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New types of visas and amendments to the visa issuance regime 

The amendments to the Foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria Act (FRBA), promulgated on March 12th, 2021, have introduced significant changes to the regulation of visas.

The idea of ​​the new adoptions is to provide easier access to the Bulgarian market for startup companies targetting development of high-tech products and providing services.

New Startup Visa

The amendments to the FRBA regulate the possibility of acquisition of prolonged residence permit through a Startup visa. Up to now, the issuance of such visa has been provided for in all other EU Member States’ legislation, except for Bulgaria.

Thus, to obtain a prolonged residence permit, the requirements are subsequently:

Basically, a Startup visa is a certificate for a high-tech and/or an innovative project issued by the Ministry of Economy.

As there are no legal definitions of the terms “high-tech project” and “innovative project”, it can be deduced from the Investment Promotion Act that these are projects related to performance of the high-tech activities indicated in the EUROSTAT Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE).

Amendments to short-stay visas

With the amendments to the FRBA, holders of a short-stay visa have the right to reside on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria for a period of up to 90 days within each 180-day period.

Additionally, from now on multiple-entry short-stay visas can be issued with term of validity of up to 5 years, if a foreigner:

An multiple-entry visa with a validity period of up to 5 years can be issued on behalf of a foreigner who proves:

The terms of validity of short-term multiple-entry visas are also regulated to be:

However, the competent officials are authorized to issue any of these visas for a period shorter than the requested one, based on the results of the checks carried out and the risk assessment.

The news above is for information purposes only. It is not a (binding) legal advice. For a thorough understanding of the subjects covered and prior acting on any issue discussed we kindly recommend Readers consult Ilieva, Voutcheva & Co. Law Firm attorneys at law.