Bulgaria is a super interesting country to become a citizen by investment. Considering Bulgaria is a EU member state and likely to join schengen area in the future, things get more interesting in Bulgaria.
So what you should know about Bulgaria citizenship by investment (BCBI)?
- Bulgaria has low corporate taxes, easy business formations, low cost of living and cheap property prices compared to elsewhere in europe is a big deciding factor for Bulgaria passport.
- All in all Bulgaria requires €1 million investments in Govt bonds or in real estate to apply for citizenship under fast track citizenship. Bonds can be financed at low interest rates. You can ONLY apply for citizenship after 1.5 years and you must hold residence permit before that.
- Bulgaria is one of those countries very strict on maintaining investments. This is one of the biggest problems with Bulgaria. Recently lot of investors were stripped of citizenship for not maintaining investments. The presidential decree published by citizenship office said, the investors citizenship were revoked for not maintaining investments for 2 years AFTER the naturalization date. This means you must hold the investments atleast 4 years before and after citizenship.
- Bulgaria is not a schengen country still. This means you cannot move around schengen area with visa and residence permits issued by Bulgaria. It is ONLY possible with Bulgaria passport.
- Bulgaria has powerful passport too! You can travel to UK, Ireland, live and work in EU-28 member states. Recently Bulgaria received visa free access to Canada (eTA required)
- Bulgaria is working on a draft law closing citizenship by investment scheme. We really dont have a time frame, when and how long this program will be available until it is closed. Once the law is approved, fast track citizenship will not be available and you have to wait for 5 years to naturalize, irrespective of how much you invest!
The Bulgaria citizen by investment NEVER became popular because of long waiting time, high investment amount and poorly designed scheme by Government.
