Hungary’s foreign ministry has accused officials from Viktor Orbán’s former government of turning a discretionary citizenship route into a paid service for wealthy foreigners, most reportedly Canadian, who allegedly had no Hungarian roots and did not meet normal residence or language requirements.
György László Velkey, parliamentary state secretary and deputy foreign minister, made the allegations on June 16. He said the cases involved államérdekből történő honosítás, or naturalization in the national interest.
Under Act LV of 1993, Hungary’s President may grant citizenship on this basis after a submission from the relevant minister. The route can waive ordinary residence and language requirements and is intended for exceptional cases serving Hungary’s national interest.
Velkey alleges that this mechanism was used as a paid product.
Alleged citizenship-for-cash model
The most specific allegation concerns Hungarian Citizenship Consulting, a Canadian private company under Hungarian ownership.
According to Velkey, the company managed applicants for a fee. He alleged that one of its principals also held an official post responsible for state naturalization programs, an appointment he connected to Gulyás’s ministry.
He also said the company’s co-director was a diaspora leader whose recommendation letters were cited by Hungarian missions when accepting applications.
Velkey estimated intermediary fees at 30,000 to 50,000 Canadian dollars, approximately US$22,000 to US$36,000. He described this range as coming from the ministry’s internal review, not as a documented tariff.
No recipients were named, and the fee figures rest on Velkey’s account.
Former officials named in the allegations
Velkey extended the accusations to two figures from Orbán’s cabinet.
He alleged that former deputy prime minister Zsolt Semjén repeatedly signaled support for national-interest naturalizations to diaspora leaders, and that consulates relied on those endorsements when accepting files.
He also said the cases moved through the ministry then led by Péter Szijjártó.
Velkey argued that the former government’s sovereignty rhetoric concealed the protection of private interests, business circles and allies. He described the citizenship findings as part of a broader ministry audit that continues to identify irregularities.
Fidesz has rejected the ministry’s accusations regarding diplomatic passports and says those passports were issued lawfully. Neither the party nor the named former officials had publicly responded to the citizenship-for-cash allegations in the source article.
Diplomatic passport audit
The citizenship allegations followed a wider review that began with diplomatic passports.
Velkey said roughly 1,500 diplomatic passports were issued at Szijjártó’s discretion, compared with 100 to 200 in earlier cycles.
The current government reportedly intends to revoke close to 1,000 of them.
According to the allegations, recipients included:
- politicians’ relatives;
- sports officials;
- foreigners connected to the former government through business.
Previous scrutiny of national-interest naturalization
One national-interest citizenship grant had already attracted attention before the change of government.
Hilarion Alfeyev, a Russian Orthodox metropolitan then based in Budapest, reportedly obtained Hungarian citizenship through the route despite having no known Hungarian roots.
Officials did not explain what national interest his case served. Reports cited in the article also said he was detained in the Czech Republic in May in a separate matter.
Hungary’s broader citizenship vulnerability
Citizenship without residence is not unusual in Hungary.
Since 2010, Hungary has naturalized more than one million people of Hungarian descent living abroad, many without ever residing in Hungary.
That mass descent-based program has previously raised fraud concerns. In 2022, the United States restricted visa-waiver access for Hungarian citizens born outside Hungary, citing fraud concerns.
The new allegations come as the European Union is already opposed to the sale of EU member-state citizenship. In April 2025, the European Court of Justice struck down Malta’s citizenship-by-investment program.
Industry warning on discretionary citizenship
Adam Juchniewicz, CEO of Bitcitizen LLC, said backroom passport grants to people with no connection to a country undermine legitimate investor migration programs.
He argued that citizenship is only as secure as the process that granted it. A citizenship acquired through a transparent statutory process is more durable, while one obtained through a discretionary backdoor may become a revocable liability.
Possible revocation risk
Hungarian law allows the President to revoke citizenship obtained by fraud, based on a ministerial submission.
Velkey said the ministry is assessing whether the disputed grants qualify for revocation.
He also said the Canadian files may not be the end of the matter, suggesting similar arrangements could exist in other countries.
Source article: www.imidaily.com
