DN visa in Bulgaria

Mike, the requirements for the digital nomad visa should be on the embassy or consulate website in Israel, but if not, here's the list on the UK Embassy website. For a freelancer with multiple income sources all earned online,t he digital nomad type C may be the one you need. Scroll to the final category on the page to see the digital nomad requirements:  https://www.bgconsullondon.co.uk/long-t … a-bulgaria

You will need proof of residence in Bulgaria, a clean criminal record check from your country of residence, compulsory health insurance, proof of meeting the earnings requirement in the previous year, and if you have earnings from multiple sources you do need to have at least one contract. All the requirements are listed on the website.

If you can show you earned over 27,550 euros from your main employer in 2025 and can get them to provide some sort of contract that should be good enough. I don't think it necessarily needs to guarantee a specific income, just that you are still employed by them on a freelance basis.

I'm about to apply for the digital nomad visa in London, and I would rate my chances as 50/50, because like you my income comes from multiple sources and I don't have a single one that paid enough in 2025 so I need to cobble together a patchwork of earnings.

I'm not sure what you mean by first and second application. Do you mean applying first for the D visa in your country of residence, and then applying for one year residency in Bulgaria? If so, you just take all the same paperwork and your passport with the D visa stamped in it to the regional immigration office for where you'll be living in Bulgaria. If you mean extending for a second year,  I'm not entirely sure, but I think it's probably taking all the same paperwork back to the local immigration office before your residency card expires.

As far as I know, there isn't anyone here who has applied under this category yet as it's quite new, so I haven't been able to talk to anyone with real-life experience applying for it.

@Mike J1234

You should also be aware that anti-Israeli sentiment is on the increase in the Balkans..

And please - can someone help me understand what do I need to have for the first application for the D visa and what for the second application? Or is it exactly the same apart from the official document?

First app is D visa at your local BG embassy. WIth the D visa you can enter Bulgaria and apply for residence. 2nd app (in BG, at your local immigration office) is for formal residence (and your BG residence permit). I think you show the same docs/proofs each time.

@Mike J1234

I think you have to be able to prove *something* with applicable documents. You can either be (a) an employee (but a remote one, of a non-Bulgarian company), or (b) an independent professional/self-employed/contractor/remote worker/Digital Nomad with contracts with one or more non-Bulgarian companies, or (c) an owner of your own non-Bulgarian company (through which you funnel your freelancing/contract income). It would be rather unusual to freelance for a company with no contract of any kind, but I suppose it's possible that it's very informal and you just invoice them (but then you'd have the invoices).

Having (owning) your own foreign company or being an employee of a foreign company are probably the easiest to prove. I think being an independent freelancer works even without contracts, as long as you can show you've done this for at least a year (i.e. you have multiple invoices/emails/contracts from the last years that support your claim to be an independent professional / Digital Nomad).

Separately, you have to prove a certain amount of income from your freelancing activities i.e. the invoice isn't proof that you received the money! :-) I think it's 31,000 euros. If you're employed by an American company (for example) at, say, $40k pa, and you have an employment contract, I think this document satisfies both requirements (i.e. work type and income). Otherwise, you probably have to show your bank statements that support that you've been receiving the 31,000 euros pa (or 2,600 euros per month) in freelance payments from one or more companies.

Separately, you have the general D visa requirements which include application form, photo, criminal record check (I think), proof of address (property deed/rental contract in BG), proof of health insurance (Health Insurance for Foreigners policy, very cheap), proof of funds (savings, minimum wage in BG x 6 months, so 4k euros and over should be fine).

The current required earnings amount for a digital nomad D visa is 27,550 euro earned in 2025. For applicants next year, it is likely to be over 31,000 euro earned in 2026. It's based on a multiplier of the minimum wage for the previous year, earned in the previous year. This wasn't clear at first and some internet posts about this quoted the higher figure, based on this year's minimum wage as the requirement for earnings in the previous year. All very confusing! But I'm taking my information directly from the London Embassy's list of requirements to apply, and it's clearly based on last year's minimum wage.

The self-employed freelancer earning from multiple online sources and various clients still needs to show one contract from a current client, but there's no required amount stated. The only regular client I could get to do a contract -- stating the nature of her business, what work I do for her, and the hourly rate she pays -- only paid me around 3,000 euro in 2025. The bulk of my online earnings came from another source but it's not contracted and not possible to show a contract. This would be common for many people who earn online as independent content creators, writers, musicians, influencers, etc, who work for themselves rather than as shills for specific companies and have multiple income streams.

I will report back next week if the Embassy accept this. Though I won't know till October if my application is successful, I imagine they'll tell me on the day if any of my paperwork just isn't adequate!

Well, after going to the Bulgarian Embassy in London today to submit my digital nomad type c (multiple clients, essentially a remote freelancer) D visa application it appears that Gwyn and I are BOTH correct on the required amount. Though the London Embassy website specifically states at least 27,550 Euro earned in 2025 as the requirement, I was told today that to be safe, it's best to go with the higher number of 31,000 based on this year's minimum wage. The act of parliament doesn't make it precisely clear how the requirements are to be calculated, and so it's all open to however the person assessing your application interprets the law.

The required contract and reference from a client of your remote services must have robust identification to show the client is a real person -- address, date of birth, passport number -- and the contract must specify it covers at least the following year, as that's how long your residency card will be for if your application is successful. It also MUST be wet signed by both you and the client, electronic signatures are not accepted.

The kind and very helpful consular staff member I saw spent a lot of time going though my application and suggested some places I needed to provide more information and then bring back my paperwork, as he felt it would certainly be rejected because of the contract and reference not meeting the required standard. I'm disappointed but better to get it right than wait six weeks to get a "no"!

@Mike J1234

Hello, Mike,

There are some tricky moments with proving the average income and client`s evidence.

I already have few successful cases, so I will be happy to provide a professional help!

Yes, Vasilev, I think this is where I may run into problems (LOL, and wish I had used your services!).

In cases where a digital worker has a single remote employer and one salary, it should be relatively straightforward to show proof of income. For freelance remote workers with multiple income streams from different countries in different currencies, it's a lot more difficult, especially as I hadn't submitted tax documents for 2025 at the time of application. My proof of income ran to over 100 pages of bank statements and Paypal invoices showing payments coming in!

I should have had an accountant add it all up for me and make a single statement of income, but I didn't think of that at the time.