Country-wide policy
Bulgaria Pays in Euro and Legislates in Leva, and Every Immigration Threshold You Will Read Is Still a Lev Figure
Bulgaria's currency is the euro. Article 4 of the Zakon za vavezhdane na evroto v Republika Balgariya says so in terms, and the Payment Services Act was amended with effect from 1 January 2026 so that a basic payment account provides its services in euro. None of that redenominated the statutes. The Aliens Act still asks for 600,000 leva of real estate, 250,000 leva in a disadvantaged region, 500,000 leva with ten jobs, 2,000,000 leva in listed securities and 6,000,000 leva in an unlisted company, because the Euro Introduction Act did not go through the statute book changing numbers. It did something else: article 11(1) says the introduction of the euro does not affect the operation of existing legal instruments that refer to the lev, and article 11(2) says amounts stated in leva in existing legal instruments are treated as amounts in euro at the official rate, with the conversion rule in article 12 and the rounding rule in article 13. So the lev figures in the Aliens Act are live law and are read as euro, and a reader converting them is doing what the statute tells them to do rather than correcting an oversight. Where an amendment does touch such a provision it is expected to carry the euro figure across: paragraph 5(2) of the transitional provisions requires that, for sums that came into Bulgarian law from a Union act which stated a euro amount.
Topics it changes
- Residency through investment
- Residency on passive income
- Opening a bank account
- When you become a tax resident
- Access to healthcare
What it requires
- Read every lev figure in the Aliens Act as a euro amount at the official rate
- Apply the division and rounding rules in articles 12 and 13 rather than a rounded conversion
At a glance
- Currency
- The euro, from the date of introduction
Article 4 of the Euro Introduction Act, which refers to article 2 of Council Regulation (EC) No 974/98.
- Date it took effect
- 1 January 2026
Not stated in the Euro Introduction Act itself, which in article 3 refers the date to the Council decision. The date is quoted here from the amending note printed in article 118(1) of the Payment Services Act.
- Lev figures in older statutes
- Still in force, and read as euro amounts at the official rate
Article 11(1) and 11(2) of the Euro Introduction Act.
- Dual display of prices
- From 8 August 2025 to 8 August 2026
Article 15(2) of the Euro Introduction Act, as amended by ДВ бр. 65 от 2025 г.
What the law says
«В съответствие с чл. 2 от Регламент (ЕО) № 974/98 на Съвета от 3 май 1998 г. относно въвеждането на еврото, наричан по-нататък "Регламент (ЕО) № 974/98", считано от датата на въвеждане на еврото в Република България, валутата на Република България е еврото. Паричната единица е едно евро. Едно евро се разделя на сто цента.»The currency itself.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
A Bulgarian district court that hosts, under its own uploads, an АПИС print of the Закон за въвеждане на еврото в Република България consolidated to ДВ бр. 115 от 30 декември 2025 г. It is used here for one thing: the Euro Introduction Act, which no ministry we could reach publishes, and which explains why every threshold in the Aliens Act is still written in leva.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: **A court is not the publisher of this Act and has no authority over it.** This is a convenience copy generated by a commercial legal-information system, with the vendor's banner injected into the running text between articles. It may be cited only for the text of the Euro Introduction Act as that vendor printed it, never as an official text, and it should be replaced the moment a ministry copy is reachable. The court's own judicial work has nothing to do with any of this.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«В съответствие с Регламент (ЕО) № 974/98 и другото пряко приложимо право на Европейския съюз въвеждането на еврото не засяга действието на съществуващите правни инструменти с позовавания на лева или с препратки към лева.»Our translation - not official
In accordance with Regulation (EC) No 974/98 and other directly applicable Union law, the introduction of the euro does not affect the operation of existing legal instruments containing references to the lev.
Why a lev threshold in the Aliens Act is not a dead letter.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
A Bulgarian district court that hosts, under its own uploads, an АПИС print of the Закон за въвеждане на еврото в Република България consolidated to ДВ бр. 115 от 30 декември 2025 г. It is used here for one thing: the Euro Introduction Act, which no ministry we could reach publishes, and which explains why every threshold in the Aliens Act is still written in leva.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: **A court is not the publisher of this Act and has no authority over it.** This is a convenience copy generated by a commercial legal-information system, with the vendor's banner injected into the running text between articles. It may be cited only for the text of the Euro Introduction Act as that vendor printed it, never as an official text, and it should be replaced the moment a ministry copy is reachable. The court's own judicial work has nothing to do with any of this.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«В съответствие с чл. 6 - 9 от Регламент (ЕО) № 974/98 стойностите, посочени в левове в съществуващите правни инструменти, се считат за стойности в евро при прилагане на официалния валутен курс и правилата за превалутиране по чл. 12 и съответно за закръгляване по чл. 13 или по специалните правила за закръгляване, предвидени в този закон.»And how it is read.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
A Bulgarian district court that hosts, under its own uploads, an АПИС print of the Закон за въвеждане на еврото в Република България consolidated to ДВ бр. 115 от 30 декември 2025 г. It is used here for one thing: the Euro Introduction Act, which no ministry we could reach publishes, and which explains why every threshold in the Aliens Act is still written in leva.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: **A court is not the publisher of this Act and has no authority over it.** This is a convenience copy generated by a commercial legal-information system, with the vendor's banner injected into the running text between articles. It may be cited only for the text of the Euro Introduction Act as that vendor printed it, never as an official text, and it should be replaced the moment a ministry copy is reachable. The court's own judicial work has nothing to do with any of this.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Периодът на двойно обозначаване на цените на стоките и услугите в евро и в левове започва на 8 август 2025 г. и приключва на 8 август 2026 г.»Our translation - not official
The period of dual display of the prices of goods and services in euro and in leva begins on 8 August 2025 and ends on 8 August 2026.
About this source
A Bulgarian district court that hosts, under its own uploads, an АПИС print of the Закон за въвеждане на еврото в Република България consolidated to ДВ бр. 115 от 30 декември 2025 г. It is used here for one thing: the Euro Introduction Act, which no ministry we could reach publishes, and which explains why every threshold in the Aliens Act is still written in leva.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: **A court is not the publisher of this Act and has no authority over it.** This is a convenience copy generated by a commercial legal-information system, with the vendor's banner injected into the running text between articles. It may be cited only for the text of the Euro Introduction Act as that vendor printed it, never as an official text, and it should be replaced the moment a ministry copy is reachable. The court's own judicial work has nothing to do with any of this.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«(1) (Изм. – ДВ, бр. 64 от 2025 г., в сила от 1 януари 2026 г.) Платежната сметка за основни операции е платежна сметка, чрез която се предоставят следните услуги в евро на територията на страната:»A statute amended into euro, dated on its face. The Aliens Act has had no such amendment.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The central bank, which supervises payment service providers and publishes the Закон за платежните услуги и платежните системи in its own print under /bnbweb/groups/public/documents/bnb_law/. The copy read here is consolidated to ДВ бр. 71 от 2026 г. and carries the amendment that redenominated the basic payment account into euro from 1 January 2026, with the date printed in the article itself.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It is authoritative about payment services and about the ordinances it issues, and about nothing else. The anti-money-laundering obligations that decide what a bank asks a foreigner for are in a different Act, supervised by a different body, and were not read. The PDF's cross-reference table is broken, so a local extraction fails and the file can only be read through the extraction service.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«са вложили сума не по-малка от 600 000 лв. - за всеки чужденец, за придобиване на право на собственост върху недвижими имоти на територията на Република България или чужденецът е собственик на повече от 50 на сто от капитала на българско търговско дружество, вложил е същата сума в капитала на дружеството и в резултат на това дружеството е придобило правото на собственост върху недвижими имоти в страната на тази стойност; към датата на подаване на заявлението за разрешение за продължително пребиваване чужденецът или юридическото лице трябва да е изплатило напълно сумата, която да е постъпила по сметка в българска лицензирана кредитна институция, а ако имотите са придобити със заемни средства, непогасената част от заема не трябва да надвишава 25 на сто;»A live threshold, in a currency the country no longer issues.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Bulgaria's foreign ministry, which issues visas and publishes consolidated prints of the statutes it applies. Its copy at /upload/148163/ is the consolidated Закон за чужденците в Република България with the June 2025 Schengen amendment incorporated, extracted cleanly by pdftotext, and it is the text almost every Bulgarian residence record here quotes.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Not an official text. Bulgaria has no official consolidation and this is a ministry's own working print, whose currency can only be judged from the amendment list in its header - which at /upload/148163/ runs to ДВ бр. 52 от 2025 г. and is already one amendment behind the Ministry of the Interior's copy. The ministry also keeps an older print at /upload/138160/, consolidated only to ДВ бр. 79 от 2024 г.; the two sit on the same site with nothing to say which is current. It must not be cited for anything the foreign ministry does not administer.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The official rate is fixed by a Council regulation under article 140(3) of the Treaty and is not quoted here, because that regulation was not read. Article 5 of the Euro Introduction Act defines the rate by reference to it and states no figure.
The Euro Introduction Act was read in a print published by a Bulgarian district court and generated by a commercial legal-information system. That is a government host but not an official text, and the official text would be the issues of Darzhaven vestnik named in its header.
Council Decision (EU) 2025/1407, which sets the date, could not be read: EUR-Lex served our tools the Official Journal's own front page instead of the document, at four separate addresses.