Bulgaria · Residency by investment
Permanent Residence by Investment (Article 25, Foreigners Act)
Open, but materially different from what most sources describe. The government bond route was ABOLISHED by the March 2021 amendments to the Foreigners Act — a year before the CBI repeal — along with the trust-agreement and intellectual-property routes. The BGN 1,000,000 threshold survives only via collective investment schemes and alternative investment funds. Marketing sites still quote 'EUR 512,000 in government bonds' without noting the underlying asset changed; this is the single most common error in the public material on Bulgaria.
The decisive fact about Bulgaria in 2026, and the one promoters bury: with Article 14a repealed, an investor is on the ordinary naturalisation track, which requires renouncing your existing nationality. For a UHNW client who will not surrender their current passport, Bulgaria's investor route cannot deliver citizenship at all. It buys permanent residence in a Schengen and eurozone state with a 10% flat tax and no presence requirement — which is a real product, but it is not a passport.
Qualifying routes
BGN 500,000, plus 50% shareholding, plus BGN 500,000 of new fixed assets, plus 10 full-time jobs for Bulgarian citizens
BGN 1,000,000 — the main marketed route today
BGN 1,000,000
BGN 1,000,000 contract value
BGN 2,000,000 — raised from BGN 1m in 2021
ABOLISHED by the March 2021 amendments. Do not rely on any source still quoting this route.
The facts
- Minimum investment
- €256k
- Total landed cost
- EUR 511k into an AIF plus roughly EUR 20-40k in legal and fund fees; the BGN 500k company route is cheaper on paper but carries a 10-employee payroll
- Timeline
- 6–8 months — To permanent residence via the fund route
- Physical presence
- None — no minimum stay to maintain permanent residence provided the investment is maintained. Genuinely rare in the EU.
- Family
- spouseunmarried dependent children under 18unmarried children over 18 unable to support themselves for health reasons
- Permanent residency
- Permanent from grant, with a 5-year renewable ID card
- Citizenship
- 5 years of permanent residence then ORDINARY naturalisation — which requires a Bulgarian language test AND renunciation of your existing citizenship under Article 12(1)(5). The fast-track element died with Article 14a.
- Language test
- Bulgarian language test under ordinary naturalisation
- Dual citizenship
- Not permitted — you would have to renounce
- Requirements
- maintain the investment for the life of the permitclean criminal record and documented source of fundshealth insurance
- CITIZENSHIP REQUIRES RENUNCIATION. The fast-track died with Article 14a in 2022. Ordinary naturalisation demands a Bulgarian language test and surrender of your existing citizenship. This kills the proposition for most UHNW families and is routinely omitted from marketing material.
- The government bond route no longer exists — abolished March 2021. Any advisor quoting 'EUR 512,000 in government bonds' is working from stale material and has not checked the law.
- Only about two fully compliant AIF funds reportedly operate, so the main route carries real concentration and counterparty risk.
- Real estate alone does NOT qualify. There is no property route into Bulgarian residence by investment.
- Post-2022 scrutiny of investor files by DANS is materially heavier than the pre-2022 reputation of the programme suggests.
- The BGN 500,000 company route requires 10 full-time jobs for Bulgarian citizens plus BGN 500,000 of new fixed assets — the payroll is the real cost, not the capital.