A person, who is not a citizen of a Member State of European Union and wishes to settle down for a long period or constantly in the Republic of Bulgaria, or wishes to acquire Bulgarian citizenship, can obtain permission, if he/she makes an investment in the country’s economy.

The types of foreigner’s residence in the Republic of Bulgaria are:

• short-term residence – up to three months within every six month period from the day of the entrance in the country;
• continuous residence – with allowed period up to 1 year;
• long-term residence – with allowed initial period up to 5 years and a possibility of renewal after submitting an application;
• permanent residence – with allowed indefinite period.

The amount of the investment, which creates entitlement to residence and to take Bulgarian citizenship, is exhaustively determined in the Act on foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria and the Act on Bulgarian citizenship.

Within a few months the Bulgarian Parliament will start adopting significant changes in the Act on foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria, which reduced the requirements for the amount of the investments in immovable property.

Generally, the changes, related to the foreigner’s investment, will refer to the obtaining permission for continuous residence and are as follows:

1. Reduced amount of the investments in immovable property

The new version of the Act provides reduction of the amount of the investments from 600 000 BGN to 100 000 BGN (50 000 EUR). Now, foreigner, who acquires a right of ownership of immovable property in the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria, investing a sum of 100 000 BGN, can obtain a permission for continuous residence. As until now, the same applies to a foreigner, who is owner of more than 50 per cent of the capital of a Bulgarian trading company, has been invested the same amount of money at the company’s capital and as a result the company has acquired the right of ownership of immovable property in the country of this value.

2. New requirements

It is introduced a new additional requirement for obtaining a continuous residence permission, based on a realization of commercial activity in the country: minimum 10 employees who work full-time for every individual investor. After these changes, the right of continuous residence in the country will have only the persons who in fact realize commercial activity, but not the persons who use for that purpose registration of a trading company.

Strict requirements are introduced for persons who apply for a continuous residence permission in their capacity as representatives of foreign trading companies. It is provided a preliminary control and evaluation of documents to ensure that the company activity and accounts, and planned activities are in order.

The requirements for direct acquisition of the right for continuous residence are not changed. The investment amount is as before – from 500 000 to 6 000 000 BGN.

It is still possible for foreigners to obtain a permanent residence permission if they already have a continuous residence permission and during 5 years they maintained investment already made.

In summary, after the last legislative modifications, the conditions required for obtaining continuous residence permission and Bulgarian citizenship based on investment look like this:

RIGHT OF RESIDENCE

* 1 EUR = 1.95583 BGN

Long-term residence status (with permitted initial period of 5 years and a possibility of renewal after submitted application) is granted to foreigner, who has been legally resided without interruption in the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria for 5 years, since submitting the application for long-term residence permission. The long-term residence status is permanent after its acquisition. There aren’t individual reasons for acquisition of long-term residence on the basis of investment.

GENERAL DOCUMENTS FOR THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF RESIDENCE

ü   a copy of international travel document in order;

ü   a document for paid state fee;

ü   proofs of provided housing;

ü   a compulsory medical insurance, valid in the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria, when the person is not insured in accordance with the Health Care Insurance Act;

ü   proofs of the presence of sufficient means of subsistence, without having recourse to the social assistance system, in a sum not less than the minimum monthly salary, the minimum scholarship or the minimum pension for the country, for the period of the residence;

ü  an extract from the judicial record, issued by the state, where the foreigner is citizen or by the state, where the foreigner’ s habitual residence is – in the moment of the initial application submitting.

CITIZENSHIP

A foreigner can acquire citizenship by naturalization, if he/she:

1. is major;

2. has received a permission for permanent or long-term residence in the Republic of Bulgaria not less than 5 years ago;

3. has not been sentenced for an intentional offence prosecuted by public prosecution by Bulgarian court and there aren’t criminal proceedings, brought against him for this kind of offence, unless he is rehabilitated;

4. has the possibility to support himself in Bulgaria, because of his income or occupation;

5. has a command of the Bulgarian language, that can be established in accordance with Regulation of the Minister of Education and Science, and

6. has been exempted from his citizenship up to now or he is going to be exempted from it simultaneously with the acquisition of Bulgarian citizenship.

RESIDENCE ON THE BASIS OF INVESTMENT