Residence in Bulgaria: three months, a certificate of 3.58 euros and a personal number
As an EU citizen you may be in Bulgaria for three months without conditions. After that, within those three months, you apply for the certificate of long-term residence, for 3.58 euros, valid for up to five years — and that certificate gives you the personal number the bank, the health fund and the traffic police ask for. The proof of address is the trap: a notarised declaration from your landlord, or a title deed.
Bulgaria asks of an EU citizen exactly what the European rules allow: a registration after three months. The difference from the neighbours lies in what that certificate yields — a personal number — and in the paper you need for it.
The clock: three months
As an EU citizen you may be in Bulgaria for three months with your passport or identity card without conditions. If you stay longer, within three months of entry you apply for the certificate of long-term residence at the Migration department of the regional directorate of the Ministry of the Interior of your place of residence.
The fee has been 3.58 euros since 1 January 2026. If you want the certificate as a card instead of on paper, that costs 15.34 euros. The certificate is valid for up to five years, or shorter if you ask for that yourself.
The documents
You bring:
- your passport or identity card;
- proof of your purpose of stay: an employment contract, a business registration, or with own means your pension decision and bank statements;
- proof of healthcare cover — for pensioners the S1 from the CAK;
- proof of your address;
- the receipt for the fee.
The proof of address: the notary
The proof of address is the step where Dutch people get stuck. Bulgaria accepts a title deed, a declaration from your landlord, or an allocation of a municipal home. And that landlord's declaration must be notarised if the landlord doesn't come along to the counter in person.
A holiday let through a platform doesn't produce that paper. So arrange a rental contract with a landlord who is willing to go to the notary with you, and have the declaration drawn up right at the signing of the contract — the notary is cheap and everywhere in Bulgaria.
The personal number
With the certificate you get a personal number for foreigners, the number with which you exist in Bulgaria: the bank asks for it, the regional health fund office at the registration of your S1, the traffic police at the registration of your car, and the revenue agency at your first return. Without that number nothing starts, and that is why the residence certificate is the first step in Bulgaria, not a formality for later.
After five years
After five years of uninterrupted legal residence you're entitled as an EU citizen to permanent residence. The certificate of that costs the same, 3.58 euros, and the residence certificate from the first years is then the proof of your years — another reason to arrange it on time and complete.
What this rests on
The facts in this article come from these official pages. Rules change — when in doubt the source is leading, not this article.
Read on
- BulgariaOrientation3 min
AOW, pension and tax in Bulgaria: the Netherlands taxes, Bulgaria doesn't
The treaty with Bulgaria from 2020 is a source-state treaty without threshold: the Netherlands may tax your occupational pension, your annuity and your AOW. And Bulgaria doesn't tax pensions — not its own, and expressly not those from compulsory insurance abroad either. So your Dutch rates are your rates, without wage tax exemption and without credit. What Bulgaria does tax, it taxes at a flat rate of ten percent.
Updated 11 September 2026
- BulgariaThe move2 min
Car and driving licence in Bulgaria: on plates within a month, with an environmental fee by age
Bulgaria charges no excise duty on a car you bring from the EU, but it does charge an environmental fee on first registration, by age of the car: from roughly 77 euros for a new one to almost 200 euros for a car older than ten years. The registration at the traffic police must be within a month and costs 17.90 euros. The driving licence is the easy part: an EU licence doesn't need exchanging.
Updated 11 September 2026
- BulgariaArrival3 min
Buying a house in Bulgaria: free for EU citizens, and since 2024 the land too
As an EU citizen you buy a home, a flat or a building plot in Bulgaria without a permit. Agricultural land you could only buy after five years of living there, until the Court of Justice struck out that rule on 18 January 2024. The municipality charges a transfer tax it sets itself, up to three percent, and you're the owner on entry in the land registry — not on signing.
Updated 11 September 2026