Naturalisation and citizenship in Bulgaria

Dear all,

There are several ways to acquire a Bulgarian citizenship.
1. You need to live in the country for 5 years. For this option to work you have to prove that you know Bulgarian language by exam.
2. You can invest 2 mln. BGN. This way you will acquire citizenship for 2 years and without examination of Bulgarian language. The 2 mln. BGN will be returned to you in 5 years time.
3.You are maried to Bulgarian citizen and have lived in Bulgaria for 5 years. You will have to take exam of Bulgarian language.
Before all that you have to be resident in Bulgaria. In order to do that you have to apply for visa D prior your arrival in the country.

Keep in mind that you need a permanent residence permit for 5 years (3 if you have a Bulgarian kid) to apply for citizenship, not simply to have lived here for 5 years. If you are outside of the EU, you need to have a long-term residence permit for a continuous 5 years (3 if you have a Bulgarian kid) before you get a long-term residence permit. So, for non-EU people it is actually 6-10 years (depending on if you have a Bulgarian kid or not).

As a note, if the child is born after you are already in Bulgaria, it still counts... for example, I moved to Bulgaria expecting to get a long-term permit every year for five years. But a year later my son was born. I only had to get a long-term permit 2 more times (3 years total) before I could apply for my permanent residence card.

From what I have been told at the migration office, dual citizenship is allowed in the case of marriage. (Not sure in other cases).

In order to prove that you have lived here for 5 years prior your application for citizenship as I stated you have to apply for visa D. After that the only way to live in the country for long term is by applying for residence. The visa D is not applicable if you are an EU citizen, but you still need to apply for residence card. There is not a rule or a law here requiring a 6-10 year residence. The only legal requirement is 5 years prior your application.
The dual citizenship in Bulgaria is aloud. So you can keep your original citizenship.
In my posts I have only put some guidelines. In order to complete the whole procedure of obtaining a Bulgarian citizenship and residence you will have to contact the migration authorities as well as a lawyer for more precise information.
A lot of consultants are on the market as well, but in order for you to complete the process smoothly please contact a competent lawyer or law firm. A lot of expats are arriving with big expectations for the opportunities that my country is giving them and the consultants, other expats here as well as some incompetent lawyers or accountants are taking a lot of money without any guarantee for a result. Hire carefully your lawyer in the country, so that your application is complete and you have all the information that is needed.

http://www.mfa.bg/uploads/files/chlen13i14.pdf

There are multiple forms of residence. Mainly- long-term and permanent. That is from the ministry of immigration. It very clearly states that you need to have at least 3 years with a permanent residence card before applying for citizenship. In order to apply for permanent residence, you need at least 3 years of long-term residence. That is six years, minimum.

Again, that is for non-eu. I believe EU are allowed to immediately get the permanent residence if they desire.

The 3 year stay is required ONLY FOR the cases of marriage, if the person is borned here and some other exceptions. So if you refer to this option it is 3 years. Please do not confuse people with this information. It clearly says that those are requirements for articles 13 and 14 and those are exceptions. The requirements for 5 years stay apply for EU and non EU citizens in most cases. But the procedure of obtaining residence permit for EU citizens is less complicated. I am glad that you read Bulgarian and the law since there are a lot of people trying to take advantage of foreigners.

Yes, the 3 year is for marriage or parent of a Bulgarian citizen. For non-EU who are not married to a Bulgarian or the parent of a Bulgarian citizen it is 5 years before they can get a permanent permit, and then another five years before they can apply for citizenship- 10 years.

I am not trying to confuse people but to give them a realistic expectation of the timeline to Bulgarian citizenship. For non EU, the shortest period possible (without the investing of large sums of money) is 6 years with the standard length 10 years.---> 5 years of long-term residence (renewed once a year) before you are eligible for permanent residence, followed by 5 years of permanent residence before you are eligible for citizenship.

Hi everyone,

Thank you all for your detailed posts. Very informative indeed.

All the best,
Bhavna

Pity document is not in English!

I have all the goods- have been in Bg since 2002, married to a Bulgarian citizen (recently deceased) and have had residence card throughout, as well as regular employment. It's the language exam that troubles me- my Bulgarian is very basic. Has anyone taken this exam and can comment on level of difficulty? Or ways to get around it some way?

I would also like to hear what the exam is like. I am pretty comfortable with Bulgarian, but I make mistakes... is it written or just spoken? How forgiving are they? I heard from one friend that he took a 3rd party test through his language school and submitted the certificate... is that how it works, or is it an interview in person?

When I did the exam about five years ago...
It was a multiple choice exam.  It is really tough, quite archaic terms.  A lot of the Bulgarians around me couldn't correctly answer some of the questions!!!

Questions with idioms.  Questions with a list of synonyms asking which of the synonyms is not exactly a synonym.

It is definitely not a basic test!!!  I was Intermediate level in BG and struggled on a few questions.

The only place you could sit the exam was in Sofia at the time. Then they allowed the medical university in Varna to conduct BG exams which were officially recognized.  A different test but just as complicated.

Link to info on the exam:
http://www.ckoko.bg/page.php?c=24&d=19

You can download three example pdf tests from the link above.
20 questions, you need minimum 12 correct to pass.

Oh! Thank you for the link! It looks like I will have some studying to do soon.

no dont mislead anyone, because if you check wikipedia or Attorney websites and others you'll find that all of them say 5 years of residency and you have been granted permanent residency OR long term d visa not before than 5 years ago and wikipedia says 5years of residence see residence NOT permanent residence.

I am saying exactly what I was told by the immigration office when I went in to apply. I'm fairly certain at the immigration office, they know what is required.