A Quota Measured Against Your Employer's Payroll, and Two Ways Out of It
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Venezuela 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 Venezuela to Bulgaria · Residency through work
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.
At a glance
- Employer ratio
- 20 per cent of average payroll, 35 per cent for a small or medium enterprise
Article 7(1)(1) of the Zakon za trudovata migratsiya i trudovata mobilnost, counted over the preceding 12 months and amended by ДВ бр. 52 от 2025 г.
- Blue Card salary
- At least 1.5 times the national average wage
Article 17(2)(2), measured on the latest 12 months of National Statistical Institute data before the contract is signed.
- Blue Card contract length
- At least 6 months
Article 17(2)(3).
- Who decides
- The Ministry of the Interior, after a written opinion from the Employment Agency
Article 15(1) for the Single Permit, article 17(1) for the Blue Card.
- Decision time on the residence permit
- 14 days, extendable by one month
Article 24(3) of the Aliens Act.
Requirements
- A job with a local employer whose third-country headcount is within the ratio, or a Blue Card
- Pay and conditions no worse than for Bulgarian nationals in the same category of work
- A positive written opinion from the Employment Agency's executive director
- A long-stay (type D) visa, and then a Single Permit for residence and work from the Ministry of the Interior
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Venezuela
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
«Достъп до пазара на труда на работници - граждани на трети държави, се разрешава за заемането на длъжности, за които не се изисква българско гражданство, когато: 1. (изм. - ДВ, бр. 52 от 2025 г.) общият брой на гражданите на трети държави наети по трудово правоотношение от местния работодател в предходните 12 месеца не надвишава 20 на сто от средносписъчната численост на наетите по трудово правоотношение, а за малки и средни предприятия по смисъла на чл. 3, ал. 1, т. 1 от Закона за малките и средните предприятия - 35 на сто; 2. предлаганите условия на труд и заплащане не са по-неблагоприятни от условията за българските граждани за съответната категория труд; 3. гражданинът на трета държава притежава специализирани знания, умения и професионален опит, необходими за съответната длъжност.»The ratio, the equal-conditions rule and the skills condition, in one paragraph.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The labour ministry, which with the Employment Agency decides access to the Bulgarian labour market, and which publishes a Сиела print of the Закон за трудовата миграция и трудовата мобилност at /uploads/78/sdrmi/. That print carries a generation date on every page - 13 February 2026 - which makes it the only Bulgarian source here with a real consolidation cut-off rather than an amendment list.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: A vendor print rather than an official text, with the vendor's watermark inserted into the running text: it breaks article 17(2)(2), the Blue Card salary rule, in the middle of its subject. The implementing regulation of the same Act is not on this page and was not read.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Достъп до пазара на труда с Единно разрешение за пребиваване и работа се разрешава от Министерството на вътрешните работи след получено положително писмено становище от изпълнителния директор на Агенцията по заетостта.»Our translation - not official
Access to the labour market with a Single Permit for residence and work is authorised by the Ministry of the Interior after a positive written opinion from the executive director of the Employment Agency.
Two authorities, one decision.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The labour ministry, which with the Employment Agency decides access to the Bulgarian labour market, and which publishes a Сиела print of the Закон за трудовата миграция и трудовата мобилност at /uploads/78/sdrmi/. That print carries a generation date on every page - 13 February 2026 - which makes it the only Bulgarian source here with a real consolidation cut-off rather than an amendment list.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: A vendor print rather than an official text, with the vendor's watermark inserted into the running text: it breaks article 17(2)(2), the Blue Card salary rule, in the middle of its subject. The implementing regulation of the same Act is not on this page and was not read.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Достъп до пазара на труда със "Синя карта на Европейския съюз" се разрешава от Министерството на вътрешните работи след получено положително писмено становище от изпълнителния директор на Агенцията по заетостта, без да се прилага условието на чл. 7, ал. 1, т. 1.»Our translation - not official
Access to the labour market with an "EU Blue Card" is authorised by the Ministry of the Interior after a positive written opinion from the executive director of the Employment Agency, without the condition of article 7(1)(1) being applied.
The ratio does not apply to a Blue Card.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The labour ministry, which with the Employment Agency decides access to the Bulgarian labour market, and which publishes a Сиела print of the Закон за трудовата миграция и трудовата мобилност at /uploads/78/sdrmi/. That print carries a generation date on every page - 13 February 2026 - which makes it the only Bulgarian source here with a real consolidation cut-off rather than an amendment list.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: A vendor print rather than an official text, with the vendor's watermark inserted into the running text: it breaks article 17(2)(2), the Blue Card salary rule, in the middle of its subject. The implementing regulation of the same Act is not on this page and was not read.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«да бъде най-малко 1,5 пъти по-висока от средната работна заплата в Република България съгласно наличните данни последно публикуваните от Националния статистически институт за период от 12 месеца преди сключването на трудовия договор;»Our translation - not official
shall be at least 1.5 times higher than the average wage in the Republic of Bulgaria according to the available data most recently published by the National Statistical Institute for a period of 12 months before the conclusion of the employment contract;
The sentence begins earlier, with the gross wage stated in the worker's contract as its subject; the publisher's own print breaks it with a vendor watermark, so the quotation starts at the predicate.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The labour ministry, which with the Employment Agency decides access to the Bulgarian labour market, and which publishes a Сиела print of the Закон за трудовата миграция и трудовата мобилност at /uploads/78/sdrmi/. That print carries a generation date on every page - 13 February 2026 - which makes it the only Bulgarian source here with a real consolidation cut-off rather than an amendment list.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: A vendor print rather than an official text, with the vendor's watermark inserted into the running text: it breaks article 17(2)(2), the Blue Card salary rule, in the middle of its subject. The implementing regulation of the same Act is not on this page and was not read.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«срокът на трудовия договор да е не по-кратък от 6 месеца.»Our translation - not official
the term of the employment contract shall be not shorter than 6 months.
The third Blue Card condition.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The labour ministry, which with the Employment Agency decides access to the Bulgarian labour market, and which publishes a Сиела print of the Закон за трудовата миграция и трудовата мобилност at /uploads/78/sdrmi/. That print carries a generation date on every page - 13 February 2026 - which makes it the only Bulgarian source here with a real consolidation cut-off rather than an amendment list.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: A vendor print rather than an official text, with the vendor's watermark inserted into the running text: it breaks article 17(2)(2), the Blue Card salary rule, in the middle of its subject. The implementing regulation of the same Act is not on this page and was not read.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Заявлението за издаване на разрешение за продължително пребиваване се разглежда в срок до 14 дни от подаването му при условия и по ред, определени с правилника за прилагане на закона. В случаите на правна и фактическа сложност и необходимост от предоставяне на допълнителни документи и информация този срок може да бъде удължен с още един месец.»Our translation - not official
An application for a continuing-residence permit shall be examined within 14 days of its submission under conditions and by a procedure laid down in the implementing regulation of the Act. In cases of legal and factual complexity and where additional documents and information must be supplied, that period may be extended by one further month.
The residence side of the decision, which runs beside the labour-market side.
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 Blue Card salary is a multiple of a statistical figure, not an amount in the Act. No euro sum is published here, because the National Statistical Institute's average-wage series was not read.
A Single Permit holder is compulsorily insured under article 33(1)(4v) of the Health Insurance Act, added in 2025; a holder of a continuing-residence permit on any other ground generally is not.
This record rests on the Labour Migration Act and the Aliens Act as the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs publish them. The implementing regulation of the Labour Migration Act was not read.
- administersЗакон за трудовата миграция и трудовата мобилност, consolidated text to ДВ бр. 52 от 2025 г.
Министерство на труда и социалната политика · consolidated to 2026-02-13
About this source
The labour ministry, which with the Employment Agency decides access to the Bulgarian labour market, and which publishes a Сиела print of the Закон за трудовата миграция и трудовата мобилност at /uploads/78/sdrmi/. That print carries a generation date on every page - 13 February 2026 - which makes it the only Bulgarian source here with a real consolidation cut-off rather than an amendment list.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: A vendor print rather than an official text, with the vendor's watermark inserted into the running text: it breaks article 17(2)(2), the Blue Card salary rule, in the middle of its subject. The implementing regulation of the same Act is not on this page and was not read.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- 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