministry of Finance reviews what positions are open to Serbian and Ukrainian citizens without a work permit – the type of job roles that are available has risen from 99 to 1119.