Type D Visa for Bulgaria — Types, Requirements & Procedure (2026)

Type D visa in 2026 — who needs it

A Type D visa is the long-stay visa a third-country national needs in order to obtain a long-stay, long-term or permanent residence permit in Bulgaria (Art. 15(1) Foreigners Act). It is valid for up to 6 months, gives a right to stay of up to 180 days and allows multiple entries. For certain groups — researchers, students on programmes of up to one academic year, trainees and some posted workers — a D visa of up to one year with a stay of up to 360 days is possible (Art. 15(2)). The visa is cancelled once the residence permit is issued (Art. 15(4)).

EU, EEA and Swiss citizens do not need a visa; their residence is governed by a separate act on EU citizens (Art. 1(3) Foreigners Act). Visa-free nationals may visit Bulgaria for up to 90 days in any 180-day period, but they too need a D visa to settle (Art. 23(1)(1) and Art. 15(1)).

Three developments shape the 2026 picture:

• Schengen: Bulgaria has been a full Schengen member since 1 January 2025, when checks at the internal land borders were lifted.
• Euro: the euro has been Bulgaria’s currency since 1 January 2026; amounts a statute still states in leva are read in euro at the fixed rate of 1.95583 (Euro Introduction Act, Art. 11–13).
• 2025 amendments: State Gazette No. 52 of 27 June 2025 added a residence ground for digital nomads and reworked the employment-based procedures.

How to apply and how long it takes

1. Secure the ground first. For employment, the Bulgarian employer must first receive the positive message from the Migration Directorate; the worker then has 20 days (30 for the EU Blue Card) to apply for the visa. See our work permit guide.
2. Apply in person at the Bulgarian embassy or consulate for your country of permanent residence, or at the mission accredited for it. Applying in another country where you stay lawfully is possible only by exception and with reasons (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). The interview is mandatory.
3. Pay the consular fee: EUR 100, or EUR 200 for the one-year visa under Art. 15(2), as at 2026. It is not refunded if the visa is refused. An outsourced visa centre may add its own service fee.
4. Wait for the decision. The consulate decides after a joint opinion of the migration authorities and the State Agency for National Security (DANS), within 35 working days of the application. The deadline is 15 calendar days for EU Blue Card holders, seasonal workers, students, researchers, family members of Bulgarian citizens and parents of Bulgarian citizens. Either deadline may be extended by up to 20 calendar days for further checks (Visa Ordinance, Art. 30).

Main grounds for a Type D visa

The visa must be applied for on the same ground as the residence permit that will follow — a residence application on a different ground is refused (Art. 24(8) Foreigners Act). The main grounds, as at 2026:

Investment routes to permanent residence

Some investments lead to permanent residence without a prior period of long-stay residence (Art. 25(1) Foreigners Act). The thresholds are stated in leva in the Act; the euro figures below use the fixed rate:

• BGN 1,000,000 (EUR 511,291.88) in units of Bulgarian collective investment schemes or alternative investment funds, or in Bulgarian concession rights (Art. 25(1)(6));
• BGN 2,000,000 (EUR 1,022,583.76) in shares or bonds of Bulgarian companies traded on a regulated market or multilateral trading facility in Bulgaria (Art. 25(1)(6)), or in the capital of a company carrying out a certified priority investment project (Art. 25(1)(7));
• BGN 6,000,000 (EUR 3,067,751.29) in the capital of a Bulgarian company whose shares are not listed (Art. 25(1)(8));
• BGN 500,000 (EUR 255,645.94) in a company in which the investor holds at least 50%, with matching new assets and at least 10 jobs for Bulgarian citizens, certified by the Ministry of Economy (Art. 25(1)(16)).

For the routes in Art. 25(1)(6), the Bulgarian Investment Agency checks the investor and the source of funds before the investment is made (Art. 25(7)), and investments under items 6, 8 and 16 must be maintained for five years (Art. 25(11)). See our guide to residency through investment.

Type D visa checklist

Whatever the ground, the consulate expects the following (Visa Ordinance, Art. 13, 14 and 19; Ministry of Foreign Affairs):

• Visa application form.
• Passport valid for at least 3 months after the planned departure, with at least two blank pages, issued within the last 10 years, plus copies of the data page and of previous visas or residence permits.
• A recent colour photograph in passport format; consulates and visa centres set the exact specification (35×45 mm at VFS Global in Türkiye, for example). Fingerprints may be taken.
• Travel medical insurance covering the planned stay, with cover of at least EUR 30,000 for repatriation, emergency care and hospital treatment (Art. 14(1)).
• Documents proving the ground — for example the employer’s positive message, the freelance permit, proof of admission to study or of family ties. Where a foreign degree is relied on for employment, a NACID recognition certificate is also required at the visa stage (Art. 24i(5)(13) Foreigners Act).
• Proof of accommodation and of means of subsistence (Art. 19 of the Visa Ordinance).
• Criminal record certificate from the country of nationality or habitual residence, for applicants aged 18 or over, on the first residence application (Art. 24(2) Foreigners Act).
• Consular fee — EUR 100 (EUR 200 for a visa under Art. 15(2)).

Means of subsistence: the Foreigners Act sets the benchmark at not less than the Bulgarian minimum monthly wage (EUR 620.20 as at 2026), the minimum student grant or the minimum pension, for the period of residence (Art. 24(2)). Some grounds have their own test — for digital nomads, 50 minimum wages a year.

Practical tip: foreign public documents usually need an apostille or legalisation and a certified Bulgarian translation; the Act requires this expressly for education and qualification documents. Start early — this step often takes longer than the visa itself.

From Type D visa to residence permit

The D visa only lets you enter. The residence permit is a separate application in Bulgaria:

1. Address declaration

   Within 3 days of entry, declare in writing the address where you will stay, on an address card (Art. 18(1) Foreigners Act).

2. Residence application at the Migration Directorate

   The application is filed in person at the Migration Directorate or a regional migration unit while the visa is valid (Art. 23(5)). For the Single Permit, the Blue Card and intra-corporate transfers, the employer must appear with you within 14 days of entry; for seasonal work, within 7 days (Art. 24i(16), 33k(14), 33p(15), 24k(18)). You need accommodation, mandatory health insurance and sufficient means (Art. 24(2)).

3. Decision and validity

   On the general grounds, the application is decided within 14 days, extendable by one month in complex cases (Art. 24(3)). A long-stay residence permit is issued for up to one year unless the law provides otherwise (Art. 23(1)(2)) — the Single Permit, for example, runs for three years and the Blue Card for up to five.

4. Permanent residence

   After 5 years of lawful, uninterrupted residence, with absences of no more than 30 months in that period, you may apply for permanent residence; time as a student counts at half (Art. 25(1)(5)). EU Blue Card holders can obtain EU long-term resident status after 5 years in the EU, the last two in Bulgaria (Art. 33m(1)). The investment routes above lead to permanent residence directly.

5. Citizenship

   Naturalisation is possible at least 5 years after obtaining a permanent or long-term residence permit, for adults not convicted by a Bulgarian court of an intentional publicly prosecuted crime (unless rehabilitated), with income or an occupation, knowledge of Bulgarian (tested under an ordinance of the Minister of Education) and release from their current citizenship, subject to exceptions (Art. 12 Bulgarian Citizenship Act).

Refusal grounds and appeals

What decides an application is whether it avoids the refusal grounds in Art. 10(1) of the Foreigners Act. Those an applicant can influence most are:

• no proven means of subsistence or mandatory insurance for the stay (item 9);
• the purpose and conditions of the stay are not credibly proven (item 17);
• a document with untrue content or a false declaration (item 23), or reasonable doubts about the authenticity of documents or the intention to leave on time (item 24);
• a conviction for an intentional crime punishable under Bulgarian law by at least one year in prison, unless rehabilitated (items 6 and 26);
• breaches of the Bulgarian border, visa, labour or tax rules during an earlier stay (items 10 and 11);
• having already used 90 days in the last 180 in other Schengen states on a long-stay visa or residence permit (item 18a).

Appeals: the refusal must state its legal basis and reasons in writing (Art. 10a(2)). However, a refusal of a D visa cannot be challenged in court, unless the applicant claims a breach of fundamental rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (Art. 10a(4)). In practice, the remedy is a better-prepared new application.

Schengen and the euro — what it means for D visa holders

• Travel in Schengen: a valid Bulgarian D visa or residence permit lets you stay in other Schengen states for up to 90 days in any 180-day period (Art. 21 of the Schengen Convention, as extended to long-stay visas by Regulation (EU) No 265/2010). It does not give a right to live or work there.
• Euro: fees, salary thresholds and investment amounts are paid and assessed in euro; leva amounts still written in the statutes convert at 1.95583.

Frequently asked questions