Ninety Days Is in the Act Itself - and So Is a Three-Day Deadline for Whoever Gave You a Bed
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Italy 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 Italy to Bulgaria · Visiting as a tourist
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.
At a glance
- Length of a short stay
- Up to 90 days in any 180-day period
Article 23(1)(1) of the Zakon za chuzhdentsite v Republika Balgariya, counted from the date of entry into the country.
- Visa
- Decided by Regulation (EU) 2018/1806 and other binding Union acts, not by Bulgarian law
Article 8(2) of the Act, as amended by ДВ бр. 52 от 2025 г.
- Who reports your address
- Whoever gave you the bed, within 3 days
Article 28(3) of the Act. A hotel registers you immediately instead, under article 28(4).
- Extending a Schengen visa for force majeure
- Free, and still inside 90 days in 180
Article 27(1) of the Act, as substituted by ДВ бр. 52 от 2025 г.
- Extending it for serious personal reasons
- Charged for, and still inside 90 days in 180
Article 27(2) of the Act.
Requirements
- A regular passport or substitute travel document, and a visa or travel authorisation where one is required
- No more than 90 days in any 180-day period counted from the date of entry
- Your lodging reported to the police within three days by whoever provided it
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Italy
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
«краткосрочно – до 90 дни в рамките на всеки 180-дневен период от датата на влизането в страната;»Our translation - not official
short-term - up to 90 days within any 180-day period from the date of entry into the country;
Bulgaria states the measure in its own Act, where Croatia and Czechia only cross-refer to Union law.
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
«Чужденец може да влезе в Република България, ако притежава редовен паспорт или заместващ го документ за пътуване, както и виза или разрешение за пътуване, когато такива се изискват.»Our translation - not official
A foreigner may enter the Republic of Bulgaria if he holds a regular passport or a travel document replacing it, as well as a visa or a travel authorisation where these are required.
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
«Не се изисква виза, когато това е предвидено в Регламент (ЕС) 2018/1806, в други актове на ЕС с обвързващо действие, в международен договор, по който Република България е страна, или в акт на Министерския съвет.»Our translation - not official
No visa is required where this is provided for in Regulation (EU) 2018/1806, in other binding acts of the EU, in an international treaty to which the Republic of Bulgaria is a party, or in an act of the Council of Ministers.
The 2025 amendment replaced a reference to the pre-Schengen national arrangements with this one.
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
«Физическо или юридическо лице, предоставило краткосрочно подслон на чужденец, в срок до 3 дни след предоставянето на подслона писмено уведомява службата за административен контрол на чужденците или районното управление на Министерството на вътрешните работи по местонахождението си за това обстоятелство, като съобщава имената, датата на раждане, гражданството, номера и серията на документа за самоличност на чужденеца.»Our translation - not official
A natural or legal person who has provided short-term lodging to a foreigner shall, within 3 days of providing the lodging, notify in writing the service for administrative control of foreigners or the district directorate of the Ministry of the Interior at its location of that fact, stating the names, date of birth, nationality and the number and series of the foreigner's identity document.
The duty is on the host, as in Croatia, but the deadline is three days rather than one.
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
«Срокът на валидност и/или продължителността на престоя на издадена шенгенска виза може да се удължи до 90 дни в рамките на 180 дни, ако чужденецът представи доказателство за извънредни обстоятелства или за причини от хуманитарен характер, които го възпрепятстват да напусне територията на държавите членки преди изтичането на срока на валидност или на разрешената с визата продължителност на престоя. Удължаването се извършва безплатно.»Article 27 was rewritten by ДВ бр. 52 от 2025 г. and now speaks of a Schengen visa. The extension is free only in this case; article 27(2), for serious personal reasons, charges a fee.
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
«Nationals of third countries listed in Annex II shall be exempt from the requirement set out in Article 3(1) for stays of no more than 90 days in any 180-day period.»The exemption and its measure, which article 8(2) of the Bulgarian Act points at.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Union's legal database. Publishes each act as adopted in the Official Journal and, separately, a consolidated version carrying every amendment to a stated date, identified as 0YYYYRNNNN-YYYYMMDD. The consolidated text marks each amended passage with the instrument that changed it.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A consolidated text is explicitly not authentic - EUR-Lex says so on the document - and only the Official Journal version has legal force. It also says nothing about how any member state applies the act: a regulation is directly applicable but the border practice, the evidence an officer may ask for and the national exceptions are in national law, which is published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
Bulgaria has no official consolidated statute book. Darzhaven vestnik publishes acts as they were voted and does not consolidate them, so the text read here is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' own consolidated print, whose header runs to ДВ бр. 52 от 2025 г. The Ministry of the Interior publishes a later print that carries one further amendment, ДВ бр. 55 от 16 юни 2026 г.
Visa exemption is not a right of entry. What a border officer checks is governed by the Schengen Borders Code, and this record does not reach it.
Bulgaria's own Act nowhere states a date on which it joined the Schengen area, and no record here rests on one. The 90-in-180 measure quoted above has been in article 23(1)(1) since ДВ бр. 97 от 2016 г.
- 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
- consolidatesRegulation (EU) 2018/1806, consolidated text
EUR-Lex, Publications Office of the European Union · consolidated to 2025-12-30
About this source
The Union's legal database. Publishes each act as adopted in the Official Journal and, separately, a consolidated version carrying every amendment to a stated date, identified as 0YYYYRNNNN-YYYYMMDD. The consolidated text marks each amended passage with the instrument that changed it.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A consolidated text is explicitly not authentic - EUR-Lex says so on the document - and only the Official Journal version has legal force. It also says nothing about how any member state applies the act: a regulation is directly applicable but the border practice, the evidence an officer may ask for and the national exceptions are in national law, which is published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source