An IMGlobalWealth.news Report
Bulgaria’s government has proposed a substantial tightening of its permanent-residence regime. Bill 52-602-01-29, lodged in the National Assembly on 28 July, would allow authorities to withdraw permanent residence where a holder spent less than six months and one day in Bulgaria during the previous calendar year. The clause is drafted broadly, with no express exemption for investment-based residents. Independent Bulgarian reporting confirms that the government approved the amendments as part of a wider migration-law package, citing rising application volumes and the need for stricter control. The measure remains a bill, not law.
“Bulgaria’s wider proposition is stronger than it was only a few years ago. It became a full member of the Schengen area on 1 January 2025 and adopted the euro on 1 January 2026”
Were it enacted unchanged, the new rule would alter one of Bulgaria’s chief investment-migration attractions: permanent residence without a meaningful physical-presence burden. The best-known route requires an investment of €511,291.88 in qualifying Bulgarian collective-investment schemes or alternative investment funds. The Foreigners Act also contains higher-threshold corporate, business and direct-investment options. Bulgaria abolished citizenship by investment in 2022, so its present offering is residence by investment, with any eventual naturalisation subject to the ordinary statutory conditions.
Bulgaria’s wider proposition is stronger than it was only a few years ago. It became a full member of the Schengen area on 1 January 2025 and adopted the euro on 1 January 2026. The World Bank describes it as a high-income, open market economy. Output grew by 3.1% in 2025 and is forecast to slow to 2.6% in 2026. Yet GDP per person remains at around 68% of the EU average, while demographic decline and institutional weaknesses continue to constrain convergence.
Numbeo’s crowdsourced mid-2026 Quality of Life Index gives Bulgaria a score of 148.5, placing it around 42nd globally and 26th in Europe. Governance is the sharper weakness: Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index scores Bulgaria 40 out of 100, ranking it 84th among 182 countries and among the EU’s poorest performers. Investors should therefore regard the proposal as a material policy risk, but not yet as a completed change.
