Those who were advocating that Bulgaria will close its investment program are now silent. Those who thought that Bulgaria will cripple the conditions of the program are now very surprised.
Contrary to all rumors from the past two years, it became now apparent that the Bulgarian policy of not marketing the “Golden Passport” as aggressively as were doing Cyprus and Malta, has been justified. As result of the much softer Bulgarian policy, the Bulgarian CIP is now as sustainable as ever, backed by the political establishment and the EU regulators.
Bulgaria keeps its investment citizenship program and even enhances its conditions for the benefit of the applicants
Please click for the conditions of the NEW 2021Bulgarian Citizenship by Investment program
the only EU citizenship program
The Bulgarian CIP gets enormous boost with the enhanced Law for the citizenship and the Law for the foreigners. The main changes are the following:
- The timeframe to obtain investment citizenship remains the same – 12 months under the fast-track option and 5 years for those who opt for the semi-fast-track route;
- The administrative time for processing of some of the documents are being shortened – good news for all citizenship applicants;
- The spouse of the main applicant is eligible for citizenship in only 3 years after the start of the procedure (5 years under the old program);
- The required investment for the fast-track option, depending on the investment chosen, ranges from 512 000 EUR to 2 048 000 EUR. The old program required fixed investment of 1 024 000 EUR;
- The required investment for the semi-fast-track option, depending on the investment chosen, ranges from 256 000 EUR to 1 024 000 EUR. The old program required fixed investment of 512 000 EUR;
- The new program provides much more investment choices, below are the most important changes:
- Bulgarian government bonds are not acceptable anymore;
- EU regulated investment funds are added to the options by the new program;
- Alternative investment funds can be utilized as well, under the new conditions;
- As previously, Bulgarian equities (shares of public Bulgarian companies) can be used;
- Bulgarian corporate bonds can be used under the new program;
- New sort of investment option has been created, pretty much like the EB-5 in the USA;
- Investment in one’s own business in Bulgaria is added to the options as per the new program.
Grandfather clause for existing applicants
In certain cases, applicants who have already started their procedure under the old program can still continue the applications as per the old conditions. Please contact us for more details about the grandfather clause.