Making the move, mind made up.

Welcome to the expat.com forum, and good luck with your new life in Bulgaria!

Since Brexit, it's much harder for Brits to get residence here, as we now have to comply with the non-EU citizens regime of D visa (in the Bulgarian Embassy, London) followed by a residence application in Bulgaria. There are a number of ways to qualify, but most are not easy/cheap. Whereas, once you have a pension (regardless of your age) this is one of the easiest justifications for granting the D visa.

Until you have official residence, can spend only 90 days in any 180 days here (visa free). And you can't legally work, unfortunately. Plus I'm not sure you would find labouring pay rates very appetizing. :-)

My advice would depend a lot on whether you have an official pension already, even though you are sprightly young fellow. And how determined you are to move full-time now-ish, rather than dividing your time between UK/BG for x number of years until the pension starts.

The non-EU issue also affects your property purchase, in that a house + garden will need to be purchased via a Bulgarian company. This could be an issue now, or later, depending on when the seller of the pay-monthly property is transferring the official ownership to you at the notary.

Separately, yes, the cost of living, and the cost of property (acquisition, renovation, property taxes, utility bills) are relatively low. Your pension(s) would go much further here than in the UK. However, a low-cost country has lower salaries too, so it becomes much less attractive if you still have to earn a living (unless you can be a "remote worker" for a UK company at UK or near-UK pay rates).

Hi Shane! What Gwyn said about the D visa! Brexit has made it far more difficult to move pre-retirement. There are a few of us here waiting for retirement age to make the move.
I'm 61, so a lot closer than you are. Waiting twenty-something years to move doesn't sound a tempting option, though it does give you plenty of time to fix your house up!
If you want to make the full move now, rather than spending half your time in Bg and half in the UK, you and your wife need to look carefully at the D visa options, and maybe even consider spending some money to consult with an immigration lawyer. Unfortunately none of the D visa options are easy to obtain, apart from the retirement based one, which is not age dependent but requires that you're receiving a pension of some sort that's at least equal to the Bulgarian minimum wage (640 lev per month). The other options require a sponsoring employer; or that you own a business employing ten Bulgarians; or freelance /remote work contracts AND Bulgarian language proficiency; or that you have a big chunk of money to invest in Bg... You get the idea! This is by an immigration law company and I am not recommending them, but the site does have some useful info: https://immigration2bulgaria.com/bulgarian-visas/
Labouring work is very low paid in Bg, 20 lev a day, last I heard. You might be able to get some work helping a British builder, but that wouldn't be legal work and wouldn't help you get your visa unfortunately. If you have specific manufacturing skills from past jobs or your wife has specialised retail experience that might tempt a Bulgarian employer to do the mass of paperwork involved in sponsoring you, that could be worth trying. I think I'm correct that once one of you gets a D visa, the other can then get their D visa on the "family member" option.
I hope you can find a way to make it work!

Hi Shane, what is your profession if I may ask?

Based on the 40 Google reviews, this emigration-law practice 'New Balkans Law Office' in Sofia offers exclusive service to its clients. Hopefully, this will help you.

https://www.newbalkanslawoffice.com/

I agree with #janemulberry that consulting a lawyer first is the best way to go.

Bulgarian D visa:

Easy peasy for students and retirees. Otherwise, the three popular, but more difficult options are:

(a) Get a job offer in Bulgaria (with an employer who's happy to go through the immigration process) so you can get a D visa via Employment.

(b) If you're planning on learning Bulgarian to a decent standard (you need to get the relevant certificate), then that would enable you to get the D visa as a Freelancer.

If I were doing it, I would come over to Bulgaria for a long holiday (we're allowed 3 months visa-free), and I would find a month intensive Bulgarian language course for beginners (maybe near the sea in Varna or Bourgas). Then go somehere else (maybe Sofia) and do another month intensive course at intermediate level, and take the appropriate exam at the end. It's a couple of months and a couple of thousand euros. Not nothing, but not a major obstacle either.

(c) You can get the D visa as the Trade Representative Office (TRO) of a non-Bulgarian company, but this requires a couple of years of history in the overseas entity. If you already have your own business, then it's straightforward.

If not, you could set one up in the UK (or elsewhere) now, and put a bit of a freelance work through it over next 2 years. The amount of turnover is not very important, it just has to be in existence for a certain time, and be up to date on taxes and any corporate fees (in "good standing"). I'd imagine there are some lawyers with friends in the TRO office who can probably get this with less time since incorporation. UK companies have quite low incorporation and maintenance fees, so it's not a huge expense to have one for a couple of years (less than £500 maybe). But 2 years to a D visa via TRO is certainly a lot quicker than 20-odd years to a D visa via a UK state pension!

You should note that only one of you needs to jump through these extra hoops. Once one has the D visa, they can get residence. And wife/husband of resident also greatly simplifies D visa/residence process.

Serbia, the easier Balkan option:

I like Bulgaria a great deal, and very happy to recommend it. But Brexit has definitely made moving to somewhere warmer in the EU quite a bit harder for British citizens. Our neighbour is Serbia, and it has a similar culture, climate, and cost of living. It has a much easier residence regime where you go straight for residence (no long term visa required first), and you qualify by either buying a Serbian property, or incorporating a Serbian company (with business bank account). The Serbian company is the option chosen by freelancers.

Unfortunately, Ebay doesn't have much in the way of Serbian properties, so no pay-monthly options.

While Serbia is probably a viable choice in its own right, it could also be a stepping stone to Bulgaria. WIth a Serbian company (instead of a UK company) you are still on the clock towards Bulgarian D visa via TRO. But the Serbian company gets you residence there immediately. It's easy to divide your time between Serbia and Bulgaria, as when your 90 days (in 180 days) is up in Bulgaria, you just drive for a few hours back over the border.