Introduction and moving to Plovdiv

Hi All
after two and a half years retired in Hua Hin Thailand I’ve decided that Plovdiv looks like a better fit for me, so I will be moving there in April. Although the winter looks like a definite no no from me. - @Brianandrews08

Your profile says youre English, so have you started the visa process yet? Have you visited Bulgaria before?

@Brianandrews08

Welcome to Plovdiv! Nice city and mild climate. We don`t see so much snow, so you`ll definitely like it.

Oh nice choice. Although why not have best of both worlds..Bulgaria for the summer and some months in the tropics in the winter.

Plovdiv is a wonderful city, good choice! You will definitely notice the change from Thailand!

We're over in the northeast corner, near the Romanian border, very different landscape, no mountains. Winters here are cold, but so far we haven't experienced anything significantly worse than British winters. The two weeks when the snow stayed down were lovely, so crisp and bright!

@SIMCityAT raises a very good point -- Unless you already have an EU passport or five year residency in another EU country, or already obtained Bulgarian residency before Brexit, you'll need to apply for a D visa to start the residency process. Otherwise, it's just 90 days here per 180.

The pensioner route is one of the easiest, but expect it to take at least a couple of months obtaining the necessary paperwork, getting it apostilled, notarised, and/or translated. More likely, three months, unless you pay a lot extra to get the documents expedited. And depending where you apply, it's likely to be two or three more months getting the application in and getting approval. Paying an immigration lawyer would make the process far easier, but not necessarily much faster.

If you don't already have a sure route to residency and haven't started the D visa process yet, don't leave it too much longer to begin!

@janemulberry

I don’t really have any idea how to go about it, thought I had plenty of time

@Zooldrool

That’s definitely the plan if it works with residency and British state pension requirements

@Vasilev

I hope to be able to avoid the winter months if possible

@SimCityAT

No and no but my AI chat bot assures me that it’s perfect for me

Brian, whether you have plenty of time or not depends where you intend to apply and how much delay is likely due to waiting for paperwork, especially anything from the UK government, most of which will then need to be apostilled and translated into Bulgarian.

First step would be to contact the Bulgarian consulate in Thailand to find out if you can apply there or if you'll need to apply in London. Some less busy embassies may be able to process applications faster, but  have heard of people living somewhere else being told they need to apply in the country of their passport.

The page about the D visa requirements on the London Embassy site is poorly laid out, but all the information about the various types of D visa and the associated requirements are there. Some are quite complicated, so as you have a pension, just focus on that one!  https://www.bgconsullondon.co.uk/long-t … a-bulgaria

My understanding is that you need to spend more than half your time in Bulgaria to maintain residency status, but a few months a year somewhere else probably wouldn't affect it.

But, seriously, I hope the never having visited and the AI chatbot thing was a joke! Bulgaria seems to be like Marmite, people either hate it or love it. The AI chatbot isn't the one who will be living here.

@Brianandrews08

I would certainly visit the country fitst, bwfore putting the time and effort in getting a visa. But that is just me. You also have this forum, to shoot off questions. You'll find that majority of the members here are retired or close to retiring so they will only be glad to share the pitfalls they experienced.