Bulgaria Digital Nomad Visa: Income and Savings

Q: How much income does the Digital nomad residence permit (art. 24c ZChRB) require?

$2,668 a month, with no savings requirement. A formula in law, so the amount moves when its base moves. The wording on the source is: "50 minimum monthly wages as an average annual income. 2025 wage BGN 1,077/month, so BGN 53,850/year = EUR 27,533/year, EUR 2,294/month". Legal basis: Art. 24c of the Law on Foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria (ZChRB), inserted by the amending Act promulgated in Darzhaven vestnik (State Gazette) issue 52 of 27 June 2025. The Act's Additional Provisions, para 1 point 36, define a digital nomad as a foreigner employed remotely by an employer established outside the EU, or an owner or partner holding more than 25% of such a company, or an independent professional who has supplied remote services to foreign clients only for at least a year before applying. Art. 24c sets the income test at an average annual income of not less than 50 minimum monthly wages and the permit at one year, extendable once by one more.

Q: Does the Digital nomad residence permit (art. 24c ZChRB) lead to permanent residence?

No pathway. One year, extendable once: two years total, so the permit cannot itself reach the five years long-term residence needs. Pathway confidence: unverified.

Q: What does it cost to live in Bulgaria?

$991 per person, per month. That is what one resident of Bulgaria spends in an average month with housing included — not what a newcomer renting at market rates will spend, which is higher.

The requirements

Programme status: Open, accepting applications
Minimum monthly income: $2,668 a month
Required savings: None
Annual total: $32,016
Initial duration: 1 year, extendable once (2 years total)
Family allowed: Not stated
Apply online: No, in person or by post

50 minimum monthly wages a year. On the 2025 wage that is EUR 27,533/year; guides quoting EUR 31,000 have used the 2026 wage.

How this figure is set: A formula in law, so the amount moves when its base moves. The wording on the source is: 50 minimum monthly wages as an average annual income. 2025 wage BGN 1,077/month, so BGN 53,850/year = EUR 27,533/year, EUR 2,294/month. Formula: 50 x the minimum monthly wage for the preceding calendar year (art. 24c ZChRB). Applying in 2026 the base is the 2025 wage, BGN 1,077 (EUR 550.66 at the fixed 1.95583), giving EUR 27,533/year. The 2026 wage is EUR 620.20, which on the same rule gives EUR 31,010/year and is the figure every secondary guide quotes - they have taken the current wage rather than the preceding year's. The Bulgarian phrase 'za predhodnata kalendarna godina' can be read as qualifying the income instead of the wage; EY's Bulgarian tax practice reads it as the wage, which is the reading used here. No official English guidance has been published either way, which is why this row is medium and not high.

Income confidence: medium · checked 2026-09-12
Legal basis: Art. 24c of the Law on Foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria (ZChRB), inserted by the amending Act promulgated in Darzhaven vestnik (State Gazette) issue 52 of 27 June 2025. The Act's Additional Provisions, para 1 point 36, define a digital nomad as a foreigner employed remotely by an employer established outside the EU, or an owner or partner holding more than 25% of such a company, or an independent professional who has supplied remote services to foreign clients only for at least a year before applying. Art. 24c sets the income test at an average annual income of not less than 50 minimum monthly wages and the permit at one year, extendable once by one more.

Does this lead to permanent residence?

No pathway. One year, extendable once: two years total, so the permit cannot itself reach the five years long-term residence needs.

Pathway confidence: unverified
Not yet checked against this country’s permanent-residence rules.

Where it is

Sofia sits at 42.70° N, 23.32° E.

Open in Google Maps ↗A map of Sofia. This is the only link here that leaves the site.

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Time zone

UTC+3 Sofia (Europe/Sofia)

The country

Region: Europe · Balkans
Capital: Sofia
Currency: EUR
Schengen area: Yes

Next door

Bulgaria shares a land border with these.

GreeceOpen$3,850 / mo
RomaniaOpen$6,050 / mo
TurkeyOpen$3,000 / mo
North MacedoniaNever opened—
SerbiaNo visa—

Greece and Romania are in the Schengen area, as Bulgaria is. For a visitor that is one clock, not several: the 90 days in any 180 are spent across all of it.

What it costs to live there

$991 per person, per month. That is what one resident of Bulgaria spends in an average month with housing included — not what a newcomer renting at market rates will spend, which is higher, and furthest above it in the cheapest countries.

Sofia: $1,041 / month incl. rent
of which rent $442

City figures are crowdsourced from livingcost.net, not official: one person's monthly spending plus the rent of a one-bedroom flat outside the centre. They are here because a national average cannot show the spread between a capital and the places people actually move to. Checked 2026-09-20.

Cost of living confidence: high · checked 2026-09-20
World Bank national accounts, reference year 2025: households and NPISHs final consumption expenditure (NE.CON.PRVT.CD, current US$) divided by population (SP.POP.TOTL) and by twelve. This is what one resident spends in an average month with housing included, since national accounts count the imputed rent of owner-occupiers. It is an average over the whole population, not a visitor's budget, so a newly arrived remote worker renting at market rates will spend more - see the city figures for what that looks like.

Languages

Bulgarian official
English widely spoken
Russian common in cities
Turkish common in cities
German common in cities

Shares of the population from Unicode CLDR: official, then anything spoken by a quarter of the country, an eighth, or a fiftieth. It answers "will I be understood", not "how good is their English".

Who can apply

Kinds of work covered: employee, freelancer, business owner

Employees of an employer established outside the EU, owners or partners with more than 25% of such a company, and independent professionals with at least a year of supplying remote services to foreign clients only. Working for Bulgarian clients or employers is not permitted on this permit.

Eligibility confidence: medium · checked 2026-09-12
Additional Provisions, para 1 point 36 of the Act amending the ZChRB, Darzhaven vestnik issue 52 of 27 June 2025, which defines the three categories. Nationality is deliberately left unrecorded: the scheme is for third-country nationals, but that is not a restriction on EU, EEA and Swiss citizens, who have free movement and need no permit.

How to apply

Check you clear the requirements above — $2,668 a month is the figure this row records.
Gather what the official page asks for. Expect proof of income, a passport, health insurance and a criminal-record check as the common core.
Apply in person or by post — this programme has no online route.
Sort out where you will stay for the first stretch. Airlines check this at the desk and will not board you without it, whatever your visa says —what counts as proof of accommodation.
Verify every figure on the official page before you spend money. Thresholds are set in local currency and move every year.

Migration Directorate, Ministry of Interior ↗

New in 2025 and open to applications from 20 December 2025. Two steps: a type D long-stay visa from a Bulgarian mission first, then the residence permit from the Migration Directorate. Restricted to third-country nationals, which is not a restriction on EU, EEA or Swiss citizens - they do not need it. Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026, so the wage the formula multiplies is now published in euro.

A starting point, not advice. Figures are converted to US dollars at open-market rates; official thresholds are set in local currency. Sources: official source ↗. Data checked 21 September 2026. Compiled by Junaid Qadir.