Bulgaria · Citizenship by investment
Bulgarian Citizenship by Investment (Articles 12a and 14a)
Abolished. The National Assembly voted unanimously on 24 March 2022 (218-0-0) to repeal Articles 12a and 14a of the Bulgarian Citizenship Act. It was promulgated in State Gazette No. 26/2022 and took effect from 5 April 2022. The Act also terminated pending proceedings under those articles. Roughly 100+ passports had been issued since the programme's inception in 2013, mainly to Russian, Chinese and Middle Eastern applicants.
Bulgaria was one of only three EU states selling passports, and it closed the scheme voluntarily and unanimously. Here is a common misconception worth correcting. There was no infringement procedure against Bulgaria. The Commission's action ran against Malta. Bulgaria acted pre-emptively, in the wake of the European Parliament's 9 March 2022 resolution (595-12) demanding CBI schemes be phased out, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and an incoming anti-corruption government's pledge. Its own Ministry of Justice cited insufficient actual investment.
Qualifying routes
Repealed. It required roughly BGN 1m held for 5 years, following permanent residence.
Repealed. The investment required for citizenship had doubled in about one year.
The facts
- Minimum investment
- €1M
- Total landed cost
- Not applicable. The programme no longer exists.
- Route type
- Citizenship by investment
- Physical presence
- None was required, which was precisely the objection.
- Permanent residency
- Not applicable
- Citizenship
- Not applicable. The route was repealed.
- Language test
- None was required under the repealed articles.
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- The scheme has been closed since April 2022. Anyone marketing Bulgarian citizenship by investment in 2026 is selling something that does not exist.
- Bulgaria revoked citizenship from 17 people after abolition and tasked the state security agency DANS with re-investigating all prior grantees. Passports obtained under the old scheme are not beyond review.
- There is a contested legacy argument under transitional provision paragraph 14(1), introduced by the 2021 amendments, that holders of Article 25 permanent residence granted before those amendments may still apply without the language test or renunciation. The Citizenship Council of the Ministry of Justice takes the position that the 2022 amendments killed this too. Practitioners dispute it. This is a live legal-interpretation dispute that requires litigation, not a marketable route. Any advisor presenting it as a functioning pathway is overselling.