Question: Residence permit + Time in the country

So you'd only live in Bulgaria 4 months of the year? Doesn't exactly sound like it's your "residence"...

@JimJ

Have to look into that, it's like pilots. Where they pay their taxes and are stationed. It's a grey area.... One would need to get legal advice.

@CarlS1986

Typically, residence permit applications require that you meet certain conditions in order to qualify. Common options might be work related (self-employed in some capacity, or with a formal employment offer), or retirement related (you're older and you have a pension). When you have a job elsewher or you're too lazy/rich to work (i.e. you don't need the right to work in the country) you would need an option for folks of "independent means".

Not every country has such a visa/residence option. Bulgaria's is the "investor" option for the D visa which requires a 300k euros investment (which can be in property, including one to live in and/or units to rent out). Spain's is the NLV (No Lucrativa Visa) which requires 2.5k euros in monthly passive income, or 30k euros in savings. Portugal has the popular D7 which is similar to the NLV.

As well as the financial requirements, you typically have to have health cover, and a place to live. Thus, immigration wants to see proof of your finances, proof of health insurance, proof of address (a deed or long term rental contract).

They don't usually question you about how long you're going to stay, so your plans for part-time residence are immaterial. However, most residence options do have some minimum stay requirements and you'd have to observe them or risk losing your residence status. Some might be 6 months or more per year, but most have shorter minimums. In most places, 4 months annually would be plenty (and you might be able to get away with significantly less).

While most folks get residence permits for a country they plan to live in full-time, and indefinitely, it's not required. As @JimJ indicates, your preference is not typical, but it can happen. Some people might want a fancy holiday villa on the beach in Spain, and be free to stay there for long holidays if they want to (rather than being restricted to 90 days, with a 90 days break, per Schengen rules). Or maybe they plan to retire there later in 10 or 20 years. Some people might be working in a high-cost but high salary country (like Germany), but want to retire to a low-cost country (like Bulgaria or Thailand). Some people (perhaps like you) might earn a fancy offshore or remote worker salary, and might like to have official residence in a low tax jurisdiction (such as Bulgaria, with 10% flat tax). Some might be non-EU citizens (such as Brits) who feel (as I do) that it's extremely useful to have legal residence somewhere in the EU. Especially as there are clear pathways to permanent residence, an EU passport, and access to/portability of public health coverage. (After 5 years of legal residence you qualify for PR status which is pretty much indefinite, and very hard to lose, even if you spend considerable time away. After that, you can potentially qualify for your passport.)

I have a legal residence in Bulgaria, and I have a permanent residence permit. However, I still have my residence permits for both Cyprus and Spain. Originally, I would have said that Bulgaria can't compete with either of these countries which are (deservedly) very popular tourist and retirement destinations. However, Bulgaria has really grown on me, and it's certainly far cheaper for property purchase, living costs and health care coverage. Consequently, I now spend most of my time in Bulgaria, and just a few days/weeks in Cyprus and Spain. That's so little, I could equally visit with my 90 days visa-free per my UK passport. But I like having my permits, and being able to go any time I want and to stay as long as I want. After all, I might change my mind and decide to spend a year in our Spanish apartment to brush up my Spanish rather than treating it as a holiday flat. (My Brazilian partner already spent a lot more time there than me, and she recently got her Spanish passport.) As you can see, there's no legal barrier to having multiple residence permits, and with annual visits I'm in no danger of losing either of these permits. (On the other hand, I also had Panama and Chile residence permits, but my long absence would mean they were no longer valid, even if I had returned before they expired.)

Agree with what gwynj said at the end of his post. Even though the title is "resident" or "permanent" residence visa, you can have more than one across many different countries.

You just have to maintain the minimum in country presence (if any). For example , I also have permanent residence in South America (and only need to go once every two years to maintain it).

Thanks for the replies

@Jimj, yes, one year it would be around 4 months but the next year it would be 8 months.

I'm just looking at my options as my career looks as tho it's coming to an end due to a medical issue. If I receive a medical discharge, I'm possibly looking at a small pension that I could use to go the D visa route, if I don't get the pension I will need to look at other ways to spend more time in the country, I already have a house, but I can't see how I can spend 300k on it, well… maybe after 10 years or more.

I'm also looking at possible jobs to ensure I can live and be doing something I would like to do, I aim to make Bulgaria my main residence once my time in the army is completed, I'm happy to pay tax and comply with the legal system, it just looks a little like they only want retirees at the moment.

I'll keep looking and once I have found a route ill look into it.

@gwynj, if I were to get a Spanish NLV or Portugal D7, I can't use them to live in Bulgaria, can I?

Carl, I think some of the replies here may be less relevant to your situation, depending on what category of residency you have. Different countries have different requirements, and pre-Brexit rules are very different to post-Brexit for Brits.

My understanding is that for Bulgaria, there's no requirement to spend a certain amount of time in-country for Brits who got their residence pre-Brexit, or those who now apply to get residency via investment. Bg does however have a residency requirement for other D visa categories post-Brexit.

To qualify for permanent residency, you'd need to show you maintained continuous and legal residence in Bulgaria during the five-year period. That doesn't mean all your time in Bulgaria, but it does mean you need to spend more time in Bulgaria than away working, even if it's only one more day per year there than you were away.

But I'm not sure whether that requirement applies every year or can be spread across all five years, so you could spend most time away the first two years provided you were there almost all the time the next three years. I hope someone who's been through the process post-Brexit can answer that!

The pension route to D visa for someone of working age requires a pension at least equal to the Bulgarian minimum wage. Next year's minimum is 1077 BGN, the equivalent of 459 GBP at the current exchange rate. If your work pension will be at least that, you should be fine for the retirement option.

I hope it all works out for you!

@CarlS1986

If you can qualify for a Bulgarian residence permit, it's a good option, especially if you already have a house here. Definitely gets my vote. :-) The Bulgarian minimum wage is pretty low, so I'd be surprised if a British disability pension was lower. Even if it is, you can still visit your house every year (up to 3 months in 6). 6/6/6/6 is the same time here as your proposed 4/8/4/8. :-) And you wait patiently for a few years until your state pension kicks in, when your combined pensions would definitely qualify.

This is a non-working visa, so you'd have to bear that in mind. Probably limits you to remote working or cash-in-jobs, but it might be feasible to incorporate a Bulgarian company and put any income through that.

The 300k for the investment option is up-front, rather than over time, unfortunately.

If Bulgaria isn't an option, and you want to be legal somewhere in the EU, then Portugal and Spain are nice options. And relatively inexpensive (compared to UK). The NLV and D7 are very popular residence visas, partly because the financial requirements are quite low. If you already have a home in Bulgaria, this is less attractive option.

Officially, a residence permit from one EU country (e.g. Spain) allows you to stay visa-free for up to 90 days in 180 days in any other EU country (e.g. Bulgaria). This is the same as your UK passport, and allows you 6 months here per year. However, if we continue to have open borders within Schengen zone members, then I'm not sure how they'd check whether you overstayed. Certainly we (as both non-EU passport holders) got a lot less aggravation from border folks once we had our EU permits. The advantage of an EU permit is that you can get an EU driving license (and an EU registered vehicle), and get yourself enrolled in the local public health system (with an EHIC for use in Bulgaria). You've also started the clock on your 5 years to permanent residence. This gives you protected EU status, and does make it easier to officially relocate elsewhere in EU (Bulgaria recognizes PRs on a similar basis to EU passport holders).

We've just renewed our residency cards here in the Burgas region and are now eligible for ten year cards in the coming summer. Thankfully we managed without a translator and the only one next to the officer doesn't speak English only Bulgarian and Russian which wasn't any use to us.