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🇧🇬 Bulgaria visa and residence routes
A new EU and Schengen digital-nomad route with a lower income bar than Romania's, but it is limited to an initial year plus one extension.
The lowest published bar starts from €330 a month in income, or from €4,000 in savings or capital. Documented routes cover remote work / self-employment and passive income or pension. Naturalisation becomes possible after roughly 8 years of qualifying residence.
How Bulgaria compares
Living costs sit mid-table for this list, at roughly €1,050 a month for one person. As an EU member state, it also opens the rest of the Union to anyone who eventually naturalises here.
Who these routes are built for
Based on the routes currently included in our database for Bulgaria, these options suit people earning from remote work or their own foreign clients; retirees and those living on pensions, rents or dividends.
What the bar means in practice
The lowest income requirement, €330 a month on the Retiree Residence (pension route), sits against living costs of about €1,050 a month. That is below typical single-person living costs, so meeting the paperwork bar does not by itself mean the budget works.
Routes at a glance
| Route | Built for | Financial bar | Processing | Leads to residency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Digital Nomad Residence Permit | Remote work / self-employment | €2,295/mo | 2–3 mo | No |
| Retiree Residence (pension route) | Passive income or pension | €330/mo | 2–3 mo | Yes |
The financial bar is the main money test for that route — a monthly income floor, or the savings to show where no income floor applies. Figures are for a single applicant; most programmes scale upward for a partner or children.
Which of these would actually take you?
This page lists the routes currently included in our database for Bulgaria. The free 3-minute check compares those rules against your own passport, income, savings, age and family, and stamps each route clear, stretch or blocked — with the reason.
No account, no card, results in 3 minutes.
Routes in our database, in detail
Digital Nomad Residence Permit
The route entered into force in 2025. Applicants must show gross average annual income for the previous calendar year of at least 50 Bulgarian minimum monthly wages. For a 2026 application, the 2025 minimum wage of BGN 1,077 produces approximately BGN 53,850 a year — about EUR 27,530 a year or EUR 2,295/month. Eligible applicants include qualifying remote employees, owners or shareholders above 25% of a foreign company, and independent remote-service providers with at least one year of prior activity. A Type D visa and Bulgarian residence application are required. The permit is issued for one year and may be extended once for one further year; it is not itself a permanent-residence route.
Retiree Residence (pension route)
Pension-based long-stay route via a Type D visa. The formal reference is the Bulgarian minimum pension (about BGN 630, near EUR 330/month), with 6–12 months of that amount typically shown in a Bulgarian bank account. Unlike the nomad permit, this route can be extended long-term and leads toward permanent residence.
Worth knowing: The published floor is the Bulgarian minimum pension, but consulates commonly expect a comfortably higher figure and a local bank balance.
Before you rely on any of this
Visa and residence requirements on this page are compiled from the linked official sources and current as of 2026-08-07. Cost of living, English, healthcare and cross-country comparison indicators are ExpatSuccess estimates, not government figures. Governments change immigration rules without notice and consulates apply them with discretion, so confirm on the linked official portal before making decisions or spending money. This page is research, not legal, immigration, tax or financial advice.
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