Bulgaria Entrepreneur Residence in 2026

Bulgaria has an ordinary commercial-activity residence ground that is separate from the Startup Visa.

Current Ministry of Interior guidance applies a statutory workforce threshold to this ground. Under Article 24(1)(2), the commercial activity must result in at least 10 full-time jobs for Bulgarian citizens, maintained during the residence period. The requirement applies separately to each foreign partner using this residence basis and, under the current Ministry guidance, separately to each foreign manager where the rule applies.

That means a company with one qualifying foreign partner needs at least 10 qualifying Bulgarian employees; two foreign partners using the same basis generally require 20. The Ministry also checks commercial-register and tax-liability information through official channels.

Registering a Bulgarian company alone does not create immigration residence. A dormant company, nominal shareholding or business registration without the required employment footprint does not satisfy this route.

An innovative founder should compare the Startup Visa, which uses a different certification-and-ownership framework and does not automatically import the ordinary 10-employee rule. An independent professional should compare freelance/self-employment.

A founder keeping the operating company outside the EU/EEA/Switzerland may instead need to analyze digital-nomad residence, provided the statutory remote-work definition and Bulgarian-client restrictions are met.

For settlement planning, see permanent residence.

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