Employing non-EU citizens in Bulgaria

Last Updated on September 29, 2022 by Bulgarian attorney

Тhe deepening labour shortage in Bulgaria made the government to relax its procedures for relocating non-EU employees to Bulgaria. There are several options to employ non-EU citizens in Bulgaria and very popular amongst our clients seems to be the Intra-Corporate transfer.

Intra-Corporate transfer in Bulgaria

 The Intra-corporate transfer is a temporary transfer for the purpose of work or training of a worker – a citizen of a third country, from an enterprise with its headquarters or address of management outside the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria, to a division of the enterprise or to an enterprise belonging to the same group of enterprises, with headquarters or management address on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria.

Simply, the Intra-Corporate Transfer occurs between two related companies, one based abroad, and the other based in Bulgaria.  If you do not have a company in Bulgaria, you have to set one up before you can relocate your employees on the basis of intra-corporate transfer.

The employees to be relocated to Bulgaria should have a valid employment contract with the enterprise abroad. The employees cannot be newly recruited employees but existing employees who have an employment record only.

Our team can apply for relocating your employees on your behalf remotely by granting an authorization to our team.

Benefits of relocating employees to Bulgaria by way of intra-corporate transfer

• There is no market test.
• There are no requirements to employ Bulgarian citizens per each non-EU employee.
• Residency card can be renewed for up to 3 years.

Documents required

There is a standard set of documents that should be provided by the applicant and foreign employer:

1. Passport copy of the applicant
2. No criminal record of the applicant
3. Employment contract for the last 12 months with the foreign enterprise
4. Certificate of Good Standing or other company certificate that indicate the relation between the Bulgarian and Foreign enterprise

The rest of the documents will be prepared by our team.

Time to Work Permit

Once the set of application documents is prepared and submitted, it takes around 2 months for the local Migration Office to process the application with the Employment Agency and issue the approval letter.

The approval letter is attached to your D visa application with the Bulgarian embassy in your home country or country of your common residence. The D visa will be processed within 4-6 weeks time.

Family reunification for non-EU employees in Bulgaria

Non-EU citizens who are employed in Bulgaria can apply to bring their families to Bulgaria.

For further details about employing non-EU citizens in Bulgaria, please get in touch with our team.