What if your Bulgarian long-term residence visa (AKA immigration visa D) has been rejected?

The Bulgarian long term-visa type D is desired by many non-EU foreigners. This visa allows its holder to apply for and obtain Bulgarian long-term residence permit. Unfortunately, the rejection rate is increasing every year. This is to be explained by two main factors:

  1. The interest for Bulgaria as immigration destination has dramatically increased. As consequence, the percentage of “non qualifying” applicants, willing to take advantage of the Bulgarian social system and its access to the EU, has skyrocketed;
  2. The EU has been constantly tightening its policies towards immigration. Although the EU has democratic values and always welcomes people in need, the procedures to legally obtain visa and residence permit have become much more complicated.

Why you should always appeal (if your visa D is rejected)

If your immigration visa has been rejected, you are usually given 14-days to appeal the rejection in the Bulgarian court. Failure to do so will obviously mean that you are not allowed entry to Bulgaria under the current visa application. But what is even worse is that you will probably have no further chances to obtain Bulgarian (or EU/Schengen) visa, ever! Visa rejection on your immigration record is a serious issue. This will certainly leave the next immigration officer wondering, how should he approve your visa if his colleague before him has rejected it. Any eventual future application has to be rock solid in order to convince the immigration authorities that they can take the risk and approve you for a visa. And in all honestly, this is not very likely to happen.

To make things even worse, all other EU and Schengen countries are likely to take your Bulgarian visa rejection very seriously too.

We always advise our clients to immediately appeal if they have been rejected for Bulgarian visa. Failing to appeal successfully will be most likely be a no-no to enter Bulgaria and even the EU as a whole, ever.

How we can help

There are two instances when we are assisting our clients. These are namely before the visa is applied for and in case the visa has been rejected.

Assistance for the submission of visa D application

It is indeed much better to be proactive and seek professional assistance before the visa D has been applied for. In such cases, we will guide you through the procedures and will ensure you get maximum chances of approval. In most cases, your chances for success will be increased from 3 to 10 times, compared to if you are applying on your own. The immigration authorities don’t like their rejection to be appealed in court. And they know very well that if we are assisting with the application, that we stand with our name for the client. They also know that our lawyers will appeal in court, should the application be rejected. And this is something the immigration authorities like to avoid at all cost.

Assistance for appealing rejection to issue visa D

If you have applied already for visa D and have been rejected, there is still chance that your visa will be issued and your immigration file stay clean. The most important condition is to act fast. You will be most probably given only 14 days to appeal. If you miss this deadline, it’s a game over. But if you contact us on time and we confirm that your application should have been approved, you are almost guaranteed a positive outcome. While the immigration authorities act more or less impulsively and reject everyone they may find “suspicious”, the Bulgarian court is a different story. The judge will apply the rule of law and will overrule the rejection if he finds it ungrounded. We estimate that about 92% of all rejections will be overruled in court if we confirm the application is feasible and can submit the appeal on time.

Timing is essential

Timing is essential when it comes to visa applications. The best way is of course to start the application with us. This will save you time and money as your chances of approval will increase significantly. If you have gotten your visa rejected however, you still have serious chances to put thing right. In all cases, please contact us for any assistance you might require.