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 through collective investment schemes and alternative investment funds. Marketing sites still quote EUR 512,000 in government bonds without noting that the underlying asset changed. This is the single most common error in the public material on Bulgaria.
Here is the fact about Bulgaria in 2026 that promoters tend to bury. With Article 14a repealed, an investor sits on the ordinary naturalisation track, and that track requires renouncing your existing nationality. For a UHNW client who will not give up their current passport, Bulgaria's investor route cannot deliver citizenship at all. What it does buy is permanent residence in a Schengen and eurozone state, with a 10% flat tax and no presence requirement. That is a real product. It is just not a passport.
Qualifying routes
BGN 500,000 in capital, at least 50% shareholding, BGN 500,000 in new fixed assets, and 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 that still quotes this route.
The facts
- Minimum investment
- €256k
- Total landed cost
- EUR 511k goes into an AIF, plus roughly EUR 20-40k in legal and fund fees. The BGN 500k company route is cheaper on paper, but it carries a 10-employee payroll.
- Route type
- Residency by investment
- Timeline
- 6–8 months (Leads to permanent residence through the fund route.)
- Physical presence
- None. There is no minimum stay required to maintain permanent residence, provided the investment is maintained. That is genuinely rare in the EU.
- Family
- SpouseUnmarried dependent children under 18Unmarried children over 18 who are unable to support themselves for health reasons
- Permanent residency
- Permanent from the moment it's granted, 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 option disappeared 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 permita clean criminal record and a documented source of fundshealth insurance
- Citizenship requires renunciation. The fast track died with Article 14a in 2022. Ordinary naturalisation now demands a Bulgarian language test and surrender of your existing citizenship. For most UHNW families, that kills the proposition, and it is routinely left out of marketing material.
- The government bond route no longer exists. It was abolished in March 2021. Any advisor still quoting EUR 512,000 in government bonds is working from stale material and has not checked the law.
- Reportedly, only about two fully compliant AIF funds 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 programme's pre-2022 reputation 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 here, not the capital.