Bulgaria Startup.The Bulgaria startup visa (MIG Startup Visa certificate) in 2026, step by step

The name misleads: it is not a visa but a certificate. Bulgaria’s Ministry of Innovation and Growth (MIG) issues a "Startup Visa" certificate for a technology or innovative project, and under Article 24p of the Foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria Act it is one of the documents needed for a long-term residence permit. The entry visa (type D) comes from an embassy and the residence card from the migration authority. The certificate is necessary, not sufficient.

Less than you might think. The only mandatory amount is three times Bulgaria’s monthly minimum wage, held in your own account for at least 30 consecutive days before you apply. The 2026 minimum wage is €620.20 a month, so that is €1,860.60, a little over US$2,000. The €51,000 figure you see in infographics is optional and worth one point.

Under the Ordinance, the expert council reviews the file within 30 days of filing. If it finds gaps, you have 14 days to fix them, and the assessment follows within a month of the fix. The minister’s decision is announced within 7 days. That covers only the certificate; the D visa and the residence card take their own time.

Six criteria, 14 points in total, 8 to pass: personal funds (up to 3), a three-year financial forecast (up to 3), a customer network, meaning real sales (1), a fund investment (1), a patent or utility model (1), and the business plan and presentation (up to 5). So you can reach 8 with no sales, no investor and no patent, but only with strong funds evidence, a strong financial model and a very good business plan.

The certificate is issued in the applicant’s name and, under Article 10 of the Ordinance, can also name two other team members, provided the business plan justifies why they are needed. So at most three people on one certificate.

No. Article 24p of the Foreigners Act sets the order: the residence permit goes to someone who holds the D visa and the certificate and who, after the D visa was issued, became a partner or shareholder holding at least 50% of the capital of a Bulgarian company. Company after visa. A road map that puts company registration before the visa has the law’s order backwards.

Issuing and extending the certificate is free (Article 14 of the Ordinance), and in the online system you must enter the budget as exactly 0.00. The D visa, the residence card, certified translations, the electronic signature and company registration have separate costs.

The certificate lasts one year and is extended by two more on a progress report. Under Article 25 of the Foreigners Act, permanent residence follows five years of lawful, continuous residence, provided you have not spent more than 30 months in total outside Bulgaria in those five years.

Bulgaria’s monthly minimum wage from 1 January 2026 is €620.20 (the former BGN 1,213). Three times that is €1,860.60; in US dollars a little over $2,000, depending on the day’s rate. One warning: the government has put forward a draft of €660 for 2027; if adopted, the amount needed from January 2027 is €1,980. What counts is the minimum wage on the day you file, and we suggest keeping somewhat more than the minimum in the account to be safe.

Because the Ordinance makes them both a mandatory attachment and the first assessment criterion, worth up to 3 points. In practice, correct and complete evidence earns full points; incomplete evidence loses the points and leaves the file incomplete. The key detail is "30 consecutive days": a balance that arrived a week before filing is not enough.

It is BGN 100,000, which at the fixed conversion rate of 1.95583 is €51,129.19. It appears in two optional criteria: real sales of at least that amount over the last two years (the customer-network criterion, 1 point), and a contract or letter of intent for at least that amount from a venture capital fund (the investment criterion, 1 point). Neither is a requirement. The Ordinance is still written in leva because it was adopted before Bulgaria joined the euro in 2026.

Article 7 names five questions: are the assumptions, forecasts and plans realistic; are you ready to reach the market and generate revenue within six months; is the project scalable; can it build a team and hire up to ten people in the first year; and does it have export potential. These five questions make up the largest share of the score, and unlike a patent or an investor they are entirely in your own hands.

The Ordinance is precise: a forecast for three years from the application date, month by month, with revenue, direct costs, operating costs and net profit, and with revenue growing over the three years. That means 36 columns, not three annual figures. A tidy spreadsheet with its assumptions explained earns these 3 points; a few attractive growth charts do not.

Paragraph 6 of the Ordinance’s supplementary provisions defines an innovative project as one with at least one of three things: a valid patent for an invention, a valid utility model registration certificate, or an innovation that is new to the global or European market and better than existing solutions. For most software startups it is the third, and the business plan carries the burden of proving it.

The application form can be completed in English or Bulgarian (Article 6(3)). But paragraph 5 of the same article says attachments and a business plan prepared in English must come with a certified, legalised Bulgarian translation. Confirm the ministry’s practice before you file, through its official address ([email protected]); do not count on English alone being enough.

Under the ministry’s technical guidelines, the whole application in NIMS (enims.egov.bg) is signed with a qualified electronic signature: you download the application file, create a detached signature (a .p7s file) with the signature provider’s software and upload it. Qualified signatures are issued only by providers authorised under the EU eIDAS rules, after verifying your identity. For most applicants outside Europe this is the most practical bottleneck of the whole route.

For each file, the Minister of Innovation and Growth sets up a council by separate order. Under Article 4 it may include representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science, the Patent Office, universities, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and business organisations, and two representatives of non-profit organisations connected with startups and venture capital funds must be invited. So your plan is read by people from the ecosystem, not only by civil servants.

The certificate, then a D visa from a Bulgarian embassy, then entry, then registering a Bulgarian company or buying shares so you hold at least 50% of the capital in the field named in the certificate, then an application for a long-term residence permit to the migration authority. That is the order of Article 24p of the Foreigners Act. Get the D visa document list from the embassy where you apply; it is usually a passport, a criminal record certificate, health insurance, proof of accommodation and proof of means.

In the last month of the certificate’s validity you submit a report of the work done to the ministry electronically, including proof that you are a partner or shareholder holding at least 50% of a Bulgarian company (Article 13). The council gives its opinion within a month, and the minister extends the certificate by two years or refuses. The extension is also free. Anyone who has not set up the company or done the work in year one gets stuck here.

Article 15 names three cases: false information, or not reporting changes within 7 days; changes that make the project, or the conditions of Article 24p, impossible to carry out, such as your stake falling below 50%; and a breach of Bulgarian law formally reported by a state body. A revocation is notified to the migration authority and is grounds for withdrawing residence.

The minister’s decision is reasoned, announced within 7 days, and can be appealed under Bulgaria’s Administrative Procedure Code. But because the assessment is points-based, the reason for a refusal is usually clear: which criterion did not score. In most cases, improving the business plan and the financial model and applying again is quicker than an appeal.

No. A café, restaurant, shop or ordinary consulting service does not fit the Ordinance’s definition of a technology or innovative project. Bulgaria’s Foreigners Act has other routes for investors and ordinary business owners, with much higher financial conditions.