Has anyone looked into Bulgaria Citizenship by investment program?

Residencies & citizenships
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Has anyone looked into Bulgaria Citizenship by investment program? Why is it not as popular as Portugal? Is it because it is not in Schengen or something else?

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Hi stpqls

I believe its due to a few reasons. One of them is Bulgaria’s corruption levels. A 2018 Report by Transparency International indicate that Bulgaria is considered the most corrupt member state of the European Union(it barely joined the EU in 2014), ranking 77 out of 180. Portugal, like many other Western European nations, has considerably minimal corruption.

The other reason is the higher cost. These 2 factors alone are enough to make investors think twice about the Bulgarian CBI. Imagine paying 500k odd Euros and being at the mercy of a corrupt Bulgarian administrative bureaucracy. You are essentially putting your money at high risk with low returns. Not worth it in my opinion.

Below is a report on why bulgaria’s CBI Program isnt successful

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I understand the corruption part. But I don’t understand the higher amount. You can buy these bonds in the foreign exchange and Bulgaria has a BBB rating. How is this not better than overpriced Portuguese real estate? Even the lowest 280K Euro Golden Visa in Portugal costs about ~50-60K more due to various fees. Bulgaria is much more straight forward it seems.

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I did a bit of research and turns out it can be better than Portugal’s Golden visa IF you compare it with buying overpriced real estate in the big cities eg. Lisbon, Porto, Algarve etc…

However, Portugal give’s a better bang for buck for those who do not wish to top up their initial investment just to shorten the time. There are, however, some changes made to the Bulgarian Citizenhip by investment and it has an additional option of opening a company with 10 staff and using 250k euros.

However, the same rules of top up for an accelerated citizenship path still remains. I personally would not recommend this CBI unless you have 500k Euros or more and are willing to hire 20 people to your company in 2 years.

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I’ll say this with all respect. Mr Paul The Free, the info and ideas you put out are something I firmly disagree with.

  1. Bulgaria did NOT join EU in 2014, I’m not sure where you read that. It joined in 2007.
  2. The Transparency International you mention should perhaps study how transparent the European Central Bank and the City of London are, as organisations, before putting out assertive statements as to how much various countries are corrupt. To give one out of many examples - the Danish bank DanskeBank was caught laundering money with offshore schemes in its Estonian branch. Should we sweep this under the rug? There’s a whole plethora of examples that can be given on how corrupt many western european countries are so I would not look into reports such as the one you cite.
  3. The “corrupt Bulgarian administrative bureaucracy” that you mention is found just as much in any other European country … be it east or west so there’s not so much to say about that … Just imagine being at the mercy of ECB and so on.
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Hi Enbilei

Sorry if I have sounded offensive/ignorant. I didnt mean to put down Bulgaria. I was just trying to put forward an argument as to why I think Bulgarian Citizenship by investment is not such a good deal as compared to Portugal, Greece or even recently Italian Golden Visas. If you want to compare apples with apples, we can also compare it to nearby Montenegro and its Citizenship by Investment.

  1. My apologies for that
    2 & 3) I understood that there is also corruption going on in Western (European) countries. I am equally as appalled by the scale of the Panama Papers, Cambridge Analytica and many other scandals. I also know that the EU, ECB etc. are not as transparent or democratic as they perceive they are

I dont want to run the risk of assuming but if you are Bulgarian, could you enlighten us the details of your countries’ citizenship by investment program(costs, investment methods etc…)?

Much Appreciated
Thanks

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Not sure though if comparing it to Montenegro would be comparing apples to apples, as ME is not in EU.

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I am still trying to understand why Bulgaria residency hasn’t grown as popular as Portugal. I am listing a list of pro’s and cons of what I think could be the reasons, but in my assessment Bulgaria is still a diamond in the rough:

Pro’s:

  1. Bulgaria has almost 0 residency and no language requirements. It’s not a big deal I guess compared to portuguese requirement of 7 days/yr. But what about language requirements? For portugal, one needs to pass B2 level tests. I am fully aware of how one can reach B2 levels in 6 months or so, but from what I found, every person including the spouse and children applying for citizenship after portuguese GV would have to pass the language test. That sounds like a pain trying to chase spouse and children to complete and pass language tests.

  2. From my research, bulgaria only needs proof of investing 512k euros in bulgarian ETF/MFs, so americans and other nationals can invest from their local brokerages and don’t have to deal with hassle of transferring large capital to overseas banks. By going through the local brokerage route, americans can even invest their own IRA for a period of 3-7 yrs to gain full citizenship. SOFIX/BGX is a 100% bulgarian ETF that trades in london/frankfurt stock exchanges and can be purchased from american brokerages like fidelity, ibkr etc.

Cons:

  1. bulgaria is not a full EU member: Bulgaria is a partial member of EU and is on track to gain full membership in a few years. I actually think this is more of a pro and not con as once Bg gains full eu membership, the premium of citizenship will go higher, also bg might have to get rid of present freebies like non language tests, so I think, overall this is a benefit with a limited time window that will close soon if not pursued. Also, despite partial EU membership, bulgarian citizens have almost similar freedoms of work and travel all over EU, so it’s almost moot.

  2. bulgaria is corrupt: Bulgaria is one of the most corrupt countries in EU, i agree, but i think compared to world rankings, it is not that bad. Many large asian countries like China, India are ranked below BG in corruption index. Would this affect the citizenship/residency process if one arms themselves with a high quality local law firm? I doubt. From my research, the top bg law firms working on investment based immigration have a pretty good track record.

  3. Bulgarian residency (512k euros) costs more than Portugal GV (350k Euros). Well that will change from 2022 as Portugal hikes its minimums to 500k euros.

I have seen a very well educated and pro-active portuguese GV community and am curious why none of them considered bulgaria, knowing well the hassles of transferring capital to overseas banks etc.

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I spent 1 year to understand the Bulgarian golden visa. But i decided to go with Portugal. Reasons are;
1- Bulgaria is not in Schengen yet, so Bulgarian residency doesn’t really helpful, only citizenship works.
2- I talked with 6 different lawyers from Bulgaria, they all give different info, so i couldn’t really understand the process. And interesting that all 6 lawyers offered different ways than the written process (some easier ways). It didn’t seem clear way for me.

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Yeah, the Bulgaria residency isn’t of use but what if one can get citizenship in 18 months? It takes about 12 months to get Portugal’s golden visa these days anyways.

I talked with 6 different lawyers from Bulgaria, they all give different info,

Can you share the names of the firms (feel free to PM)?

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  1. Reputation. People know the PT path works, as do the spanish and greek ones. Not a lot of people have gone the BG path.

  2. Bulgaria is a newer member and not part of Schengen, “on track” doesn’t mean “will”, and “partial” means “partial”. PT is a core member of the EU.

  3. All of the straight-to-citizenship programmes are under scrutiny by the EU. Cypress and Malta are already shut down. Bulgaria’s has been modified, and I bet the 2-year option won’t survive scrutiny either. PT/ES/GR programmes all fit a mold that, for right or wrong, is merely being grumbled at by the EU. I think precisely because it isn’t just an economic handout, you HAVE to make SOME effort to integrate.

(Let’s face it, many of the EU countries have economic programs, if you want to dig hard, so the EU can only be about so much holier-than-thou. Austria and Germany and Italy all have one by one name or another, just Austria’s is expensive as hell, Germany’s requires hoops, and Italy, well. The US and UK both have one, just the price tag is a little high. They also all come with some form of citizenship test or some requirement to integrate at least a little. Nothing for free.)

  1. I don’t want to hold BGN. EUR I have no issue with. Personal viewpoint. YMMV.

  2. PT is a place I’m willing to invest in. BG is not. Personal viewpoint. YMMV.

  3. NHR. Relevance, YMMV.

  4. The main reason IMO: People want to move to Portugal. The list of lifestyle reasons for doing so is long. The expat community - primarily non-GV - is huge, which illustrates the point.

People are not queuing up to move to Bulgaria. Maybe they will someday. Poor marketing plays into this.

Sure the taxes are high, gas is $7/gal, power is expensive, it’s subject to the EU/ECB, property’s overpriced, everything’s overregulated, etc etc. Some people actually want socialized medicine and such and are willing to pay for it; call 'em sheeples if you will, that’s just how it is. It’s just not all about the technical or dollar/euro cost or freedom-from-whatever factors. If those things matter to you, PT is most definitely not your country.

Transferring capital anywhere is a PITA but that’s just logistics that are easily overcome.

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PT is more popular for residencies as the real estate agents get the cut. Would you get citizenship? I am not sure of that. How many success stories have you heard? A new government might just up the PT language requirement by one notch disqualifying a lot of people

BG is not part of schengen. But how does it matter if your goal is citizenship? Yeah, it matters if your goal is only a residency. But PT residency renewals are expensive, after 5 years either you are getting citizenship or canceling the residency as well. Most people won’t hold onto these expensive residency renewals forever.

Bulgaria might further modify their program to 5 years under EU pressure. That’s a possibility. And we can only guess if and when that would happen.

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I think of all EU members, BG is least likely to modify it’s citizenship program, since being a partial EU member, EU has the least sway on its programs than a full EU member. I think the partial EU membership is sort of a blessing in disguise. Post Bg citizenship, one can easily live, work in any part of EU, but the program gets the least complaints from EU for not being fully EU. EU will probably forces full EU members to curb their programs first, before it can ask BG to follow suit.

  1. I don’t want to hold BGN. EUR I have no issue with. Personal viewpoint. YMMV.

Bg GV fully allows EUR imo. no issues with that.

Some people actually want socialized medicine and such and are willing to pay for it; call 'em sheeples if you will, that’s just how it is.

Sorry, if I came across as a libertarian, but I have no issues with socialized medicine! I think it’s a great system!

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I think the option to simply provide proof of holding publicly traded BG ETFs/MFs is such a big advantage. It single handedly slays so many headaches that PT GV members discuss here:

  1. No issue of discussing which bank to open an account at, since your capital never leaves your country.
  2. No issue of which open-ended/closed funded funds to choose, since you literally can buy and hold 500k EUR worth of BG ETFs and stocks (there’s 4-5 of them in London SE, Frankfurt SE etc)
  3. No issue of how much commission fund managers eat
  4. No issue of investment survivability or transparency cos you can see the funds in your brokerage literally
  5. Corruption isn’t really an issue if the fund never leaves your country/brokerage. Worst case scenario, if something bad/corrupt happens and you don’t see receiving your citizenship, all that you lose is part of your your lawyer fees.
  6. Using local brokerage opens the path of using your IRA making it much more accessible to people who would not otherwise have liquid cash sitting.
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I’ve heard at least one GV verified. It’s still pretty new if you consider a 6 year timeframe (not like the citizenship process is going to move any faster than anything else). Getting citizenship has nothing to do with GV anyway - it’s 5 years of residency, however you get there; people on D7 or any other visa are just as eligible and you can find plenty of stories if you try.

The goal posts can always move. Crap shoot.

Real estate agents get a cut if you buy a house, sure. Same as everywhere. Sure they are willing to spend money on marketing. See what I said about marketing. Marketing works.

Because there’s 2-5-6 years of residency. Maybe I want to move sooner. I don’t know. Not that it entirely matters because at the moment a US passport works just as well for Schengen travel… for now, anyway, but that doesn’t apply for any number of other applicants. And yeah in corona-land Schengen isn’t exactly as useful as it was anyway. But that leads to another point.

You’re right, there are some upsides to BG. I’m not saying you’re wrong. Maybe it is better if you are not concerned about investing in Bulgarian bonds or the Bulgarian markets or the Bulgarian system, all of which involves personal perceptions and viewpoints, but it was asked why people aren’t looking at BG, and I’m saying IMO that it’s in fair part that the path is less well trodden via a less well known country that isn’t considered as stable or welcoming and a lot of people will simply prefer the trodden path via the well-known country, for right or wrong. If I told my wife we were applying for Bulgarian citizenship, she’d have balked, end of story. A passport from a core European country where you wouldn’t mind being even if the passport stopped being useful in the rest of the EU simply comes with more warm-fuzzies and that’s worth something.

FWIW, a research service I subscribe to (paid, so bread is not buttered via marketing) did some deep-dive into Bulgaria and basically said “go ahead if you want to try but we aren’t recommending it, we are uncertain about the stability and clarity of the program.”

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I explored BG program in details. Spent a lot of time on that. I understand Bulgarian a bit, good for me.

Contacted many lawyers. A lot of them boasted their success and told me that their clients were “in process” with the upgraded program. That’s misleading. The new program requires pre-approval from BIA (Bulgarian investment agency), and there’s no secondary legislation for that. So lawyers actually did nothing for their clients, except requiring their docs and accepting payment.

The lawyers also charge a lot, and I don’t get it, because the process seems very simple.

The secondary legislation must have been ready by Sep 15. But it’s not there yet. Not sure why.

I contacted BIA directly. They answer emails. You’ll need an address and attorney there for convenience, but it seems, you can do the procedure on your own, cheap and effective. Unless there’s a strong corruption (such as illegal refusals etc).

Ask here if you have questions, I’ll try to answer. All the information I have is theoretical though. Impossible to join the program now (should become possible soon).

If someone had a practical experience, please share.

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Probably same reason as elsewhere. It’s opaque, in an opaque country, easier to hire someone else to do it for you than to attempt to figure it out yourself. That of course is no guarantee of getting a good lawyer or avoiding the tommigun bad-lawyer experience, but well.

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I agree, it’s the same everywhere. Even in the countries with very well defined and published procedures one will always bump into a set of odd forms or fields to complete that have no clear explanation.
The solution would be either hiring a good lawyer by recommendations, or figuring out by yourself with some help from the community of the fellow applicants. Obviously the smaller the community as in the case of BG → the less is the chance of any free help → the higher are the legal fees…

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What investments are you looking at? Will you be holding them in your home country’s brokerage account? Or in Bulgaria?

Also, care to share the name of the law firms that you contacted?

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The Bulgarian investment program suggests several types of investments.

I considered investing in Bulgarian ETF.

While it’s theoretically possible to buy it through any brokerage, you’ll need proper papers to show that you hold the investment. Many brokers don’t list you as the owner in the depositary. So the depositary can’t give you such papers. A broker will give you an activity statement instead, or maybe some other kind of statement.

Will BIA accept such statement? I’m not sure of it. Not saying “no”, just not sure. You can ask BIA and share the answer with us =).

Their email is: iba@investbg.government.bg

For my route, I considered making a direct purchase of the Bulgarian Mutual Fund. Then they give you the papers in Bulgarian.

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