Marriage to a Bulgarian Buys a Year at a Time: Five Before Permanent Residence, Three Before Citizenship
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Haiti on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
154 exceptions recorded across 56 countries · none match Haiti to Bulgaria · Residency through marriage
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.
At a glance
- First permit
- Up to one year, renewable
Article 24(1)(18) of the Aliens Act, read with article 23(1)(2).
- Permanent residence as a family member of a Bulgarian
- 5 years of lawful and uninterrupted residence
Article 25(1)(11) of the Aliens Act.
- Permanent residence through a settled foreign spouse
- 5 years of marriage and 5 years of residence
Article 25(1)(2) of the Aliens Act, which disapplies the residence requirement where the spouse's permanent residence rests on the investment routes in points 6, 7 or 8.
- Naturalisation
- 3 years of marriage and 3 years of permanent or long-term residence
Article 13(1) of the Citizenship Act.
- Renouncing your other citizenship
- Not required of the spouse of a Bulgarian national, under article 12(2)(1) of the Citizenship Act
The same exemption covers nationals of the Union, the EEA and Switzerland, and of states with a reciprocity treaty.
- If the marriage ends
- One independent permit, after 2 years of family residence
Article 24(5) of the Aliens Act, which is discretionary and available once.
Requirements
- A marriage to a Bulgarian national, with foreign documents recognised under Bulgarian law
- A long-stay (type D) visa, housing, insurance and means for the first permit
- Five years of lawful residence for permanent residence as a family member
- Three years of permanent or long-term residence and three years of marriage for naturalisation
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Haiti
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«са членове на семейството на български гражданин и произхождащите от чужбина документи, които удостоверяват семейните връзки и правото на издръжка, са признати и регистрирани или допуснати за изпълнение по реда на българското законодателство;»Our translation - not official
are family members of a Bulgarian national and the documents originating abroad which attest the family ties and the right to maintenance have been recognised and registered, or declared enforceable, under Bulgarian law;
The condition that does the work here is the recognition of the foreign documents.
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
«членове на семейството на български гражданин, ако са пребивавали законно и непрекъснато на територията на Република България през последните пет години;»Our translation - not official
family members of a Bulgarian national, if they have resided lawfully and without interruption on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria for the last five years;
About 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
«пет години след сключването на граждански брак с постоянно пребиваващ в страната чужденец и пребивавали законно и непрекъснато за срок 5 години на територията на страната, като при брак с чужденец с разрешено постоянно пребиваване по т. 6, 7 или 8 изискванията за пребиваване в страната не се прилагат;»Marriage to a settled foreigner, and the exception that makes the investment routes carry a spouse without any residence at all.
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
«При прекратяване на брак поради развод или смърт службите за административен контрол на чужденците могат да издадат еднократно самостоятелно разрешение за продължително пребиваване на чужденец, който е получил разрешение за продължително или дългосрочно пребиваване на основание на ал. 1, т. 13 и 18, когато семейството е пребивавало непрекъснато и на законно основание на територията на Република България в продължение на най-малко две години.»What happens when the marriage that carried the permit ends.
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
«Лице, което не е български гражданин, отговаря на условията по чл. 12, ал. 1, т. 1, 3, 4, 5 и 6 и преди не по-малко от 3 години към датата на подаване на молбата за натурализация е получило разрешение за постоянно или дългосрочно пребиваване в Република България, може да придобие българско гражданство, ако отговаря и на едно от следните изисквания: 1\. не по-малко от 3 години има и продължава да е в законно сключен брак с български гражданин;»Three years of residence and three years of marriage, and the conditions of article 12(1) other than the five-year residence still apply - including the Bulgarian-language test.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The justice ministry, which runs the Citizenship Council and every naturalisation, release and restoration file, and which hosts a consolidated statute service at /home/normdoc/<id>. That service answered with a clean consolidated Закон за българското гражданство current to ДВ бр. 55 от 16 юни 2026 г., and it uses the same document identifiers as the commercial site lex.bg.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: A curated subset, not a statute book: it carries the acts the ministry works with and answers HTTP 500 for everything else, including the Aliens Act and the Asylum Act. The site also serves an incomplete certificate chain, so a plain client rejects it. It is not an official consolidation and must not be cited for any instrument the Ministry of Justice does not administer.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
«Не се изисква освобождаване от досегашното им гражданство за: 1\. лица - съпрузи на български граждани; 2\. граждани на държава - членка на Европейския съюз, на държава - страна по Споразумението за Европейското икономическо пространство, или на Конфедерация Швейцария; 3\. граждани на държави, с които Република България има сключени договори, с които се установява взаимност.»Who keeps their other passport.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The justice ministry, which runs the Citizenship Council and every naturalisation, release and restoration file, and which hosts a consolidated statute service at /home/normdoc/<id>. That service answered with a clean consolidated Закон за българското гражданство current to ДВ бр. 55 от 16 юни 2026 г., and it uses the same document identifiers as the commercial site lex.bg.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: A curated subset, not a statute book: it carries the acts the ministry works with and answers HTTP 500 for everything else, including the Aliens Act and the Asylum Act. The site also serves an incomplete certificate chain, so a plain client rejects it. It is not an official consolidation and must not be cited for any instrument the Ministry of Justice does not administer.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
Practical notes
A spouse naturalising under article 13 is excused the five-year residence condition and the renunciation condition, and is not excused the Bulgarian-language test in article 12(1)(5). Only Bulgarian origin, adoption and a Bulgarian parent excuse that, under article 15(1).
The family member of a Bulgarian national who has exercised free movement is on a different track again, under article 24m of the Aliens Act, which was read but is not quoted here.
- administersЗакон за чужденците в Република България, consolidated text to ДВ бр. 52 от 2025 г.
Министерство на външните работи
About 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
- administersЗакон за българското гражданство, consolidated text to ДВ бр. 55 от 16 юни 2026 г.
Министерство на правосъдието
About this source
The justice ministry, which runs the Citizenship Council and every naturalisation, release and restoration file, and which hosts a consolidated statute service at /home/normdoc/<id>. That service answered with a clean consolidated Закон за българското гражданство current to ДВ бр. 55 от 16 юни 2026 г., and it uses the same document identifiers as the commercial site lex.bg.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: A curated subset, not a statute book: it carries the acts the ministry works with and answers HTTP 500 for everything else, including the Aliens Act and the Asylum Act. The site also serves an incomplete certificate chain, so a plain client rejects it. It is not an official consolidation and must not be cited for any instrument the Ministry of Justice does not administer.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source