Misleading guidance re residency in Bulgaria

Mostly it is.

Minor corrections:

1. You would need to buy private health insurance, most likely.

2. This would be residence in Bulgaria, not in the wider EU.

It was clear, you even underlined it, As you were not legally resident then you should probably get someone who knows what they are doing, like a lawyer

Hi, and thanks for the reply. I seem to have posted this query twice in error.

You are right that someone would need private health insurance, as well as a good financial standing.

Yes, this would be residence within just Bulgaria. However I think you would also have free movement rights across the EU - and if not now, then in 2022 assuming BG joins Shengen.

However the UK Govt kept saying that you had to be legally resident in BG at the point of the UK leaving the UK to benefit from the withdrawal agreement - not that you could be in the UK holding a BG residence permit - which are two quite different things.

If you have a BG permit yet reside in the UK then nothing would have differed. You also have movement rights of 90 days anywhere in the EU every 180 days. Any time spent in Bulgaria does NOT count towards those 90 days as it isn't in Shengen.

Hi Sailingdom,

Yes, I was not legally resident in BG. Very clear. However, if I was resident in the UK in 2020 but applied for a Bulgarian residence permit prior to the transition this would have give me the right to travel to and stay in Bulgaria for more than 90 days.

I imagine that many UK citizens with Bulgarian property would have wanted to avail themselves of this benefit. But the UK Govt's website didn't reference it, as far as I could see. It just implied that the only option was to be legally resident in BG.

Being legally resident, and having a residence permit, are two very different things.

Hi Sailingdom,

I don't think what you are saying is correct – but could be wrong.

Currently, post transition, as a UK citizen I can only visit BG for 90 days in every rolling 180 day period, as you state.

The BG Govt's site https://www.mvr.bg/en/about-the-ministr … out-brexit says “For a stay which is longer than 90 days both UK nationals and their family members will need a valid passport and a visa for long-term residence or a valid residence permit issued by the competent Bulgarian authorities”.

So if I had a residence permit – which I could have arranged last year if the UK Govt had made owners of property in Bulgaria aware of this option in their Brexit Bulgaria pages – then I would be able to stay in BG all year.

(I'm aware of the Shengen point, thanks).

Do you disagree?

Yes, they mean "having residence permit" saying "legally resident". So if you have this permit and ID card everything goes unchanged, you only have to renew the documents.

Hi Vasilev,

Having a residence permit is not the same as being "legally resident". To have been legally resident - at least in terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, you would have needed to “exercise a right to reside” - by being physically located in the host country you were claiming rights in.

However the issue I am raising is not about the provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement.

Prior to the transition, as an EU citizen AND the owner of property in Bulgarian, I could have obtained a long-term Bulgarian residency permit. Any current EU citizen who owns property in Bulgaria can do this, it's easy and cheap to do.

This residency permit gives someone the right to stay in Bulgaria for several years, if they want to. However - and crucially - you don't need to actually reside in Bulgaria in order to obtain this permit. Most UK-EU citizens not living full-time in Bulgaria weren't familiar with this residency permit as it didn't offer any additional benefits to them, as they could visit and stay in Bulgaria whenever they wanted to.

A non-EU citizen (which I am now) can also apply for a Bulgarian residency permit, which gives them the right to stay in Bulgaria all year. However it's a complicated process, very expensive, and the permit lasts for just a year.

On the UK Govt's website pages for Bulgaria, it published a lot of information about Brexit and the Withdrawal Agreement. BUT what it did not do was to make the thousands of UK citizens who own property in Bulgaria aware that they would lose their ability to obtain this Bulgarian residency permit once the UK had left the EU, and that as a property owner it would be highly beneficial for them to get this residency permit as it would allow them to visit and stay in their properties outside the provisions of the withdrawal agreement.

This was an existing right and easy to obtain permit offered by the Bulgaria Govt (not the EU) to UK citizens (as EU citizens) who owned property in Bulgaria that is no longer available to UK citizens after transition.

Why don't you contact the Embassy?

I've already left a message for the Embassy, as well as contacting the FCDO. But suspect it's too late now.

Each country determines its own laws around immigration and residency. The EU can apply over-arching legislation, such as the Withdrawal agreement which was intended to protect certain rights.

I hope that the Bulgarian government makes an allowance for UK citizens who own property in their country. While no longer in the EU we are still part of Europe.

You are right, someone could have turned up from UK at the end of Dec and paid the few leva for the residents permit and now potentially have more rights than someone from UK who had a house and visited for many years (but never obtained a residents permit).

I am surprised there wasn't a big push of people trying to get resident cards from various EU countries. Suppose Covid made this very difficult.

I think if you have a third country passport then you will need visa for Shengen areas...that's how i read it...we are the same, although we live in Bulgaria and have done for years, we have a British passport and that means we have to have a visa to stay in the Shengen area countries....if I have misread this then please correct me.....
We usually go to Spain for the winter, and stay over the 90 days but that has never been an issue until now and that UK has left the EU.....I will wait and see what others say on this subject.

@Bullador: Your are right that having a long-term residency permit for BG wouldn't give any additional rights to vist EU countries. My original post about "the wider EU" was wrong.

But I believe it would have allowed us to visit and stay in our home in BG for 12 months a year, should we wish to.

hi
im  from  the  uk  and  was  looking  to  retire   in  Bg  , however  with  Brexit  that ship  as  now  gone and  at  this  time  not looking  good.
Iv  been  in  touch although  it  took  me  a  bit  of  time   to  contact  the  right GOV .UK  department.
In a  nutshell  most  of  EC  is  in  the  green   zone , however UK,Bulgaria,Rumania,Cyprus and Croatia at  this  time   are in  the Brown zone. So   for  example if you went   to France your  40 days  from  that time and you may  go  to  other green  zone EU countries in  that period for  up  to  40 days ,then you  must  leave. You then can  go to any Brown  zone country ie  Bulgaria for  90 days , then say Rumania for  90 days. You cant go say to  France  for 90 days then a weekend  in  Rome for   instance ,but  you  can go  to  the brown zone countries for up to  90 days. Make sense ?  i   hope. 
90 days Bulgaria then 90 days Rumania   then  90 days back  to  Bg is  an  option   for  me. However renting is  the only option unless you buy in  both countries .
The powers  that  be  are  looking  at  a  12 months Tourist Visa if ?  that becomes  reality then  for us  Brits its  better than  it  stands now...

From a website an immigration lawyer gave me:

In general the legal opportunities for Immigration to Bulgaria & obtaining of residence in Bulgaria are systematized in 5 groups:
Immigration to Bulgaria  via Property Investment
Residence permit via Registration of Non-trading Representative office of a foreign company in Bulgaria
Residence Permit via Establishing of business enterprise with more than 10 local employees for more than 6 months.
Investment in amount of 512 000 euro in government bonds;
Creating of a Bulgarian Ltd Company by shares with capital of 3,12 million euro

Yes, there's up to date info (for EU citizens) on the BG Govt's website https://www.mvr.bg/gabrovo/%D0%B0%D0%B4 … -their-fam


However prior to 31 Dec 20, if you were a UK national in the UK who owned property in BG you could have applied as an EU citizen for a long-term residency permit. The link is here:

https://www.mvr.bg/migration/en/adminis … ly-members

You would then have had the right to visit BG as and when you wanted, for 5 years from the date of issue. This is a completely separate right to residency rights granted under the Withdrawal agreement. If you got a long-term residency permit before the UK left the EU it would still be valid today.

@Zooldrool - Re your post 18 Jan: Not many people knew about this option, hence the low uptake. The UK Govt heavily promoted the Withdrawal agreement and all the rights it conferred. But they didn't make people aware of existing options to secure residency permits - which were nothing to do with the Withdrawal agreement - before the UK left the EU.

I'm annoyed with myself that I didn't know about this long-term residency permit in BG. But I'm even more annoyed with the relevant part of the Foreign office and British embassy in Sofia, who did know but for whatever reason didn't highlight it.

As far as health insurance goes, there is a new EHIC card that has been issued now known as a GHIC Global Health Insurance Card. I got mine at the beginning of the year, I think this would cover you in an emergency, but check it out for yourself.

mutley wrote:

As far as health insurance goes, there is a new EHIC card that has been issued now known as a GHIC Global Health Insurance Card. I got mine at the beginning of the year, I think this would cover you in an emergency, but check it out for yourself.

Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC)

To be fair there was a big push for people to get residency sorted out, especially those that had property. I have had my property for several years and was advised over 2 years ago to apply for a residency permit even though I did not live in BG full time.

How is it the government's responsibility to make you aware of the changes?

This has been talked about ad nauseum on every BG expat Facebook group and forum since the changes arising from Brexit became apparent. It was also mentioned on the British Embassy in Bulgaria Fb page multiple times.

We only decided to move to Bulgaria last summer but we were immediately aware of the ticking clock. I got myself over to see properties in August, and left POA to get the sale completed without me being there. Then in October, just before the next U.K. lockdown, my husband and I managed a trip over to sort our residency permits.

We did all this in a huge rush, dodging lockdowns and accepting quarantines, knowing we couldn't move over til later this year or even early next year, but also knowing it could be that much harder if we waited. Turns out for us it would have been impossible to get residency post Brexit, we don't meet any of the criteria for the D visa.

I think it was about 18 months back when I became aware of applying for the new Bulgarian ID/ permit, so I agree with you it wasn't kept a secret.

@HelenDinBG: Surely it was entirely the UK Govt's responsibility to have explained the impact of Brexit to its citizens. Who else was responsible for doing this?

I did read everything the Govt published. However it was all about people living in a EU country, even now you can examples of this https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-withdra … ns-rights. And if you were a UK ex-pat, there was a lot of good advice provided.

What the Govt didn't do was address the specific case of owners of property in EU countries – who weren't living in those countries – and advise that they should register in that country so as to establish a right of residency. Which is very different from actually living there – but very significant in terms of the Withdrawal Agreement.

A previous poster who owned property in BG said he had been advised to apply for a residency permit even though he didn't live there full time. Sadly we weren't aware of this option. Might seem strange to some readers.

Best of luck with your move to BG.

Surely they should!

But also, surely the Brexiteers should have been honest about the real impact of Brexit, before they conned Brits into voting for it. Politics is a dirty game.

Sadly, the Government has done all it can to play down the effects of Brexit, to the extent of telling downright lies (e.g. last week's Liz Truss jaunt to India, trumpeting trade deals that haven't happened and an initiative with India that predated Brexit).

It's wrong that this happened to you, and I guess the only moral that can be drawn is the need to draw information from more than one source - especially when that one source has reason to attempt to minimise what is happening.

I am in a similar situation, except I knew what was happening with residency but hadn't bought my Bulgarian house yet, thanks to Covid and a sick hubby preventing my planned trip last year. Now looking into what is needed for the D category visa. It's going to be expensive and an administrative PITB, but it's the only option I'm left with.

I looked at the link and predictably the government site is very vague. There are further links to explore but they don't give any real help. There's not much useful information for anyone there, you always need to dig deeper.

However the information from Bulgaria regarding third country nationals, which we have now become,  has not changed and has been accessible all along.

I don't believe we were just lucky to find out how important it was to get residency before the end of the transition, as I said we only started looking to move abroad mid 2020 but I was actively researching on expat forums and Fb groups. The good ones have diligent moderators in regular contact with the embassy, the embassy itself has a FB page which is kept very up to date and you can message them directly. But even the bad ones were talking about these changes.

Too many people ignored the warnings and now face issues like not being able to drive in BG, not meeting Visa requirements to be able to move over permanently, etc.

I suppose this is what happens when you expect the government to take you by the hand and lead you through your daily life instead of getting on with things yourself.

I fortunately went to Bulgaria in December and  got my residency  permit , it took about an hour over 2 visits to the police station complex in Vidin, cost  36 Leva. However it cost me £135 for a covid test on my return to the UK with the test and release scheme.
Trying to drive over soon but Germany has just banned UK citizens due to Covid.

So how much did it cost you in total with Notary costs. Interested to know.

Hello
thanksyou would you kindly tell me how much cost and how to obtain 5 years residence Bulgarian.
Many thanks

hI, we also did our new residency card update in April, we paid 42 lv in the notary for a declaration to say we could keep ourselves financially, then we went back to immigration and paid 7 lvs each, i dont know what that was for and we paid for 36lvs for  a 3 day pick up.........but if you want you can just pay 18 lvs and pick up at a later date.........As long as you take with you every document that is required, also a photocopy of your passport, EHIC card, Bulstat card if you have one, copy of notary act for buying property.............then the cost of a translator if needed........

..https://travelbans.org/europe/?fbclid=IwAR2WYc94CWmDTEdF11Ca722egSTXj7G03HBhTUA-zNHq    is a good link for up to date information on most countries