Bulgaria Proposes Stricter Permanent Residence Rules

Bulgaria’s government has proposed a new physical-presence requirement for permanent residents. Under the bill, spending less than six months and one day in Bulgaria during the previous calendar year would become a ground for withdrawing permanent residence. The proposal could directly affect investors using Bulgaria’s investment-based permanent-residence provisions. It is not yet law: the bill was submitted to the National Assembly on July 28, 2026 and referred to parliamentary committees but had not been adopted as of August 10.

The bill is still at the parliamentary stage

The amendments to the Foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria Act were filed under reference 52-602-01-29 by the Council of Ministers.

The National Assembly registered the bill on July 28 and assigned it to several committees on July 30, with the Internal Security and Public Order Committee acting as the lead committee. The official parliamentary record does not yet show final adoption.

Existing law therefore remains in force.

Permanent residents could face a Bulgarian presence test

Analysis of the published proposal shows that a new item 24 would be added to Article 40.

It would make spending less than six months and one day in Bulgaria during the previous calendar year a statutory ground for withdrawing permanent residence. The proposed item is not drafted exclusively for investment residents and does not contain an investor-specific exemption.

The change would therefore reach well beyond the market commonly described as Bulgaria’s Golden Visa.

The proposal is broader than the Golden Visa

“Golden Visa” is an industry label. Legally, qualifying investors obtain permanent residence under investment provisions of the Foreigners Act.

The proposed presence test would sit in Article 40, which governs withdrawal of residence rights generally.

According to the published analysis, the new item applies to permanent residence as a status rather than to one particular route.

Investors would nevertheless be particularly affected because Bulgaria’s investment-residence product has been attractive to internationally mobile applicants who do not intend to make the country their principal home.

Current law contains a different investor exemption

One of the most important corrections to the previous version concerns the existing Article 40 framework.

Current law provides a ground for withdrawal where, within one year after receiving the permit, a foreign national has failed to establish themselves and reside in Bulgaria.

Several investment categories are expressly exempt from that particular requirement, including Article 25(1) items 6, 7, 8, 13 and 16.

That is the investor exemption that can be clearly confirmed in the current consolidated legislation.

The current 12-month EU absence rule is different

A separate existing provision applies where a holder of long-term or permanent residence has been absent from the territory of the European Union for 12 consecutive months.

Contrary to the earlier version of this article, the current consolidated text does not provide a broad exemption from this rule for the principal investment categories.

It expressly refers to an emergency exception and permanent residence under Article 25g. Article 25g concerns certain family members of Bulgarian citizens rather than investment residence.

The previous suggestion that investment residents were generally protected from the 12-month EU absence test was therefore too broad.

The proposal changes the measurement entirely

The pending bill would fundamentally change how absence is assessed for permanent residents.

The existing test focuses on 12 consecutive months outside the EU. The proposed permanent-residence rule instead focuses on how much time a person actually spent inside Bulgaria during the previous calendar year.

That difference is substantial.

Time spent in France, Germany, Italy or another EU country can prevent a person from being absent from the Union for 12 consecutive months, but it would not count as physical presence in Bulgaria under the proposed rule.

The threshold effectively requires living in Bulgaria most of the year

The proposed “six months and one day” standard means a permanent resident would need to spend more than half of the relevant calendar year in Bulgaria.

The test is framed by reference to the previous calendar year rather than any rolling 12-month period.

For globally mobile investors and families, that represents a fundamental change to the practical use of the status.

Withdrawal would require an administrative measure

The proposed rule should not be described as an instant automatic cancellation occurring the moment a person falls below the threshold.

Under existing Bulgarian law, withdrawal of the right of residence is classified as a coercive administrative measure, and Article 40 sets out the statutory circumstances in which that measure is imposed.

The competent authority issues the relevant administrative order.

Article 44 also requires authorities, when imposing coercive administrative measures, to take account of factors including length of residence, vulnerability, family circumstances and family, cultural and social connections.

The more legally precise formulation is therefore that failing the new test would create a statutory ground for withdrawal through the applicable administrative process.

The proposed new item contains no investor carve-out

The new item 24, as analysed from the published bill, contains no separate exception for Article 25 investment residents.

If that language survives the legislative process, investment-based permanent residents could therefore face the same annual presence requirement as other permanent-residence categories.

This is not yet final.

Parliament can amend the wording, introduce exceptions or add transitional protections before adoption.

Investment-based permanent residence remains in the law

The proposal does not abolish Bulgaria’s investment grounds for permanent residence.

Current Article 25 still includes several investment pathways involving qualifying securities, concession rights, collective investment schemes, alternative investment funds, company capital and certified investment projects.

For example, the current statutory text provides a BGN 1 million threshold for holdings in certain qualifying collective investment schemes and alternative investment funds.

The issue is therefore not whether the investor route disappears, but whether keeping the resulting permanent residence becomes substantially more demanding.

€511,291.88 is a currency conversion, not a new economic threshold

Bulgaria adopted the euro on January 1, 2026 at the fixed conversion rate of €1 to BGN 1.95583.

The current consolidated Foreigners Act nevertheless still displays many investment thresholds in Bulgarian leva.

The pending bill proposes restating those figures in euros.

BGN 1 million becomes €511,291.88, BGN 2 million becomes €1,022,583.76 and BGN 6 million becomes €3,067,751.29. These figures preserve the existing economic value at the official conversion rate.

It is therefore inaccurate to portray €511,291.88 as a newly increased investment requirement. It is the euro equivalent proposed for the existing BGN 1 million statutory amount.

Some qualifying investments must be maintained for five years

The current law imposes ongoing investment-maintenance requirements for certain investor categories.

Relevant investments must remain above the statutory minimum for five years from the date permanent residence is granted.

After that five-year period, the investor may terminate or alter the investment without that action itself affecting the permanent-residence right.

The investor route is therefore already subject to continuing compliance requirements even before the proposed physical-presence rule is considered.

Citizenship by investment is no longer available

Permanent residence should not be confused with direct citizenship by investment.

Bulgaria abolished its special investor-citizenship mechanism in 2022.

Making a qualifying investment therefore no longer provides a direct route to a Bulgarian passport.

Any later naturalisation is governed separately by Bulgarian citizenship legislation and its applicable conditions.

Existing permit holders face unresolved questions

The position of people who already hold Bulgarian permanent residence is one of the bill’s most important unresolved issues.

The published draft does not contain a specific transitional provision clearly grandfathering existing permanent-residence holders from the proposed annual presence test. Nor does it expressly identify the first calendar year that would be examined.

That creates uncertainty, but it does not establish that existing permits will necessarily be affected retroactively.

Parliament could add a commencement rule, grandfathering protection or another transitional arrangement.

Investors should therefore not assume that their 2026 travel days are already being counted under a rule that has not yet entered into force.

The text can still change materially

The legislative process remains at an early stage.

As of August 10, the parliamentary record confirms submission and committee referral rather than final adoption.

The annual presence threshold, exemptions, treatment of existing residents, enforcement rules and commencement date could all change.

The proposal should therefore be treated as a material policy risk rather than existing law.

Euro adoption makes Bulgaria financially more integrated

The proposed migration tightening comes in the same year that Bulgaria completed a major step in European financial integration.

The country joined the euro area on January 1, 2026 and now uses the euro at the irrevocable conversion rate of BGN 1.95583 per euro.

For investors, euro adoption removes the former lev-euro currency layer.

At the same time, a requirement to spend most of each year physically in Bulgaria would make the residence component materially less flexible.

The practical impact could be significant

If enacted without an investor exception, the proposal would change the economics of Bulgarian investment residence more than the conversion of investment amounts into euros.

International entrepreneurs, globally mobile families and people maintaining their principal home elsewhere would have to factor an annual physical-presence commitment into their residence planning.

The rule could also make tax analysis more important.

Immigration residence and tax residence are separate legal concepts, so satisfying the proposed presence requirement should not automatically be described as producing a particular tax result. But spending most of a year in one jurisdiction clearly increases the relevance of domestic and treaty tax-residence rules.

Parliament is now the key variable

For investors, the decisive issue is the final wording that emerges from the National Assembly.

Three questions are particularly important: whether Article 25 investors receive an exemption, whether existing permanent residents receive transitional protection, and which calendar year will first be tested.

As International Investment experts note, the proposal could fundamentally change the positioning of Bulgarian investment-based permanent residence. The investment thresholds themselves are not becoming economically more expensive merely because they are being restated in euros. The larger issue is the possible shift from a comparatively flexible permanent status to one requiring substantial annual residence in Bulgaria. But the change has not yet happened. As of August 10, 2026, it remains a government bill, and the absence of an investor carve-out and transitional provisions in the proposed new item makes the parliamentary process critical for both current and prospective investors.

FAQ: Has Bulgaria already introduced the new residence requirement?

No. As of August 10, 2026, the measure remains a bill before parliament.

FAQ: How long would permanent residents have to stay in Bulgaria?

The proposal would create a withdrawal ground where a permanent resident spent less than six months and one day in Bulgaria during the previous calendar year.

FAQ: Would investment residents be covered?

The proposed new item contains no specific investor exemption. However, the bill can still be amended before adoption.

FAQ: Do investors currently have to spend 183 days in Bulgaria?

No. The proposed annual physical-presence requirement is not currently in force. Existing law contains different withdrawal rules.

FAQ: Do investors currently have an exemption from establishing residence?

Several Article 25 investment categories are exempt from the existing rule requiring a new permanent resident to establish themselves and reside in Bulgaria within one year of receiving the permit.

FAQ: Are investment residents broadly exempt from the 12-month EU absence rule?

No. The current consolidated text does not contain the broad investor exemption previously described. The expressly stated special exception refers to Article 25g, which concerns certain family members of Bulgarian citizens.

FAQ: What is the investment threshold for qualifying funds?

The current statutory text still uses BGN 1 million for certain collective and alternative investment fund routes. The bill proposes converting that amount to €511,291.88.

FAQ: Is the investment becoming more expensive?

Not through the currency conversion itself. The euro figures use Bulgaria’s fixed conversion rate of €1 = BGN 1.95583.

FAQ: Are existing permanent residents protected?

The draft does not contain a clearly defined general grandfathering rule for existing holders. Parliament may still add one.

FAQ: Can investors buy Bulgarian citizenship?

No. Bulgaria abolished its special citizenship-by-investment route in 2022.