The digital nomad residence permit runs one year, is extendable once, and then the statute simply stops. Every other Bulgarian residence route renews indefinitely — this one has a ceiling written into it. Which makes the interesting question not how you get in, but what you have become by month twenty-four.
If you are a citizen of the EU, the EEA or Switzerland, you already have freedom of movement and you register on a much simpler basis — no income threshold, no restriction on Bulgarian clients, and no two-year ceiling. Nothing below applies to you, and people lose weeks before realising it.
Almost every page you will read quotes a single euro amount. The statute does not contain one. It contains a multiplier, and three conditions that change what you need to prove.
The test is fifty Bulgarian minimum monthly wages. The minimum wage is reset every January, so the threshold moves with it and any fixed number goes stale within the year.
It is your earnings history that qualifies you, not your current run rate. A strong year now cannot repair a thin year behind you — which is why the timing of your application matters as much as the amount.
The statute says the gross sum of income received is what counts. People routinely disqualify themselves on a net figure when their gross clears the line comfortably.
| You apply in | Minimum wage that drives it | Gross income to show |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2025 — BGN 1,077 / EUR 550.66 | EUR 27,533 |
| 2027 | 2026 — BGN 1,213 / EUR 620.20 | EUR 31,010 |
| 2028 | Set in late 2027 | Fifty times whatever it becomes |
Put your own dates into it. Tell the clock when you plan to land and what you grossed last year, and it returns your real deadlines — renewal, decision point and the day the door closes.
Run my clockDrawn to scale. The first year is the permit. The second is the single extension the law allows. There is no third.
The long-stay visa comes first, from the consulate where you live. The residence application follows after you arrive, and the authority decides within fourteen days.
You have to still meet every original condition — income, insurance, accommodation, no Bulgarian clients. Filed late, it becomes a gap in lawful residence.
This is the only date on the page that is ours rather than the law's. A company or freelance basis has to exist and be running before the nomad permit lapses, not after.
No second extension exists. Either you are already on another basis, or you leave and the five-year clock for anything durable starts again from zero.
Remote work for clients abroad is the whole premise of the permit. The definition requires that you do not work for, or provide services to, persons on Bulgarian territory. It is not a tax rule and not a formality — it is the ground the permit stands on. One local invoice and the basis is gone, usually discovered at renewal when it is too late to unwind.
You register an EOOD and hold residence as its owner. It renews indefinitely, removes the client restriction entirely, and puts you inside the 15% combined rate on profits taken as dividends.
Self-employment as a liberal profession, with a flat 10% income tax after a statutory allowance of 25% or 40%. Less machinery than a company and often cheaper at moderate income.
If Bulgaria was a two-year experiment, ending it deliberately is cheaper than overstaying. What you must not do is discover the ceiling in month twenty-three.
Our fee for the residence card starts at EUR 350, with state and consular fees separate. The year-two conversion is quoted on its own, because what it costs depends on which route you take.
Get a quoteThe conversion is the part worth paying for. Getting the permit is procedural. Choosing what to become before month twenty-four, and having it running in time, is where the money and the residence actually sit.
Talk it throughHolding the nomad permit does not make you a Bulgarian tax resident, and not holding it does not stop you from becoming one. Residence for tax purposes has its own test, and if you spend enough of the year here it will find you whether or not that was the plan. The two have to be arranged together — that is the whole reason a lawyer is involved rather than a visa agency.
Two years. The statute gives one year and allows a single extension of one more year. There is no second extension and no discretion to grant one, which is what makes this permit different from every other Bulgarian residence route.
Fifty minimum monthly wages, measured on the gross amount you received, tied to the previous calendar year. It is a formula rather than a fixed number, so it moves every January and it is backward-looking: this year's earnings cannot fix last year's shortfall.
No. If you hold EU, EEA or Swiss nationality you have freedom of movement and register on a completely different and simpler basis. The nomad permit exists for third-country nationals.
No. The definition requires that you do not work for or provide services to persons on Bulgarian territory. One local invoice undermines the ground your permit sits on, which is the single most common way people lose it.
Not by itself, because it stops at two years and permanent residence generally asks for five years of lawful continuous residence. It can form the first part of that period if you convert to a renewable basis before it expires.
No. Immigration status and tax residence are separate tests. You can hold the permit and remain tax resident elsewhere, or become Bulgarian tax resident without it. They have to be planned together but they are not the same question.
Around month fifteen. Converting to a company or freelance basis needs the structure registered and running before the nomad permit lapses, and a gap in lawful residence is far more expensive to repair than to avoid.
Our fee for the residence card starts at EUR 350. State and consular fees are separate. The conversion work in year two is quoted on its own, because it depends on which route you take.
We come back with whether you clear the threshold for that application year, the dates that matter, and what we would convert you into before the door closes.
Ask us to handle it Or run the clock first — it takes a minute and stores nothing.The ground. Art. 24(1)(23) of the Foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria Act, added by the amending act published in State Gazette issue 52 of 27 June 2025, lists digital nomads among those who may be granted continuous residence.
The condition and the ceiling. Art. 24c(1) requires proof of average annual income of not less than fifty minimum monthly wages under Bulgarian legislation for the previous calendar year, and provides that the gross sum of income received is what counts. Art. 24c(2): the permit is valid for one year and may be extended once for one further year.
The definition. §1(36) of the Supplementary Provisions defines the digital nomad, including the requirement that the person does not work for or provide services to persons on the territory of Bulgaria.
When it became usable. The implementing regulation was amended by State Gazette issue 109 of 2025, in force 20 December 2025. Between June and December 2025 the ground existed in the statute but applications could not yet be filed.
The decision period. The administrative service register gives the authority up to fourteen days from filing, extendable by up to one month where the case is legally or factually complex.
Minimum wage figures. BGN 1,077 from 1 January 2025 and BGN 1,213 from 1 January 2026; euro amounts converted at the fixed rate of 1.95583.
This page describes Bulgarian law as at August 2026 and is general information, not advice on your situation. Reviewed by Yordan Cholakov, Managing Partner, Innovires Legal.