Is visa D required if you are applying for an investment residency in Bulgaria?
The answer is NO – visa D is not required by law if you are applying for permanent residence permit. In practice however, Bulgarian authorities often apply requirements that go beyond the law. Because of this, they will almost certainly require a visa D if you want to apply for a Permanent residence by investment (Golden Visa).
So what should you do? You have two options. You can challenge the requirement and rely on the law. Or you can follow the administrative practice and obtain a visa D in advance to avoid problems.
Now let’s look at the legislation to bring more clarity.
Bulgarian Foreigners Law, visa D and permanent residence permit
The Bulgarian Foreigners Law is quite clear when it comes to visa D and long-term residence permits (long-term, NOT permanent).
A long-term residence permit may be granted to foreign nationals who hold a visa under Article 15 (visa D), paragraph 1, and:…
art. 24, par. 1 of the Bulgarian Foreigners Law
In other words, a visa D is always required when a foreigner wants to obtain a long-term residence permit.
The situation with a permanent residence permit is quite different though.
Foreign nationals may obtain a permanent residence permit if:…
art. 25, par. 1 of the Bulgarian Foreigners Law
So for permanent residence permit the law doesn’t require from the foreigner to obtain a visa D at all. This makes sense, as in general, permanent residence comes after long-term residence, for which a visa D has already been obtained. But in the case of a Golden Visa (investment residency), the foreigner applies directly for permanent residence permit, thereby skipping the “normal” path through a long-term residence permit first.
The Regulations to the Foreigners Law
As the main legal act – the Bulgarian Foreigners Law doesn’t require a visa D for PR applications, the only other relevant legal act is the Regulations for the implementations of the Foreigners Law. These regulations are subordinate to the law. Still, let’s see what they say about the requirement for a Visa D.
To obtain permanent residence status, a foreign national must submit in person to the Migration Directorate or to the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs a standard application form in accordance with Appendix No. 4, to which the following must be attached:
Art. 34, par. 1, p. 2 of the Regulations to the Foreigners Law
- a copy of a valid passport or substitute document, including the pages containing the photograph, personal data, a visa under Article 15 (visa D), paragraph 1 of the Foreigners Law, if such a visa is required, and the stamp for their most recent entry into the country; to verify the authenticity of the copy, the original passport or substitute document must also be presented;
If such a visa is required
As you can see, the key here is “if such a visa is required”. In reality, a visa D is not required under the Foreigners Law, nor under any other law. So why is this wording included in the Regulations? Simply because the authors of the text intended to leave room for possible future amendments to the Foreigners Law that could introduce a visa D requirement. However, no such amendments have been adopted, and none are currently being considered.
So is a visa D required and should you apply for one?
Visa D is not required under Bulgarian law when applying for Permanent Residence by investment (Golden Visa). However, in practice, authorities often (always?) take a different view. If you want your application to be processed as smoothly as possible, it is strongly advisable to obtain a visa D in advance.