I have known Brenda since 2022, and it took me far too long to learn that she is a qualified lawyer from Chile. This year she decided to start a business in Hungary, a Korean skincare shop called Areumi Lab. Her story answers a question I hear at almost every event: can foreigners start a business in Hungary? Often, yes, and without switching to the guest self-employment permit, as long as your current residence status allows the work. Brenda did it on a family reunification permit. I should have asked her sooner.

I have lived and worked in Hungary since 2017, run my own business here, and cover permits, tax and Hungarian admin every week on HOW TO HUNGARY. The permit and registration details below come from OIF, NAV and the EU Immigration Portal, checked in October 2026. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.

Two Questions People Mix Up

Being self-employed in Hungary and holding a guest self-employment permit are two separate things. One is how you register and pay tax. The other is an immigration category built for people whose business is the reason they live here. Most people I meet assume they need the second to start a business in Hungary. Many don’t.

If your family life is the real reason you live here, my guide to self-employment on a family permit walks through that route in detail. Which brings me back to Brenda.

Why She Chose Korean Skincare

Brenda Craig moved from Chile to Budapest in May 2022. She lives here on a family reunification permit, and in 2026 she launched Areumi Lab, an online shop for Korean skincare.

“I didn’t come here with the original plan of becoming a K-beauty entrepreneur,” she told me. “After living in Hungary for several years, I wanted to build something of my own here.”

She had followed K-beauty for years before she thought of selling it. What drew her in was the variety of Korean brands and “the way skincare is approached as a routine rather than just individual products.” The shop reflects that. It is small on purpose: Anua, Beauty of Joseon, Biodance, SKIN1004, Medicube and AXIS-Y, chosen by one person who uses them, plus a handful of ready-made bundles.

When I checked the site this month, the Anua Heartleaf 77 toner was on sale at 5,490 Ft, and a Beauty of Joseon sheet mask was 790 Ft. The whole site switches between Hungarian and English. That is more important than it sounds. Working out the difference between an essence and a toner is hard enough without doing it in your third language.

Brenda does everything herself: choosing products, working with suppliers, packing orders and answering customers. It is a small business in the most literal sense, and that is the point.

“I’m not trying to compete with large beauty retailers,” she says. “I want it to feel like discovering a small K-beauty shop where the products have been selected by someone who genuinely loves them.”

What It Takes to Start a Business in Hungary

To start a business in Hungary as a foreign resident, you confirm your residence status allows the work, register as a sole trader or set up a company, and choose a tax scheme with an accountant before your first invoice. Registering as an egyéni vállalkozó is free, and most residents file online through NAV. Third-country nationals sometimes have to start in person at a Government Office instead. That is the textbook version. Brenda’s version had more Hungarian in it.

Everyday Hungarian gets you through the market, the pharmacy and a chat with the neighbours. Business Hungarian is its own dialect: átalányadó, számla, iparűzési adó, TEÁOR. Brenda had lived here for four years when she started, and the language was still her biggest hurdle.

“I can manage many things in everyday life,” she says, “but dealing with official information, administrative procedures, regulations and business-related terminology is a completely different level. Sometimes even understanding exactly what you are supposed to do can take a lot more time.” Anyone who has spent an afternoon on a single Hungarian government form will recognise that.

Then came everything that sits behind a shop window. Taxes and invoicing. Product regulations. Suppliers and imports. Payment methods, delivery and packaging. “Figuring out how everything fits together in Hungary,” as Brenda puts it, was its own learning curve.

And then the market itself. “It’s one thing to know what you personally like,” she says, “and another thing to understand what customers in Hungary are looking for, which brands they already know, what they are willing to pay for and how they prefer to shop.”

Here is the order I would do it in, based on Brenda’s experience and the people I meet at events:

1. Check your residence status first. Ask whether it allows the activity you plan. OIF answers that question, not NAV.
2. Decide between sole trader and company. A sole trader is personally liable for business debts. A company (Kft.) costs more to set up but separates you from the business.
3. Find an accountant who explains things in a language you understand. It is the best money most people spend in year one.
4. Choose your tax scheme before the first invoice. Many small sole traders use the flat-rate átalányadó. The VAT-exempt threshold for 2026 is HUF 20 million. The [KATA proposal for 2027](PLACEHOLDER: verify slug for KATA 2027 post) could change the picture for some, but it is not law yet.
5. Check the rules for what you sell. Consulting has very few. Cosmetics have plenty.

Every Jar Needs Some Hungarian

If you start a business in Hungary selling cosmetics, you take on product rules that a consultant or a designer never meets. Under EU cosmetics law, whoever imports a product into the EU becomes its “responsible person”, answerable for its safety and paperwork. Hungary adds its own layer: Government Decree 246/2013 requires key label information, including the contents, the use-by date, the precautions and what the product does, to appear in Hungarian.

Brenda chose the practical route. “I import my products through EU-based suppliers and distributors,” she told me, “which makes it easier to manage the logistics and requirements for selling in Hungary.” For a one-person shop, that is a smart call. When the supplier is already inside the EU, someone earlier in the chain usually carries the importer’s responsibilities, which leaves Brenda free to focus on choosing products and looking after customers.

This is the part of a business idea nobody sees from the outside. It is also the part that decides whether the idea survives its first year.

Qualifications Don’t Always Travel

A Chilean law degree does not let you practise law in Hungary. Neither do many other foreign qualifications, at least not without years of recognition, exams and professional-level Hungarian. So a lot of capable people here work outside their training for a while, sometimes for years. I meet them at almost every event I host.

Brenda found another way in. She built something that did not need her degree recognized. That is a version of integration we rarely talk about. We measure it by language classes, address cards and TAJ numbers. Sometimes it looks like a woman packing orders of Korean sunscreen in Budapest and invoicing in Hungarian.

She put it better than I can. “You have to learn not only how to run a business, but also how to navigate a completely different system, culture and language. It can be challenging, but it also gives you a different perspective and makes the process feel very rewarding when you see the business start to take shape.”

Related Reads and Helpful Resources

If you plan to start a business in Hungary, these three posts from the same Bureaucracy and Admin cluster are the place to begin.

• Can You Be Self-Employed on a Family Permit in Hungary? explains the exact route Brenda used and the permit people confuse it with.
• Tax ID Hungary 2026: A Guide to the T34 Form covers the tax number you need before you can register or invoice.
• KATA 2027 in Hungary looks at the draft that could reopen KATA to part-timers and company clients.

For official information, start with NAV for tax and sole-trader registration, OIF for what your residence status allows, and NNGYK if you plan to sell cosmetics.

Questions People Actually Ask

Can a foreigner start a business in Hungary? Yes, if your immigration status allows the activity and you complete the business registration. EU citizens can generally register freely. Third-country nationals need a residence status that covers self-employment, such as a family reunification permit. Living here legally does not, on its own, mean every type of business is allowed, so confirm your status with OIF or a lawyer before you register.

Do I need a guest self-employment permit to be self-employed in Hungary? Not necessarily. Guest self-employment is an immigration category for people whose business is the main reason they live in Hungary. If you already hold another permit that allows self-employment, you can usually register as an egyéni vállalkozó without changing it. Switching has real costs: the guest permit caps at three years and blocks the national residence card.

Can I run a business on a family reunification permit in Hungary? Usually, yes. The EU Immigration Portal lists family reunification as a status that allows registration as a self-employed entrepreneur in Hungary. A family permit does not automatically allow salaried employment, which is a separate question. Confirm your own case before you register, especially if your sponsor holds a work, guest worker or study permit.

Do I need to speak Hungarian to start a business in Hungary? No, but it makes everything harder. Registration forms, NAV letters, invoicing rules and product regulations all arrive in Hungarian. Most people who manage without fluent Hungarian rely on an accountant who explains obligations in English or their own language. Budget for that from the start rather than treating it as optional.

What extra rules apply if I sell cosmetics in Hungary? Cosmetics fall under EU product safety law and Hungarian labelling rules. Whoever imports a product into the EU becomes its responsible person, and Government Decree 246/2013 requires key label details in Hungarian. The National Center for Public Health and Pharmacy (NNGYK) supervises cosmetics. Check these rules before you order stock, not after it arrives.

A Small Shop for the Gift List

Long before we moved to Hungary, I paid for a monthly box of Korean skincare in Toronto. Opening it was the best part of the month. I knew a decent sheet mask long before I knew what a TAJ card was. So when Brenda told me what she was building, I understood exactly why.

I have ordered from Areumi Lab myself, and everything arrived quickly. Being me, I went for one of her bundles, because I still cannot resist trying something new. The selection is small, but every product in it is lovely, and the Beauty of Joseon Revive Eye Serum, with ginseng and retinal, has become one of my favourites.

October is when the Christmas lists start, and this year I am adding a few small Hungarian shops run by people who chose to build something here. Areumi Lab is on mine, and Brenda has put together a few Christmas bundles for anyone who would rather give a whole routine than a single jar.

And if you are the one wondering whether to start a business in Hungary yourself, my ebook HOW TO HUNGARY: Budapest & Beyond covers the permits, tax numbers and paperwork I wish someone had handed me in 2017.

For transparency: this is not a sponsored post. Brenda did not pay me to write it. I am sharing it because I have known her for years, I like her products, and I think her story is worth telling.