Moving to Bulgaria

Hello MCSHABA,

Feel free to post some of your questions so that members have an idea of what you are looking for.

All the best

Bhavna

What visa are you planning to use?

If you don't have EU citizenship, the 90 day stay per 180 then spend time somewhere else is the easiest option. It's not easy for non-EuU citizens to get a longer visa for Bulgaria. There's no digital nomad visa as there are in some other EU countries.

My wife is coming to Bulgaria with a student visa so I will be joining her as a family member..

I want to have an idea about the cost of life? How secure is Bulgaria? Weather? Activities? Anything positive about the country and especially the negative side of moving there so we can emotionally get prepared 😆

Oh, good! That eliminates one of the biggest issues!

There's a recent discussion on cost of living here: https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1016093 It's the lowest cost of living country in the EU but inflation is an issue.

Weather in Sofia or Plovdiv is continental, cold winters, hot summers. There's easy access to skiing or other winter sports from both cities. Lots of good and relatively inexpensive restaurants.

I feel secure and safe in Bulgaria compared to the UK. The tourist areas have the usual pickpocketing and theft problems that affect tourist areas everywhere, and it's wise to take the same safety precautions as you would in any other city. In village areas it can vary a lot. Most villages are fine, a few have theft issues.

I'm not living full time in Bulgaria yet and my place is an a small village, so your experience of the country will be very different. I love the place! Bureaucracy and the language are the main negatives I've found.  If you or your wife speak Bulgarian, that will be far less of an issue.

Thank you so much for your insights.. unfortunately we both only speak French and English..

@MCSHABA

Plenty of good info from@janemulberry who is a Bulgaria fan, like many of us here. Bulgaria: safe, nice climate, low cost of living, low taxation, plenty of scenery (mountains, beaches, lakes), lots of activities (hiking, skiing, biking, dog-walking, swimming, sunbathing, working, studying), many good restaurants, many cultural excursions (monasteries, ancient monuments of the Romans/Thracians, Bulgarian Revival architecture of Plovdiv, Nessebar and others, UNESCO-listed sites, Communist-era monuments like Buzludzha).

But it's low cost because it's a low-wage country too, so working here won't bring in as much money as elsewhere in the EU. But probably not a big issue for your wife as a student, and you as a remote worker.

Bulgaria is also an EU country, so it's a potential gateway to becoming a long-term EU resident (and perhaps a citizen), and thus being to able to relocate to an EU country with higher salaries.

I'm in Plovdiv, and it's a great little city, it deserves to be much better known. It is a former European Capital of Culture, so I'm not the only one who thinks it's OK. :-)