What can I visit if I am a foreigner not having a Hungarian immunity certificate?

One of our readers drew our attention to the flaws in the Immunity certificate system. What would be the right solution? Is a PCR test a valid substitute? We asked different institutions about their policies.

The commenter left us the following feedback:

Last week we visited Hungary for business reasons. We booked two Hotels for three days and additional two days at another location. We provided Corona antibody test documents, translated to Hungarian by a government certified translator. We entered Hungary without any trouble. We received a call from the second Hotel that the booking has to be cancelled if we do not provide a plastic COVID immunity certificate card. Unfortunately, it was not possible to get one. Therefore, we left Hungary earlier than scheduled and could not meet some of our business partners. Additionally, the visit to a Museum was refused because we did not have the certificate card. It seems Hungary is not interested in businesses.

– they wrote in their comment.

You can pass the border currently with two negative PCR tests taken within three days or an immunity certificate from a few specific countries. But what about the different services? The legally appropriate universal protocol would be the following: The Hungarian immunity card is obviously accepted everywhere and based on a unity, these following countries’ certificates are acceptable: Serbia, Bahrain, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Turkey, Croatia and the Czech Republic.

But what does the implementation look like in practice? We were able to reach the following institutions by phone, and this was our experience.

Museums: Hungarian National Museum

To our question, whether only a Hungarian plastic card or a foreign immunity card is accepted, we received the answer that yes, only Hungarian card are accepted. Still, the minors they accompany may also enter. They definitely went for security.

Baths: Széchenyi Bath

In the Széchenyi Bath, Czech, Turkish, Slovenian, Northern Macedonian and Bahraini passes are also accepted in addition to Hungarian. In this case, a couple of countries were missing, but the trend is at least good. We didn’t ask for a specific country, and it sounded like they were reciting the countries by heart, so we have to give them that.

Zoo: Budapest Zoo

Here, passes from Bahrain, Montenegro, Serbia and Croatia are accepted. Again, some countries have been left out, but now different ones – which is why we assume that incomplete information is not the cause of the problem. The situation is simply chaotic and not of priority.

Accommodation: Mystery Hotel

When asked, we were told that they had not yet received such a question. The gentleman went over to his colleague to ask what the current status was but eventually said they would accept it if the person asking for the room were on a business trip. What exactly does this mean? Good question.

Restaurants: Kata Restaurant

Here, too, the reaction was that they had not yet received this question. The discussion was audible over the phone, and the answer was yes… What sort of countries are accepted, however, was not clear.

The assumption thus proved to be true. The situation is chaotic. It has become clear that the lack of an Immunity certificate paralyses you in the current state of thing, so without it, there is not much to do right now, not even in possession of two negative PCR tests.

It is possible that the correct information is not available easily or is simply not a priority for the institutions. One thing is for sure: a preliminary phone call will not hurt.

Source: kormany.hu, tasz.hu, koronavirus.gov.hu