Bulgaria Golden Visa

Bulgaria’s so-called Golden Visa isn’t an official visa class. It’s a market name for the country’s investment-based residence routes, which are aimed at third-country nationals, not tourists.

In practice, many applicants enter Bulgaria on a Type D long-stay visa and then apply for residence on qualifying investment or related grounds. The official framework sits under the Foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria Act, with the Ministry of Interior handling residence permits and the Ministry of Innovation and Growth issuing investment certificates for some routes.

The official materials don’t use the Golden Visa label. They describe a residence-by-investment pathway with several qualifying tiers, including real estate and capital thresholds, priority-investment and startup-related grounds and some routes that can lead directly to permanent residence. That last point matters, because not every investment route in Europe gives you that option.

There’s also a practical catch. The route is still a residence process, so approval isn’t automatic and the paperwork sits with Bulgarian authorities rather than a private program office. The EU Immigration Portal and Bulgarian ministry sources both point to the same basic structure, but they don’t present a single branded program with one fixed set of rules for every applicant.

• Entry route: Many applicants start with a Type D long-stay visa.
• Residence authority: The Ministry of Interior handles residence permits.
• Investment certification: The Ministry of Innovation and Growth issues certificates for certain grounds.
• Outcome: Some qualifying investment routes can lead to permanent residence.

If you’re comparing it with a plain tourist stay, this isn’t that. It’s a legal residence pathway built around investment and other qualifying grounds and the official naming is a lot less glossy than the marketing term suggests.

Bulgaria’s “Golden Visa” is really an investment-based residence route, not a separate visa class. It’s aimed at third-country nationals, meaning people who aren't citizens of the EU, EEA or Switzerland. Tourists and short-stay visitors don’t qualify for this track.

In practice, most applicants enter on a Type D long-stay visa and then apply for residence on investment grounds. The official route can lead to extended residence and in some investment cases, permanent residence is possible.

For the investment routes, the published qualifying thresholds include:

• BGN 600,000: for acquiring real estate or for certain company-capital real-estate structures.
• BGN 250,000: for investment in economically disadvantaged regions, with at least 50% ownership and at least 5 jobs created.
• BGN 2,000,000: for a priority investment project.
• BGN 6,000,000: for investment in the capital of a Bulgarian company whose shares aren't traded on a regulated market.

There are also capital-market, fund and concession-based variants that can support permanent residence. In the company-based routes, the investor has to be a partner or shareholder in the relevant company and some grounds require you to keep the investment and the jobs in place for the residence period.

Family members don’t usually come in at the same time as the main applicant. They can qualify later through family-reunification residence once the principal holder has extended or permanent residence. The official materials only spell out age-specific or dependent-specific rules for family members and minors, not for the investor themselves.

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Bulgaria’s so-called Golden Visa isn’t a separate visa category. In practice, most applicants start with a Type D long-stay visa, then move on to a residence permit tied to investment or another qualifying ground. The route is aimed at third-country nationals, not tourists, so the paperwork is heavier than a standard visit visa.

For the Type D visa, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asks for a fairly specific file. Some of it's routine, some of it's annoying because there’s no wiggle room.

• Passport: valid for at least 18 months, plus copies of the relevant passport pages.
• Photo: one recent passport-style photo.
• Reason for travel: documents justifying the visa request.
• Insurance: medical insurance covering at least EUR 30,000 ($32,640).
• Accommodation: proof of where you’ll stay in Bulgaria.
• Funds: proof of sufficient money to support yourself.
• Police clearance: a certificate showing no criminal record.
• Language and legalization: documents should be translated into Bulgarian and legalized.

The residence stage brings its own list and the official materials don’t give one unified checklist for every investor route. That’s because the documents change depending on the investment ground you use.

• Passport: a copy of the valid passport.
• Accommodation: proof of where you live in Bulgaria.
• Insurance: obligatory medical insurance.
• Means of support: proof of stable, regular and sufficient funds.
• Criminal record: a current certificate.
• Investment evidence: the relevant investment document or certificate from the Ministry of Innovation and Growth or the Bulgarian Investment Agency.
• Ground-specific proof: ownership, company or investment records tied to the exact route you’re using.

That last point matters. If you’re trying to qualify through investment, the ministry and migration authorities will want the paper trail to match the exact legal basis, not a vaguely similar one. If your file is incomplete or the documents aren’t properly legalized, expect delays.

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Bulgaria’s so-called Golden Visa isn’t a separate visa category, so the costs come from the normal long-stay and residence paperwork tied to the investment route. That matters, because the bill is spread across visa, residence and service fees, not one single program charge.

The clearest fixed cost is the Type D long-stay visa. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs lists it at EUR 100 under Article 15(1) and EUR 200 under Article 15(2). Which one applies depends on the legal basis for the application, so applicants shouldn’t assume there’s just one flat visa fee.

After that, the residence fee depends on the permit type:

• Permanent residence permit: BGN 1,000 plus a BGN 10 service fee.
• Prolonged residence up to 1 year: BGN 500 plus a BGN 10 service fee.
• Permanent residence under Article 25(1)(11): BGN 150 plus a BGN 10 service fee.

That spread is annoying, but it’s real. The official tariff doesn’t bundle these into a single “Golden Visa” price, so the final total depends on the exact route and the permit you end up qualifying for.

There are also extra costs, though the official sources don’t fix those amounts. You should expect market-based expenses for insurance, translation and legalization of documents and legal help if you use it. Those can move the total up quickly, especially if your file has several foreign documents.

The official portal doesn’t give a fixed processing time here either, so it’s hard to budget around speed. If you’re planning the move, it’s smarter to set aside more than the minimum official fees and treat the non-government costs as variable, because they usually are.

How to apply

Bulgaria doesn't have a visa officially called a “Golden Visa.” The route people mean is a residence-by-investment application under the Foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria Act and it’s aimed at non-EU, non-EEA and non-Swiss applicants. It leads to permanent residence by investment, then the standard naturalisation track after 5 years of permanent residence.

The first step is choosing a qualifying investment. The legal and program descriptions point to several options, including Bulgarian alternative investment funds or collective investment schemes with a minimum of €512,000, listed shares or bonds at around €1.03 million or a business investment of BGN 500,000 with at least 10 new jobs. Some routes for disadvantaged regions start at BGN 250,000 with 5 jobs. The exact structure matters, so don’t assume every property or company deal will qualify.

Once the investment is in place, you apply for a long-stay Type D visa at a Bulgarian embassy or consulate in your country of residence or citizenship. The official materials and practitioner guides don’t give one fixed government timetable, but D-visa processing is commonly described as taking about 30 working days to 2 months. The visa fee and any card issuance fees aren’t set out in a single central English tariff, so you’ll need to check the embassy and the Migration Directorate directly.

What you’ll usually need

• Passport: valid travel document.

• Police clearance: proof of no criminal record.

• Source of funds: documents showing the money used for the investment is lawful.

• Bank account: a euro account in a FATF-compliant jurisdiction.

• Investment evidence: records showing the qualifying shares, fund units or capital injection.

After the D visa is approved, you enter Bulgaria and file the permanent residence application with the Migration Directorate. That’s the part that turns the investment route into a residency card. The paperwork is still bureaucratic and slow, but it’s the right track if you want permanent status rather than a temporary stay that runs out after a year or two.

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Bulgaria’s investment-based residence route doesn’t run on a one-size-fits-all clock. The official materials split it into prolonged residence, which is generally valid for up to 1 year and permanent residence, which is valid for an unlimited term.

For the prolonged route, the EU Immigration Portal shows the investor path starts with a Type D visa holder, then moves into a residence permit for the relevant term. The Ministry of Interior tariff also points to fees tied to permits valid for up to 1 year. The official portal doesn’t give a fixed cumulative stay limit in months beyond those residence-term rules, so don’t assume there’s a hidden longer cap.

Permanent residence is the cleaner long-term outcome if you qualify for one of the eligible investment grounds. The official service pages say it’s granted for an unlimited term and the research specifically identifies the BGN 6,000,000 company-capital route and certain investment-instrument routes as permanent-residence pathways. That’s the part of the system that actually feels stable.

Renewal is only an issue for the prolonged-residence track. In practice, that means you’re dealing with term-based paperwork rather than a one-and-done status. The official sources used here don’t spell out a standard renewal schedule or a published processing time for every case, so applicants should expect the timeline to depend on the residence category they choose and the documents they submit.

• Prolonged residence: generally up to 1 year.
• Permanent residence: unlimited term.
• Investor entry route: typically begins with a Type D visa, then a residence application.
• Long-term outcome: the official sources show permanent residence is possible, but they don’t present this route as a direct path to citizenship.

If you want a status that doesn’t need regular renewal, the permanent-residence tracks are the ones to look at first. If you’re on the prolonged-residence path, plan around the term on the permit, not around vague promises of a longer stay.

Bulgaria doesn’t publish a special tax deal for the investment-based residence route often called the Golden Visa. The immigration sources we checked are silent on tax-residency triggers, foreign-income treatment, treaty handling and reporting duties, so there’s no official immigration-page answer to lean on here.

That matters because residence and tax residence aren’t the same thing. Getting a residence permit through investment may open the door to stay in Bulgaria, but it doesn’t automatically tell you how Bulgaria will treat your income, where you’ll be taxed or what you’ll need to report.

What the official sources do confirm: this is an investment-to-residence pathway for third-country nationals, not a tourist visa. Applicants usually enter on a Type D long-stay visa first, then apply for residence based on investment or another qualifying ground.

The other big point is that the post-approval status can be permanent in some investment cases. That’s useful for planning, but it still doesn’t answer the tax question by itself.

• No special tax regime is stated: the immigration pages don’t list one for this route.
• No tax-residency rule is confirmed: the official immigration sources don’t spell out when you become a tax resident.
• No foreign-income rule is confirmed: there’s no official immigration-page guidance here on how overseas earnings are treated.
• No reporting guidance is provided: the sources we reviewed don’t set out filing or disclosure obligations tied to the residence route.

That leaves a practical gap and it’s a real one. If you’re considering this route, you’ll need separate tax advice from someone who can look at your full setup, not just the residence file. Immigration approval and tax treatment are handled differently and the official residence pages don’t merge them for you.