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Marriage with Bulgarian and Acquisition of Bulgarian Citizenship

The legislation provides for three main options for acquisition of Bulgarian citizenship – as per the origin, the birthplace and by means of naturalization. According to the legislation in force, if at least one of the applicant’s parents is a Bulgarian citizen, or in case the applicant was born on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria, then the individual is considered a Bulgarian citizen by law. If none of these conditions is fulfilled, the person may acquire Bulgarian citizenship by means of naturalization, including on the grounds of marriage with a Bulgarian citizen.

Procedure

The procedure starts with an application, which should be submitted personally with the Ministry of Justice or with a Bulgarian diplomatic or consular office abroad. The submission is to be necessarily in person, since an interview with the applicant is conducted in Bulgarian:

Conditions for Acquisition of Bulgarian citizenship by naturalization

At the date of submission of the naturalization application, the following conditions should be met:

Fluency in Bulgarian Language

The fact that the person speaks Bulgarian can be verified in two ways:

State Fee

The state fee for the naturalization application is BGN 100. The amount should be transferred to a bank account of the Ministry of Justice.

Legalization and certification

The documents in a foreign language to be enclosed to the application, should be translated in Bulgarian by a sworn translator and should be legalized. If copies of the documents are to be enclosed, the latter should be notary verified, except for the identification document.

Term for Examination of the Application and End of the Acquisition Procedure

Following the application submission, the electronic system at the Ministry of Justice schedules a date for the interview. There is no legal term for the appointment of the interview date, as well as deadline for examination of the application. Therefore, that the continuation of the procedure is within the discretion of the official which processes the file. However, in practice, the procedure usually takes between a year and a year and a half.

Citizenship itself is acquired by virtue of a decree issued by the President, which enters into force on the issuance date.

The article above is intended for information purposes only by drawing your attention to some of the specifics in the procedure for acquisition of Bulgarian citizenship in case of marriage with a Bulgarian citizen. It should not be construed as (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 team.
Please feel free to contact us for more detailed information on the subject matter.