Immigration Law Bulgaria - Long Term, Prolonged & Permanent Residency
Some important amendments to Bulgarian immigration laws and specifically the Foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria Act were voted in Bulgarian parliament in the beginning of 2011.
The definition of member of the family of a foreign citizen became more detailed. This category now includes spouse and all unmarried children under 18 years old - children of the foreign citizen, children of his/her spouse, also adopted children. Even children over 18 years old are falling to this category if they are under serious medical treatment and their parents are also taking care of them.
Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior Affairs is now allowed to sign agreements with subcontractors that will be entitled to collect and process visa applications for. Bulgarian embassies will also be allowed to quite legitimately cooperate with such agents.
New visa applications will have to be filed not earlier than 3 months before the date on which the foreign citizen has planned to visit Bulgaria. When applying for visa foreign citizens will have to provide biometric data (photos and fingerprints).
According to the last amendments no more transit visas (type B) will be issued. Transit visas will be issued as visas type C - short term visas. Every holder of transit visa C will be entitled to enter and leave Bulgaria within 2 days and stay on the territory of Bulgaria for no more than 3 months for every period of 6 months. The validity of any visa type C could not exceed 5 years.
Until 2011 there were only 2 types of residency permits that were issued - long term and permanent stay permits. Now there is a third one - prolonged stay permit. It combines to some extent both old types of permits and is issued if a foreign citizen has lived in Bulgaria for more than 5 years. After the prolonged stay permit is granted, EU long stay permit is also granted in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 1030/2002 laying down a uniform format for residence permits for third-country nationals.
Permanent stay residency is granted to the members of the family of a Bulgarian national but in case of divorce the permit is to be taken away.
Another amendment in the Foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria Act is the requirement for minimal financial income - any foreign citizen applying for residency must have the minimal income as per Bulgarian law (currently approx. 120 Euros per month for workers and approx. 70 Euros for pensioners).
