Bulgaria: what happened to its investment route, and why people still go

Bulgaria ran an investment route that offered permanent residence and, on a larger investment, an accelerated path to citizenship. The accelerated citizenship element was abolished in 2022 amid the same European pressure that closed programmes elsewhere.

What is left

• Permanent residence by investment in qualifying instruments — government securities and other defined categories — which survives in modified form and should be checked in its current shape.
• Ordinary routes: employment, business with substance, study, family, and residence for people of independent means.
• Citizenship by ordinary naturalisation after long residence with a language requirement, and by descent for those with Bulgarian ancestry — the latter being a real route that generates its own industry of dubious offers.

Why people go anyway

• A flat personal income tax at the lowest rate in the European Union, and a low corporate rate alongside it.
• EU and, since 2025, full Schengen membership, which changed the practical experience of living there.
• Costs — property, services and living expenses well below western European levels.
• A functioning outsourcing and technology sector in Sofia, which means there is an actual economy behind the tax rate.

What to check carefully

• The descent claims industry. Bulgarian citizenship by origin is genuine and the market around it has a documented history of fraudulent facilitation, including prosecutions of officials. Use the state channel and expect it to be slow.
• Substance for business residence. A company that employs nobody and trades with nobody does not support a permit at renewal.
• Tax residence, not just tax rate. The flat rate applies to Bulgarian tax residents, which requires actually being one — days, home, centre of interests — and your previous country will apply its own test.

The summary

Bulgaria is now what it should always have been described as: an inexpensive EU member with an attractive flat tax for people who genuinely relocate. As a shortcut to an EU passport it is finished, and the offers that say otherwise are selling the abolished version.