Procedure for acquiring of Bulgarian citizenship.

Dear expats,

I would like to inform you regarding few options for acquiring of Bulgarian citizenship.
As EU member Bulgaria is attractive destination for foreigners who want to invest in one of the fast developing countries in EU. For that reason Bulgarian government have develop investment immigration program. Which have the goal to attract foreign investments towards the Bulgarian economy. The program provides opportunity to foreign investors and their families to receive Bulgarian residency - EU citizenship respectively.
I. Financial requirements for acquiring of Bulgarian permanent residence permit.
In order for foreign investor to apply for Bulgarian permanent residence permit, the individual should invest 1 000 000 BGN /approx. 511 292 EUR/. The investment can be made into 3 methods:
1. The acquisition of Government bonds;
2. The acquisition of shares in a Bulgarian company listed on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange;
3. Depositing the amount of 1 000 000 BGN /approx. 511 292 EUR/ in licensed credit institution under trust agreement for the period of not less than 5 years.
4. Depositing the amount of 1 000 000 BGN /approx. 511 292 EUR/ in licensed Bulgarian bank for the period 5 years. At the end of the five year period the amount will be returned to the investor with no accrued interest. During the 5 years period the investment is guaranteed and secured by the Bank.
*Having these financial requirements met will make you legible only for acquiring of Bulgarian permanent residence permit. Which gives you the rights to enter and leave Bulgarian territory, but upon this permit you won't be able to travel in the rest of EU member states. If you want to have the ability to travel freely in the other EU countries a Bulgarian citizenship should be acquired.
II. Financial requirements for acquiring of Bulgarian citizenship.
In order for foreign investor to apply for Bulgarian citizenship the individual should have 1 year of permanent residence permit, which can be acquired by meeting with the financial requirements in the previous paragraph. The second requirement is that the foreign investor should increase its initial investment to the amount of 2 000 000 BGN /approx. 1 022 584 EUR/. The increase of the investment could be made by the same terms as the initial investment or invested in one of the ways mentioned above.
*Bulgarian citizenship will give the right to every Bulgarian passport holder to travel freely in all of the EU member states and will give the right to travel without visa requirements to more than  141 states worldwide.
III. Additional requirements for acquiring of Bulgarian permanent residence permit and Bulgarian citizenship.
To participate in the investment immigration program, foreign investors should meet the following criteria:
1. Individual should be 18 years of age or more.
2. Individual shouldn't be citizen in any of the EU member states.
3. Applicant should meet the financial requirements described above.
4. Applicant should have no criminal record.
IV. Benefits from acquiring Bulgarian citizenship.
There are a lot of benefits that acquiring of Bulgarian citizenship can bring:
1. Right to travel in all EU member states and free visa travel in more than 141 states worldwide.
2. Right to live, work or study in all EU member states, without any restrictions.
3. The applicant and his family members are exempted from the obligation to live in Bulgaria during the residence period.
4. 10% flat tax rate.

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I have searched in google and i found that any foreigner can get bulgarian citizenship after 3 years if he/she get married with bulguarian citizen. Is it true?

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No, that is not true. I am married to a Bulgarian and have looked into it. If you are not EU, to get citizenship through marriage you need to live in Bulgaria on a long-term residence permit for 5 years. (Renewing every year or every six months and paying a residence tax of around 500lv a year.) After that, you need to live in Bulgaria for five years with a permanent residence permit (Renew once, 1000 lev tax, but it is good for as long as you live in Bulgaria for six months out of the year, potentially your whole life). Then you can apply for citizenship (so, 10 years in Bulgaria total).

If you have a Bulgarian child, you can get a permanent residence after only 3 years of long-term residence, but you still need 5 years of permanent residence to apply for citizenship. If you are EU I believe you can get permanent residence immediately and apply for citizenship after 5 years. (But I am not sure for the EU part, as I am not EU).

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You can apply for a citizenship if you live and have the residence card for 10 years.
But you can still live in BG if you have a company doing business in BG

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I put the link here: http://www.bulgarian-citizenship.com/bu … p-marriage
if it is not true, why do they lie? The population of Bulgaria is decreasing.

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Hmm... looking up the law it does say 3 years after granted permanent residence if you are married. I will have to ask at my immigration office. But it is still five years of long-term permit before you are granted permanent residence, so it would still be 8 years total, not just 3.

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simply find somebody that speaks bulgarian and visit nearest immigration center :)

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hesambase wrote:

I put the link here: http://www.bulgarian-citizenship.com/bu … p-marriage
if it is not true, why do they lie? The population of Bulgaria is decreasing.


Well decreasing population means people work abroad, but they keep their property and most of them don't plan on leaving the country forever.
****

Anyways, 10 yrs is the time to obtain BG citizenship and there are more liberal countries in EU.

Moderated by Bhavna 6 years ago
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Yep! 10 years

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I have met the guys from VD&A  and was told that I need to live 3 years in the country first (if I have a Bulgarian child), then another 5 years of permanent residency = total of 8 years at least. The worse is that there is Bulgarian language exam at the end and if you are virtually not fluent in Bulgarian, you will be not able to take the test and consequentially the citizenship. They recommend starting Bulgarian language courses at least one year prior to submitting the application. There have been companies, they told me, that have been able to cut some corners and arrange citizenship application without language tests, but with the recent EU regulations (strengthened), the citizenship has been later LEGALLY revoked.

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Careful! Do things legally. Start taking classes now and have Bulgarian friends, you learn more with them then the classes, that's how I learnt and I'm almost fluent in BG

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Learn more with friends than in classes ? Really ??

:)

Yes, that is possible, but only if you are already at level B2 ++

On the other side it is still possible even for lower levels, but will take you 5-6 year at least. Do you have 5-6 yrs ??

And if you consider your Bulgarian is so good, that you're almost fluent, try taking a simple test, for low level students, here:

BG placement test


or alternatively try translating an article from a newspaper/magazine ....

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I think that obtaining Bulgarian citizenship is at least as hard as any other EU citizenship as it requires basically 10 years or residency. At the end, the discussed above language test is required as well as the surrender of your current passport (with some rare exceptions). The big "giveaway" in Bulgaria is the citizenship by investment, but of course you have to possess the 2 000 000 lev. If you do, comparing Bulgarian with other EU citizenship programs, like the ones in Malta and Cyprus, the Bulgarian one looks like a gift from the government. I recommend reading the comparison between the EU programs at http://bulgarian-citizenship.org/bulgar … tizenships

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How many people have €1,500,000 - €200,000,000 spare to invest?

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This will be shut down anyway, so don't waste your money. Hungary has already abolished this and it is a model for Bulgaria. Many things in Europe will change in 10 years!

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kojidae wrote:

Hmm... looking up the law it does say 3 years after granted permanent residence if you are married. I will have to ask at my immigration office. But it is still five years of long-term permit before you are granted permanent residence, so it would still be 8 years total, not just 3.


Experience have taught me that most lawyers, emphasis on 'most', don't dwell much on stipulations that allow non EU spouses who are married to Bulgarian citizens to acquire citizenship. Basic reasons is that it is not very profitable compared to citizenship by investment programs. So most of their info on the non EU spouses are either outdated or generalized. Therein lies the rub..

As per the Bulgarian Citizenship Act or Law article 13 (check for the amendments starting from 2012) , " A person who is not Bulgarian citizen, meets the requirements of Art. 12, item 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 and, for no less than 3 years by the date of filing the application for naturalization has obtained permit for permanent or long term stay in the Republic of Bulgaria, can acquire Bulgarian citizenship if he meets one of the following requirements:
1. he has and maintains legally concluded marriage with Bulgarian citizen for a period no less
than 3 years;.... "

So you see the "long term" and the  "permanent permit" are now both in play. In fact you no longer need a permanent permit if you are legally married to a Bulgarian citizen and has a long term permit of at least 3 years, technically speaking, to acquire citizenship. The best range might be within 4 years  depending on the date of application, but it can be done in 3 years (assuming you got the conditions right)

Another part is residence requirement. If you are a spouse of a Bulgarian citizen you are no longer required to stay in Bulgaria in order to renew your permit. As a matter of fact the only time you are needed physically is when you submit the application and get photographed plus biometrics. This is not a theory, I have done it twice. The embassy officials I asked and many lawyers did not believe it could be done.

As for language requirements, that is a very teeny tiny price to pay to be a citizen in one of the friendliest places in the world and awesome people, one of them - my wife :)

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