Client story
Client's Story
Where they started
Artem came to Hungary to study - an ordinary student with an ordinary student visa, which is granted for the duration of studies and expires upon completion. Upon graduation, like thousands of students, he faced the question: how to remain in Europe when the visa was about to expire.
Why the standard route did not work
He considered the usual options: renew the visa, find an employer to arrange work status, find some way to stay. All these paths were about temporary and unstable solutions: granted today, denied tomorrow. He didn't even think about citizenship - it seemed it wasn't for him.
What BRIDGES had to solve
However, during a conversation, a detail emerged that Artem had not considered important: his grandmother was from a Hungarian village. For him it was simply a family fact; for us - a possible key to citizenship by descent, which does not depend on studies, employment, or renewals.
Why a standard answer would not do
Artem approached BRIDGES for help with his visa, but received something incomparably greater: we proposed not to patch a temporary status, but to verify and prove his roots - and pursue not a visa, but a passport.
I was chasing student visa renewal, looking for work, just to stay. I didn't even dream of citizenship. Sergey, during our conversation, picked up on the fact that my grandmother was from Hungary and said: you don't need a visa, you are entitled to a passport. I didn't even believe it. But they proved my roots - and instead of an unstable visa, I now have EU citizenship.
