27
Aug 2026
Bulgaria wants permanent residents to actually live in the country. Those who don’t could lose their status.
A bill before the National Assembly would withdraw permanent residence from anyone who spent less than six months and one day in Bulgaria in the previous calendar year. The rule would apply to every permanent resident, regardless of how they obtained the status.
That would overturn a key feature of Bulgaria’s golden visa, which has long been marketed on the basis that investors do not need to live in the country.
The Council of Ministers approved the draft on July 27 through Decision 575. Prime Minister Rumen Radev signed the decision and the letter submitting the bill to parliament, which registered it on July 28 under reference 52-602-01-29.
For investors, the change is stark. A subscription of 1 million Bulgarian lev (about €511,292) at the fixed rate currently grants permanent residence without a physical-presence requirement.
Absence out, presence in
The bill replaces an EU-wide absence test with a Bulgaria-specific presence test.
Article 40 of the Law on Foreigners lists grounds for withdrawing residence. Item 6 currently covers long-term and permanent permit holders and applies after 12 consecutive months outside the European Union, according to a Bulgarian immigration practice quoted in December 2025.
Section 17 would limit item 6 to long-term permits. A new item 24 would govern permanent residents based on time spent in Bulgaria rather than time outside the EU.
The yardstick, therefore, narrows from the entire EU to Bulgaria, and the test shifts from absence to presence. Permanent residents would have to spend most of each year in Bulgaria.
A shield full of holes
New item 24 contains no exemptions. It would spare neither investors nor foreigners stranded abroad during a declared state of emergency, an exception item 6 retains for long-term residents.
The current item 6 also protects permanent residence granted under the investment provisions in Articles 25 and 25g. The revised language keeps that carve-out but confines it to long-term permits.
Whether that protects anyone depends on whether Bulgarian law allows someone to hold long-term and permanent residence simultaneously. An investor holding both could remain covered. Someone with permanent residence alone would fall under item 24.
Withdrawal is mandatory rather than discretionary under the same immigration practice.
Two safeguards may still matter. Authorities must consider length of residence, family ties, and social and cultural ties before taking action. An EU directive also allows member states to excuse long absences in exceptional cases.
But that directive governs EU long-term resident status, which the bill leaves under item 6. Bulgarian permanent residence is a national status that the bill would place under a separate domestic rule.
(Image courtesy of Towfiqu barbhuiya via Pexels)
New currency, old price tags
Elsewhere, the bill mainly converts investment thresholds into euros following Bulgaria’s January 1 currency change.
Section 11 restates Article 25 investment minimums at the fixed exchange rate. BGN 1 million becomes €511,291.88, BGN 2 million becomes €1,022,583.76, and BGN 6 million becomes €3,067,751.29. The real value of the thresholds remains unchanged.
Section 7 similarly converts extended-residence thresholds, including BGN 100,000 to €51,129.19 and BGN 600,000 to €306,775.13. Item 24 would not apply to those permits.
One sentence, no cause
The government offers little explanation for the new residency rule.
The explanatory memorandum points to rising applications for permanent residence and a need for tighter control over foreigners with permanent residence. It cites no security concern or European obligation and does not mention investment migration.
Its broader justifications cover single work permits, border screening, Schengen accession, personal documents, labor migration, health, and euro-denominated fines. Permanent residence appears only later as an objective without a detailed rationale.
The rule also extends far beyond investors. Spouses of Bulgarian citizens, people of Bulgarian descent, and long-settled foreigners can hold the same permanent residence permit and are subject to the same requirements.
(Image courtesy of Nikolay Demirev via Pexels)
A law with no launch day
The bill ends at Section 38 without specifying when Section 17 would take effect, whether existing permit holders would be grandfathered, or which calendar year authorities would examine first.
Under the Bulgarian Constitution, laws take effect three days after publication in the State Gazette unless otherwise specified. Read literally, a law passed late in 2026 could make that year’s residence history relevant even though permit holders spent most of it under the old rules.
Zero objections
The Ministry of Interior’s public consultation ran from April 1 to May 4. Nine authors submitted 14 comments, including the Bulgarian Industrial Association and the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee.
They addressed border screening, work permits, seasonal worker housing, medical insurance, an au pair framework, and euro-denominated fines. None mentioned the permanent residence rule.
The proposal is not final. Bulgarian bills proceed through committee review, a first reading, amendments, and a second reading, and the text can change substantially.
(Image courtesy of Nadejda Bostanova via Pexels)
Bulgaria’s lonely bargain
Immediate permanent residence is not unique. Malta’s residence program and Cyprus also grant it from the outset.
Bulgaria’s unusual combination is permanent residence from day one, no requirement to live in the country, and eligibility for naturalization five years later with an A1 language test. Malta and Cyprus require years of actual residence before citizenship.
The border remembers now
Newer EU systems could make immigration breaches easier to detect, although their usefulness for item 24 is limited.
The Entry/Exit System (EES) records entries and exits and identifies stays exceeding 90 days, reducing reliance on passport stamps. Shared access among border, immigration, law enforcement, and Europol could also make it easier to identify status issues at external borders.
The planned European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) would screen visa-exempt travelers before departure.
But EES exempts residence-permit holders. It therefore would not directly track the permanent residents targeted by item 24, leaving Bulgarian authorities dependent on separate national records to establish physical presence.
(Image courtesy of Global Residence Index via Unsplash)
Cardholders watch clock
Bulgaria is rewriting the bargain on which its investor residence program was built. An EU-wide absence test that nonresident investors could easily satisfy would become a Bulgaria-specific presence requirement they could not.
The draft provides no exemption, transition period, or clear start date.
Because item 24 does not distinguish investors from other permanent residents, the same requirement would apply to spouses, people of Bulgarian descent, and long-settled foreigners. Anyone approaching the five-year naturalization threshold could also risk disrupting that timeline if permanent residence is withdrawn.
The crucial changes, if any, will come during committee review and parliamentary readings. Lawmakers could add a start date, grandfather existing holders, or clarify the investment carve-out. Until then, whether 2026 itself would count remains unresolved.