Bulgaria

Bulgaria applies the Schengen acquis - article 9a(2)(3) of its Aliens Act defines the short-stay visa as the uniform visa of the Visa Code, and ДВ бр. 52 от 2025 г. rewrote the entry and visa chapters around it - and unlike Croatia or Czechia it states the measure of a short stay in its own Act: article 23(1)(1) of the Zakon za chuzhdentsite v Republika Balgariya defines short-term residence as up to 90 days in any 180-day period from the date of entry. Whether a visa is needed is not Bulgarian law at all - article 8(2), as rewritten in 2025, sends the question to Regulation (EU) 2018/1806 and to other binding Union acts. What Bulgarian law adds is a reporting duty on the person who housed you: article 28(3) gives any individual or company that provided short-term lodging three days to notify the police in writing, with your name, date of birth, nationality and document number. A hotel does it at once, in the register the Tourism Act requires. Article 27, rewritten by the same 2025 act, now deals in Schengen visas rather than in a national extension: an extension for exceptional circumstances or humanitarian reasons is free, one for serious personal reasons is charged for, and neither can take the stay past 90 days in 180.

Bulgaria opened a route for people living on money earned elsewhere in June 2025, and it is narrower than it sounds. Article 24(1)(23) of the Aliens Act, added by ДВ бр. 52 от 2025 г., lets a "digital nomad" get the ordinary one-year continuing-residence permit; article 24s sets the price of entry at an average annual income of not less than 50 minimum monthly wages for the previous calendar year, measured on gross income, on top of the general conditions in article 24(2) - secured housing, compulsory health insurance, and means of support of at least the minimum monthly wage, stipend or pension. The definition in paragraph 1(36) of the supplementary provisions is where the route is actually drawn: an employment contract with an employer established outside the Union, the EEA and Switzerland; or ownership of more than 25 per cent of such a company; or a year of providing remote services in a personal capacity - and in the second and third cases, on condition that no work is done and no services are supplied to anyone on Bulgarian territory. The permit runs for a year and may be extended once, for one more year, and that is the whole of it: there is no third year on this ground.

Article 24(1)(10) of the Aliens Act gives a one-year continuing-residence permit to a person who has acquired a right to a pension under the law of Bulgaria, of their country of origin, or of any other state, and who has sufficient means of support in the country. The pension does not have to be Bulgarian and does not have to be paid from anywhere in particular; what the Act asks is that the right to it exists. No figure attaches to this ground: the only measure is the general one in article 24(2), which asks for means of not less than the minimum monthly wage, the minimum stipend or the minimum pension, together with secured housing and compulsory health insurance. The route leads somewhere: five continuous years of lawful residence is the condition for the Union long-term status under article 24g, and permanent residence under article 25(1)(5) after five years with no more than 30 months of absence.

Bulgaria does not run a labour-market test for the main employment route; it runs a headcount ratio inside the employer. Article 7(1)(1) of the Zakon za trudovata migratsiya i trudovata mobilnost lets a third-country national be employed only if the total number of third-country nationals the local employer has had on contracts of employment in the preceding 12 months does not exceed 20 per cent of its average payroll, or 35 per cent for a small or medium enterprise within the meaning of the Small and Medium Enterprises Act. ДВ бр. 52 от 2025 г. is the amendment that put the ratio in that form. The conditions of work and pay must be no worse than for Bulgarians doing the same category of work, and the worker must have the specialised knowledge, skills and experience the post requires. The ordinary permit is the Single Permit for residence and work: article 15(1) makes it a Ministry of the Interior decision taken after a positive written opinion from the executive director of the Employment Agency, and article 15(2) lifts the ratio for four classes - people employed under an international treaty, guest lecturers and teachers, performers with confirmed professional competence, and athletes and coaches. The EU Blue Card does not meet the ratio at all: article 17(1) disapplies it, and in exchange article 17(2) asks for a gross salary at least 1.5 times the national average published by the statistical institute for the 12 months before the contract, and a contract of at least six months.

Bulgaria closed citizenship by investment in 2022 - articles 12a and 14a of the Citizenship Act were repealed by ДВ бр. 26 от 2022 г. and the transitional provision terminated every unfinished case - but it did not close residence by investment, and the Aliens Act still carries six separate thresholds. Two give only the ordinary one-year permit: 600,000 leva into Bulgarian real estate under article 24(1)(19), or 250,000 leva into the capital of a Bulgarian company in an economically disadvantaged region, with new fixed assets of the same amount and at least five jobs for Bulgarian nationals, under article 24(1)(20). Four give permanent residence outright, with no qualifying period at all: 2,000,000 leva in listed shares or bonds and three other forms under article 25(1)(6); 2,000,000 leva into a certified priority investment project under article 25(1)(7); 6,000,000 leva into an unlisted company under article 25(1)(8); and 500,000 leva into a company's capital with 500,000 leva of new assets and at least ten jobs under article 25(1)(16). Holding the one-year permit under article 24(1)(19) or (20) and keeping the investment for five years is itself a permanent-residence ground under article 25(1)(17). Article 25(11) requires the investments under points 6, 8 and 16 to be kept above the statutory minimum for five years from the grant, and article 25(12) forbids using the resulting assets as security for credit during that time.

Article 24v of the Aliens Act gives a student in full-time higher education a continuing-residence permit of up to one year, extended to 18 months when it covers the final year of the course. The documents are the ordinary ones plus two of its own: a certificate from the Ministry of Education and Science that the student has been admitted to study in Bulgaria, a certificate from the institution that the student will be studying in the year in question, and proof that the enrolment fee has been paid, produced after arrival. Means of support are measured on the same scale as every other ground - the minimum monthly wage, the minimum stipend or the minimum pension - and medical insurance is required only where the student is not insured under the Health Insurance Act or through the university. A student of Bulgarian origin does not need the long-stay visa at all, on production of a birth certificate or a certificate of Bulgarian origin. What the student loses is time: article 24g(3) counts only half of a period of student residence towards the five years for Union long-term status, and article 25(1)(5) does the same for permanent residence.

Bulgarian origin is the first item on the list of people who may be granted permanent residence, and the list is not ordered by accident. Article 25(1)(1) of the Aliens Act says simply: foreigners of Bulgarian origin. There is no qualifying period of prior residence, no income test and no language test in the provision, and the implementing regulation sets out what is actually filed - the standard identity and fee documents, a notarised declaration from the owner of the address, and a birth certificate; where a birth certificate cannot be produced, the migration service takes an official reference from the register kept by the agency for Bulgarians abroad, and until that is technically possible the applicant brings the agency's certificate of Bulgarian origin. Origin itself is defined in the Citizenship Act, not the Aliens Act: paragraph 2(1) of its supplementary provisions says a person of Bulgarian origin is one at least one of whose ascendants is a Bulgarian. For naturalisation, article 15(2) adds the evidential rule that the 2021 amendment tightened: official documents proving kinship to at least one ascendant of Bulgarian origin up to the third degree inclusive, naming that ascendant and the relationship.

A spouse of a Bulgarian national gets the ordinary one-year continuing-residence permit under article 24(1)(18) of the Aliens Act, on condition that foreign documents proving the family tie and the right to maintenance have been recognised and registered or declared enforceable under Bulgarian law. Permanent residence comes later: article 25(1)(11) asks for five years of lawful and uninterrupted residence as a family member of a Bulgarian national, and article 25(1)(2) gives the same to a person five years married to a foreigner who is himself permanently resident, with the residence condition disapplied where that spouse's permanent residence came from one of the investment routes. Citizenship is faster than permanent residence for a spouse and it is counted from a different starting line: article 13 of the Citizenship Act asks for three years of permanent or long-term residence and three years of a subsisting marriage to a Bulgarian national, and article 12(2)(1) excuses the spouse of a Bulgarian national from releasing themselves from their previous citizenship. If the marriage ends, article 24(5) of the Aliens Act lets the migration service issue a single independent permit where the family lived here lawfully and without interruption for at least two years.

Union, EEA and Swiss nationals are outside the Aliens Act entirely. Their position is governed by a separate statute, the Zakon za vlizaneto, prebivavaneto i napuskaneto na Republika Balgariya na grazhdanite na Evropeyskiya sayuz i chlenovete na tehnite semeystva, which transposes Directive 2004/38. Article 6(1) gives a Union citizen three months on a valid identity card or passport, with no formality at all; a family member who is not a Union citizen gets the same three months on a passport. Beyond that, article 8(1) issues a document of continuing residence - a certificate of a right, not a permit granted at discretion - to a Union citizen who is a worker or self-employed here, or who has health insurance and sufficient means not to burden the social assistance system, or who is enrolled in education and also meets the means condition. Article 8(3) keeps the status of worker for someone who has stopped working through illness, accident, involuntary unemployment after more than a year's work, or retraining. Permanent residence follows five continuous years of lawful residence under article 16(1), with four shorter routes for people who reach pension age, lose working capacity, or work across a border.

Ordinary naturalisation under article 12(1) of the Zakon za balgarskoto grazhdanstvo asks for six things at the date of the application: adulthood; a permanent or long-term residence permit held for at least five years; no conviction for an intentional offence of a general nature and no pending prosecution; income or an occupation sufficient to support yourself in Bulgaria; command of the Bulgarian language, established by a procedure the education minister lays down; and release from your previous citizenship, or release by the time Bulgarian citizenship is acquired. Article 12(2) removes the last of those for the spouse of a Bulgarian national and for nationals of the Union, the EEA, Switzerland and states with a reciprocity treaty. Article 15(1) removes four of the six - residence, income, language and renunciation - for a person of Bulgarian origin, for an adopted child, and for a person one of whose parents is or died a Bulgarian national. What remains for those applicants is adulthood and a clean record. Citizenship by investment is gone: articles 12a and 14a were repealed by ДВ бр. 26 от 2022 г., and unfinished cases were terminated. The decision is the President's, on a proposal from the justice minister after an opinion from the Citizenship Council, and article 35(1) gives the minister twelve months to make that proposal - nine where the applicant is of Bulgarian origin.

Article 4(1) of the Zakon za danatsite varhu dohodite na fizicheskite litsa makes a person resident, whatever their nationality, on any one of four alternatives: a permanent address in Bulgaria; presence on Bulgarian territory for more than 183 days in any 12-month period; being sent abroad by the Bulgarian state, its bodies or Bulgarian undertakings, together with the family; or having the centre of vital interests in Bulgaria. The first of these is the one that catches people out, because a permanent address is an administrative registration rather than a fact about where you sleep. Article 4(5) is the counterweight: a person with a permanent address in Bulgaria whose centre of vital interests is not in the country is not resident. The day count has its own rules - the year in which 183 days are exceeded is the year of residence, and the day of arrival and the day of departure are each counted separately as days of presence - and time spent in Bulgaria solely for study or medical treatment is not presence at all. A resident is taxed on worldwide income under article 6, a non-resident only on Bulgarian-source income under article 7, and the rate on the general annual base is a flat 10 per cent under article 48(1).

Article 33(1) of the Zakon za zdravnoto osiguryavane is a closed list of who is compulsorily insured with the National Health Insurance Fund, and for foreigners it turns on which residence status you hold rather than on how long you have been here. Point 3 covers foreign nationals and stateless persons who have been granted long-term or permanent residence - the five-year Union status and the national permanent status - unless an international treaty says otherwise. It does not cover the ordinary one-year continuing-residence permit on which almost every new arrival lives, and that gap is filled by three later additions rather than by a general rule: point 4b for holders of an EU Blue Card, added in 2023, and points 4v and 4g for holders of a Single Permit for residence and work and of a seasonal-work permit, both added by ДВ бр. 52 от 2025 г. A digital nomad, a pensioner, an investor on a one-year permit and a family member are in none of them, which is why the implementing regulation of the Aliens Act asks for private medical insurance where the person is not insured under the Health Insurance Act. The obligation starts on the day the long-term or permanent permit is received, under article 34(1)(2), and it is enforced by suspension: article 109(1) cuts off the rights of anyone who owes more than three monthly contributions over 36 months, and article 109(2) restores them only once every contribution due in the last 60 months has been paid.

Bulgaria does not decide this. Personal property imported by someone transferring their normal residence from a third country into the customs territory enters free of import duties on conditions set by a directly applicable Union regulation: six months' possession and, for durable goods, use at the former residence; a continuous twelve months of normal residence outside the customs territory; and entry for free circulation within twelve months of the move. Alcohol, tobacco, commercial means of transport and trade equipment other than portable instruments of the applied or liberal arts get no relief at all. Nothing in the Bulgarian Aliens Act touches it, and nothing needs to.

Article 119(2) of the Zakon za platezhnite uslugi i platezhnite sistemi gives the right to open and use a basic payment account to consumers lawfully resident in the European Union - expressly including those with no permanent address, people seeking international protection, and people who have no residence permit but cannot be expelled for legal or factual reasons. The duty is on every bank licensed in Bulgaria and on every branch operating here that offers payment services to consumers, under article 119(1). Article 118(1), as amended with effect from 1 January 2026, lists what the account must do - opening, use and closing; deposits; cash withdrawals at a counter or an ATM inside or outside banking hours; direct debits; card payments including online; and credit transfers, standing orders included - and says those services are provided in euro on the territory of the country. A bank must decide within ten days of receiving all the documents, must refuse where opening the account would breach anti-money-laundering law, and may refuse where the applicant already holds a basic account or more than one account giving the same services. Article 120(1) says the services must be free or on reasonable fees, whatever the number of transactions.

Article 161 of the Zakon za dvizhenieto po patishtata lists when a licence issued abroad is valid here at all: where the issuing state is a party to the Convention on Road Traffic and the licence meets Annex 6 to that Convention; under the NATO Status of Forces Agreement; where the licence is accompanied by a legalised translation into Bulgarian; where it is an international permit meeting Annex 7; or where it was issued by a Union, EEA or Swiss state. Article 162(2) then puts a clock on it for settled foreigners: a licence that is not from the Union, the EEA or Switzerland may be used for one year from the date the residence document was issued - not from the date of arrival, and not from the date the licence was issued. After that the licence has to be exchanged, and article 162(4) decides whether that costs an examination: no exam where the issuing state is a party to the Convention on Road Traffic and the licence meets Annex 6; an exam in every other case, under article 162(5). A Union, EEA or Swiss licence is on a different footing again: article 162(6) lets its holder exchange it for an equivalent Bulgarian one on request and without an examination, and article 162(7) requires an exchange within seven days where the holder commits an offence carrying penalty points.