Bulgaria Golden Visa

Bulgaria’s so-called “Golden Visa” isn’t a golden passport and it doesn’t hand out citizenship on the spot. The old citizenship-by-investment scheme was scrapped in 2022. What’s left is a residence-by-investment route under the Law on Foreigners, usually aimed at non-EU, non-EEA and non-Swiss applicants who can put real money into Bulgaria and clear due-diligence checks.

In practice, the headline route is the one tied to permanent residence. The commonly cited threshold is BGN 1,000,000 or about €512,000, invested in qualifying Bulgarian assets such as collective or alternative investment funds, shares or similar approved instruments. The investment has to be maintained for a set period, which is commonly treated as five years in practice. Keep the money in place and the residence basis stays alive. Pull it too early and you can run into problems.

There’s also a separate real-estate path, but it’s not the same thing. That route starts with BGN 600,000, roughly €307,000, in Bulgarian property and leads to a renewable long-term residence permit. After five years of continuous long-term residence on that basis, you may be able to apply for permanent residence, if the investment is still in place and you meet the other conditions.

The paperwork side isn't mysterious, but it's picky. Applicants generally need to pass due diligence, show a lawful source of funds and have no criminal record. The usual administrative sequence is:

• Step 1: Obtain or hold a Bulgarian long-stay D visa from a Bulgarian embassy or consulate abroad.
• Step 2: Enter Bulgaria and apply at the Migration Directorate for the relevant residence status.
• Step 3: Keep the qualifying investment in place for the required period.
• Step 4: If eligible, follow the normal naturalisation rules later, rather than expecting automatic citizenship.

This route is really for people who want residence, not a quick passport. Bulgaria can be a sensible base, but the investment rules are strict and the legal labels are messy, so don’t rely on marketing language alone.

Bulgaria’s so-called “golden visa” is really a residence-by-investment route, not a citizenship-for-cash scheme. The citizenship version was abolished in 2022, so anyone selling it as a fast passport is behind the curve.

The main route is for third-country nationals, which means non-EU, non-EEA and non-Swiss citizens. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens don’t need this program at all, since they already have free-movement rights in Bulgaria.

To qualify, you generally need to be an adult, hold a valid Type D visa before applying for residence and pass the usual background and security checks. The authorities also expect a clean criminal record and proof that the money you’re investing comes from a lawful source. That anti-money-laundering part matters and it’s one of the spots where sloppy paperwork gets people stuck.

The clearest investment route is the one tied to Bulgarian alternative investment funds or similar qualifying structures. The headline figure is 1,000,000 BGN, which is commonly quoted as about €512,000. The investment has to be maintained for at least five years.

Other practitioner-reported routes appear to exist, but the official English-language paperwork doesn’t lay everything out in one neat place. Those include:

• Company investment route: at least €256,000 in a Bulgarian company, with ownership of at least 50%, plus new long-term fixed assets and at least 10 jobs for Bulgarian citizens.
• Higher-value investment routes: some summaries mention around €1,024,000 in Bulgarian shares, bonds or certified priority investment projects.

There isn’t a recurring income test for the investment-based route itself. That’s different from Bulgaria’s work and freelance permits, where income thresholds do apply. Here, the focus is on the size of the investment, the source of funds and whether you pass the standard suitability checks.

Family members can usually follow through family reunification once the main investor’s status is in place, though the exact list of eligible relatives isn’t set out cleanly in one public government page. Spouses and dependent children are the safest categories to expect. Anything beyond that gets more case-specific.

What this program doesn’t do is hand you Bulgarian citizenship. It’s a residence path and the permanent part refers to residence status, not a passport. That distinction trips people up all the time.

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Bulgaria doesn’t sell a separate “golden visa” sticker. Investor applicants still go through the ordinary long-stay Type D visa route, then the residence permit process with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Migration Directorate.

That means the paperwork is the same bureaucratic grind you’d expect from any Bulgarian residence case, plus proof that your investment actually qualifies. The official government portals don’t publish one neat investor-only checklist, so you need to work from the standard visa and residence rules and add investment documents on top.

Type D visa documents

• Passport: valid for at least 3 months beyond your intended departure, issued within the last 10 years and with at least 2 blank pages.
• Passport copy: a photocopy of the first page of your travel document.
• Visa application form: completed and signed.
• Photo: one recent color photo, 3.5 x 4.5 cm, on a light background.
• Insurance: medical insurance valid across EU member states with at least €30,000 in coverage.
• Proof of subsistence, accommodation and transport: the official page asks for evidence of money, where you’ll stay and how you’ll travel.
• Interview: the consulate requires a personal interview for Type D visas.

The MFA doesn’t publish a fixed euro amount for proof of funds on the Type D page, so don’t trust random agent numbers as official. The standard is “sufficient means,” and consulates decide what that means in practice.

Residence permit documents

• Fee receipt: BGN 10 state processing fee for the permanent residence application.
• Passport copy: the pages with your photo, personal details and visa, with the original shown for comparison.
• Financial means: proof of stable, regular and sufficient support, at least equal to the Bulgarian minimum monthly salary or pension.
• Criminal record certificate: from your country of nationality or habitual residence.
• Accommodation proof: a rental contract or ownership documents, plus the landlord’s declaration if you’re renting.
• Type D visa: required for first-time residence applications if you haven’t already held legal stay in Bulgaria.
• Investment evidence: documents showing the qualifying investment and, when requested, the source and lawfulness of the funds.

For investors, that last point is the one that usually takes the most time. The official portals confirm the investment basis, but they don’t spell out a single document pack for every case, so expect the Migration Directorate to ask for whatever proves the money trail cleanly.

Bulgaria’s investor route doesn’t come with a neat government price sheet. The state publishes the legal thresholds and the permit fees, but anything marketed by private firms as a “Golden Visa” package can add its own service charges on top. Those extras aren’t standardized, so treat them case by case.

The real money is the investment itself. For a long-term residence path tied to real estate, the minimum is BGN 600,000 or about €306,000 ($330,000). Other investor routes start at BGN 250,000 for certain company investments in economically disadvantaged regions, but that route also comes with asset and job-creation conditions.

• Real estate route: BGN 600,000 minimum investment
• Economically disadvantaged region route: BGN 250,000 capital injection, plus BGN 250,000 in new assets and at least five jobs
• Permanent residence by investment: BGN 1,000,000 to BGN 6,000,000 depending on the asset class

If you’re aiming for permanent residence, the thresholds get much steeper. Bulgaria lists BGN 1,000,000 for units in collective investment schemes or alternative funds, BGN 2,000,000 for shares or bonds on a regulated market or for priority projects and BGN 6,000,000 for a private Bulgarian company. That’s the part that makes this route expensive, not the paperwork.

The government fees themselves are pretty blunt:

• Long-term residence application fee: BGN 500
• Permanent residence application fee: BGN 1,000
• Filing confirmation fee: BGN 10
• Family member long-term residence fee: BGN 150

Long-term residence decisions are usually made within 14 days, though the authorities can add up to one month in complex cases. Permanent residence takes up to two months, with a possible extension of another two months if the file needs more review.

You’ll also need a Type D visa before you can apply for residence inside Bulgaria. The official consular fee isn’t published in one central English-language tariff, so check the Bulgarian mission that handles your application. Expect to budget for private health insurance too, because Bulgaria requires valid medical coverage and doesn’t publish a fixed premium for it.

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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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Duration & Renewal

There isn’t a real “golden visa” in Bulgarian law anymore. The old investor citizenship route was abolished in 2022, so what gets marketed as a Bulgaria Golden Visa is usually a normal residence path based on investment, then governed by Bulgaria’s standard immigration rules.

If you’re starting from outside Bulgaria, the first step is usually a type D long-stay visa. For most long-term settlement cases, it’s issued for up to six months and gives you a right to stay for up to 180 days. It isn’t a renewable visa in practice, so you use it to enter Bulgaria and then switch to a residence permit before it runs out.

After that, the timing depends on the permit you get. Temporary residence is typically issued for up to one year at a time and can be renewed while the underlying ground still exists. Long-term EU residence is issued for up to five years and the card itself is renewed when it expires if you still meet the conditions.

Permanent residence is the cleanest version of the investor route. The status is indefinite, but the physical residence card is usually valid for up to five years and has to be replaced on expiry. The state fee for a permanent residence application is 10 BGN, though the official English-language materials don’t give a fixed renewal fee for the card itself.

The main downside is that the rules are spread across general immigration law, not one neat program page. So the exact duration depends on the legal basis you apply under and the paperwork can change with the category.

• Type D visa: Up to 6 months or up to 1 year in some special categories.
• Temporary residence: Usually 1 year at a time, renewable.
• Long-term EU residence: Up to 5 years, with renewal on card expiry.
• Permanent residence: Indefinite status, with a card usually valid for 5 years.

For citizenship later on, permanent or long-term residents need to hold that status for at least five years before applying under the standard naturalisation route.

Bulgaria’s Golden Visa or residence by investment route, doesn’t come with a special tax break. Holders are taxed under the same ordinary Bulgarian rules as everyone else, so your bill depends on tax residence and where the income comes from, not on the visa itself.

The main trigger is tax residency. Bulgaria treats you as a tax resident if you have a permanent address and your centre of vital interests is there, if you spend more than 183 days in any 12-month period in the country or if your personal and economic ties are clearly centered in Bulgaria. The visa doesn’t change that. It’s immigration status, not a tax label.

• Residents: taxed on worldwide income.
• Non-residents: taxed only on Bulgarian-source income.
• Standard personal income tax: 10% flat rate on most taxable income.
• Dividends and liquidation proceeds: usually 5% final tax.
• Bank interest: interest from EU and EEA accounts is generally exempt, while non-EU and non-EEA account interest is taxed at 10%.

If you become a Bulgarian tax resident through the Golden Visa, your foreign income can also fall into the Bulgarian tax net. That includes salary, business income, dividends, interest and capital gains, although double-tax treaty relief and foreign tax credits may reduce or eliminate double taxation. The treaty rules matter a lot here and they can override the domestic residency test in tie-break situations.

For non-residents, Bulgaria taxes Bulgarian-source income only. That usually covers rent from Bulgarian property, income from work done in Bulgaria and certain gains tied to Bulgarian assets. The standard rate is still usually 10%, though the filing or withholding setup can change depending on the income type.

The practical takeaway is pretty simple: don’t assume investment residence gives you a softer tax deal. It doesn’t. If you’re planning to spend time in Bulgaria or keep earning abroad while living there, speak to a tax adviser early so you don’t get caught by residency rules, treaty gaps or reporting obligations in two countries at once.