How to Apply for Bulgarian Citizenship by Origin: Step by Step

The procedure for people of Bulgarian origin is shorter on conditions than ordinary naturalisation, but it is still a formal state procedure with fixed steps. This is how it runs under Chapter Five of the Citizenship Act, with the practical points I would want a family to know before booking a trip to Sofia.

Step 1. Check the ground before anything else

Write down the line from you to the Bulgarian ancestor, generation by generation: your birth certificate, your parent’s, your grandparent’s, and so on up to the ancestor. Next to each link, note which official record proves it and whether you already hold it. The ancestor must be within the third degree, and at least one official record must show that he or she was Bulgarian.

If a link is missing, that is where the work starts. BRIDGES describes the archive search as the least predictable stage: some records turn up within a month, others are lost and the line has to be proven through alternative documents.

Step 2. Prepare the file in Bulgarian

Article 32 requires the application and every attached document to be in Bulgarian. The application form is Annex 1 to Ordinance No. 1 of 19 February 1999. Foreign documents are translated and, depending on the issuing country, legalised or apostilled. The full list is in my documents checklist.

Before filing, check every name and date across the whole set. Spellings change between alphabets and over generations, and a missing document linking two spellings of one surname is one of the most common reasons for extra questions.

Step 3. File in person and attend the interview

Under Article 29 the application is filed personally:

• at the Ministry of Justice in Sofia, or
• at a Bulgarian embassy or consulate, which must give a reasoned opinion on it.

An interview is held when the documents are submitted. The Ministry of Justice uses a questionnaire approved by the Minister. For children under 14 the parents file and are interviewed; children aged 14 to 18 sign together with a parent and are accompanied by one at the interview.

Step 4. Review by the state bodies

The Citizenship Council at the Ministry of Justice reviews the application after written opinions from the Ministry of Interior and the State Agency for National Security. Two things can extend this stage:

• Extra documents. The Minister can ask you to provide additional documents within 14 days, and the Council can ask for documents or checks with a three-month window. While the Council waits, the statutory deadline stops running.
• Referral on origin. If the kinship documents leave doubts, the Minister can ask the Consultative Council at the Agency for Bulgarians Abroad to establish your origin. It answers within two months.

If the kinship documents are missing altogether, the law says the proceedings are terminated. That is why I never advise filing first and searching later.

You also have a duty to inform the Ministry within one month if facts relevant to your application change, for example a marriage, a divorce or a change of name.

Step 5. Proposal and presidential decree

Article 35 gives the Minister of Justice nine months to make a proposal to the President on an application by a person of Bulgarian origin. For ordinary naturalisation the term is twelve months. The term runs from the date the application reaches the Ministry, or from the date gaps in it were fixed.

Citizenship is granted by a decree of the President, which takes effect on the day it is issued. The Ministry of Justice then issues a certificate of the change in citizenship and notifies the municipality that keeps your civil records, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so that Bulgarian personal documents can be issued.

Step 6. Bulgarian documents

As a new citizen you are entered in the civil register, receive a Bulgarian personal number (EGN) and can apply for an identity card and a passport. BRIDGES describes this as the stage where the family books the applications and follows the issue of the documents. Nothing in the Citizenship Act requires you to move to Bulgaria at this point.

Timeline: law versus practice

The nine months in the law cover the Ministry’s work on a complete file. The real calendar also includes the archive search, translations and waiting for an appointment. BRIDGES gives, from its practice, two to ten months for the archive search, one to two months for the set and translations, and from a year for filing and review, with two to three years to the passport overall. I would share those figures with a family as a range, never as a promise, because the decision belongs to the state.

If you want to see what BRIDGES checks before it files any case, it has a short note on what is checked before an application.

For eligibility in general, see the complete guide. Last checked 17 October 2026.