Bulgarian Golden Visa – the best program in the EU

Bulgarian Golden Visa is for those, who want more from life. Freedom to reside and travel anywhere in the EU visa-free.

by VD&A

Bulgaria’s Golden Visa program is among the lesser known, although its conditions are by far the best in the EU. The Bulgarian government is pursuing a policy of passing the benefits on to the candidates instead of spending on advertising.


Bulgarian Golden Visa

required investment starting from 256 000 EUR

Relaxing with Bulgarian Golden Visa

Unrestricted living rights in Bulgaria and travel in the EU

Everyone deserves the right to travel freely. Everyone should be able to choose where to live. Borders should not exist, not in an ideal world. But we live in an age of restrictions and people are not born equal. Fortunately, there is a remedy for the inequality – the Bulgarian investment visa with path to citizenship.

For Bulgarian Golden Visa holders, there are about 30 highly developed European countries that they can visit visa-free. Not only visa-free, but without the need to even pass border controls. Imagine what a life changer is this to the holders of non-EU passports. No more Schengen visas, no nothing. And citizens of the blessed countries, who enjoy visa-free entry to the EU (ie USA, Canada, Australia, UK, etc.) will not even require an ETIAS to visit Europe.

Did you know that with Bulgarian Golden Visa you can apply for full Bulgarian citizenship after five years?

Path to Bulgarian citizenship

After Bulgaria joined the Schengen area, the demand for Bulgarian Golden Visa skyrocketed. And this is logical, because investors residing in Bulgaria have been granted the right to travel freely, without visas, anywhere within the Schengen area. But the real “hidden value” of the Bulgarian Golden Visa is that it may lead to full citizenship as well. As per the Bulgarian citizenship law, a foreigner with a Golden Visa can apply for Bulgarian citizenship after 5 years.

Clear, favourable & safe conditions

The Bulgarian Golden Visa program provides wide choice of investment opportunities. The options are clear and safe, ranging from stock-exchange traded financial products to true investments in the Bulgarian economy. The Bulgarian parliament has taken a wise decision not to introduce any irrevocable donation, which is great news for the sustainability of the program on EU level.

Sustainable on both national and EU level

The Bulgarian program is sustainable on both national and EU level. The past years were marked by many investment citizenship and residence programs being put to an end. The Bulgarian Golden Visa however survived. Currently it doesn’t seem to be a thorn in the eye of the European Commission, ensuring that it will continue to operate. This is very good news for the potential clients.

For more information

For more detailed information about the Bulgarian Golden Visa, please visit the specialised website of the program at Bulgarian-citizenship.org.

Wide range of investment options

Below are the investment options for the Bulgarian Golden Visa program with the relevant amounts required:

  • Shares or bonds of Bulgarian companies traded on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange:
    • 1 024 000 EUR
  • Bulgarian concession rights:
    • 512 000 EUR
  • Shares of investment funds (UCITs, ETFs):
    • 512 000 EUR
  • Shares of alternative investment funds (AIFs):
    • 512 000 EUR
  • Participation in a Bulgarian company carrying on a Certified Priority Investment Project:
    • 1 024 000 EUR
  • Investment in Bulgarian private company and employing 10 Bulgarian citizens:
    • 256 000 EUR
  • Investment in Bulgarian private company (without the need to employ personnel):
    • 3 072 000 EUR

Why choose VD&A for your Bulgarian Golden Visa application?

Present globally, working locally

We are better, because we are doing the job. For the core work, we don’t operate from fancy offices in London, Zurich or New York. We do not pass the work to be done by someone else. Our licensed lawyers are doing everything from start to finish. We are located there, where the things are happening – in the heart of Sofia, Bulgaria. Our offices are in 10 minutes from the Bulgarian Ministry of Justice and the office of the President or Bulgaria. We interact with the Bulgarian Parliament, where the immigration and naturalisation laws are being discussed and voted for. We follow each and every legislative act from the moment it has been submitted to the Parliament for consideration. Each law, that has been either passed or rejected, has been studied thoroughly by our lawyers long before it eventually makes it to the “Bulgarian State Gazette”.

No middlemen involved

We are not “agents selling Golden Visa” who will cash in huge “conveyance fees” to only pass the applicant’s file to another agent who will charge his fee before passing it to another agent and so on, before it eventually reaches us – with the request to do the job. Our aim is not to sell non-liquid “portfolio” of “assets”. We will not talk to the applicant from a distant offshore location, not knowing anything about Bulgaria. We will not try to lure the client into the adventure of getting him an EU residence permit, just for the sake of it.

Lower fees

Actually, almost all of the “agents selling EU Golden Visa” who advertise in the glossy magazines or on the internet will ultimately come to us in order to have the work done. The client will most probably be charged anywhere from 3 to 5 times higher fee compared to what we would have charged directly.

Ultimate legal knowledge

We will never try convincing the client to buy real estate properties (passing the VAT and notary charges to the customer and offloading the junk properties from our associates balance sheet) or invest in a “non-interest bearing social bank account” for 5 years (cashing in the interest paid). Yes, we have seen many similar offerings online and in expensive brochures distributed in posh hotels worldwide. We know the Bulgarian laws and we know best how to comply with them in order to get the work done.

  • We process the application of the client ourselves. We don’t pass anything to agents or subcontractors;
  • Our fees are probably 3 to 5 times lower than the fees charged by “international agents” from their offshore offices;
  • We protect the client’s privacy and security;
  • Our success rate is much higher than the success rate of the “international agents”, who are often “lost in the translation”, before they eventual reach us to do the job;
  • All work done is on “turnkey basis” and official applications are carried out by licensed immigration lawyers.

Data protection and full privacy

Security is also great advantage to those working directly with us. We keep all customers’ data confidential and our clients are covered by strict data protection laws in Bulgaria. The situation is quite different when the customer’s file has made few circles around the globe between different “agents” in different jurisdictions.

Turn-key solution

While we would do the whole legal work on turnkey basis, we will never offer the customer credit facility for his investment in return for few hundred thousand Euros commission for us. We believe that if the client can not afford the required amount of investment, then he or she should consider other options or other countries.

Work done by licensed lawyers

All official work done by us is done by a licensed immigration lawyers who know best of all how to get the applicant’s Golden Visa approved. They will be backed up by financial and tax advisers in order to secure the best investment option for the customer and optimise eventual tax consequences.

The Bulgarian Golden Visa program is a successor of the cancelled Citizenship by Investment Programs (CBI). You can find more information about the revoked programs at – the 2021 CBI and the pre-2021 CBI.