How to fill out and apply for Subject Access Request (SAR) in Hungary?

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Accepted answer

  1. The Hungarian National Authority for Data Protection and Freedom of Information has a form in Hungarian which requests data handled and everything related from whoever is handling that data.

  2. In the long stay process PDF says

    If requested by the applicant, the consulate and the Office for Immigration and Nationality within its jurisdiction shall provide information regarding his/her data on record, unless the Aliens Act prohibits the disclosure of such data.

    This also happens to be in the privacy act.

Beyond this? spreads arms There is nothing. The common webpage for consulates (there's where the long stay process PDF is from) has no privacy policy which is somewhat understandable because it's just an informational webpage.

But if you go to the Office of Immigration and Nationality page and click the Privacy link on the bottom of the page, that just stays on the page. There's no privacy policy in Hungarian either, in clear breach of the law (check Annex 1, about what should be disclosured, the privacy policies are in the second table, first row) but it's Hungary, what are you going to do?

In short: you can try lodging the form linked in 1. above at the embassy where you have asked for a visa and try your luck. I have sincere doubt anything will happen since the immigration office can't even be bothered to keep the law to the extent of publishing a privacy policy, can you imagine them bothering with individual requests?

After that, you could lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Authority again in 1. and theoretically they might enforce a ruling but I am not holding my breath against one part of the Hungarian government ruling against another part. That'd be a surprise.

Finally, you could sue the Office of Immigration and Nationality for not publishing a privacy policy and/or not handling your information request at a competent jurisdiction -- which is probably this one -- and this should be a slam dunk, there is still some independence left. However, the cost and effort of suing the government will be considerable, almost certainly will take longer than a year and thousand(s) of euros. You might also find it challenging to find a lawyer who is willing to take this on because the government made the anti-migration stance an important and polarizing political issue and also this government is known to be petty and vindictive even in much smaller issues. For these reasons, I would recommend the Bárándy & Co. Lawyer's Office as they already gave a minister of justice and an MP to the opposition, they have nothing to lose so to speak and quite likely to actually welcome the political possibilities...

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