Free entry in Bulgaria on Schengen visa

Posted on Jun 09, 2011

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Interior are holding internal meetings to introduce the right of foreigners with valid Schengen visas to enter Bulgaria freely. The news was announced by the Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov on January 12. The move is expected to bring about increase in foreign direct investments and to boost tourism and business activity. Arton Capital will follow the development of the news and will announce when the new, preferential terms will become effective.

Other incentives related to the issuance of Bulgarian tourist visas include the right of Bulgarian embassies to decide upon the issuance of visas with validity of up to one year on the spot. Formerly, they had to coordinate this with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sofia.

Minister Mladenov also announced that for three weeks, a new system for outsourcing of Bulgarian visa operations is available in the Gulf. The system which has been successfully introduced in Russia, allows foreigners to submit their visa C applications in offices outside the Bulgarian diplomatic missions. Both actions are aimed at improving the visa-related services and also at reducing the time for visa approvals.