D visa application process

@georgewheelwright

Hi  George

Well I'm afraid on the list of requirements for d type visa is accomodation .. either owned or rented ..  I have my own deeds .. but if you don't want to buy the only option is a trip to Bulgaria to get a rental but it will need to be notorised  in BG .. may be worth contacting someone like Bulgarian properties  who are pretty reputable they could have a way forward without the trip ?

@philip Mckay

Hi Phil, just a moot point, but when I did my D Visa the FCO would not legalise and Apostille private/company pensions. They would not even entertain my Army pension because all service pensions are serviced by a private provider. I had to get mine done by a private Apostille service, this may have changed in the last 22 months , but wouldnt want you to waste any time.

Good luck with your application.

@grumpyoldbird,I know ,,just a bit worried if we buy a house then don't get the Visa,,I have a small private pension which easily meets the minimum wage until my state pension starts and enough in the bank,,I'm waiting until Phil nails the process then we will try to copy it .I would leave the UK tomorrow ,,we have decided on the danube area near Vidin 👍 Thanks again for your help x

@georgewheelwright

Hi George I have also successfully gone the Visa D route on a private pension, if I can be of any help. Now in my second year of prolonged stay residency.

@philip Mckay,,I think we are going to buy a place and learn as much as we can from folks on the site ,,worst case scenario is a holiday place that I can work on until we are successful in obtaining the visa. Got a feeling the UK will be back in the EU ( if we ever left) in the near future .

@philip Mckay

Yes, a very good suggestion for @georgewheelwright. Bulgarian Properties specializes in expats, and have no problem doing deals remotely. If someone is happy to do so just based on the pretty pictures. :-)

For the D visa, it should be a long-term rental contract (e.g. a year). Even if the contract specifies that it's a minimum term, you can typically get out of the contract earlier. But you'd lose your deposit (and you've paid the agent a month rent as their commission). So if you have a 300 euros pcm studio, and you stay there for only a month, you might nicely give a month's notice, and wave the commission and deposit goodbye. Total cost 1,200 instead of 3,900 for the full year. Bulgarian Properties have some studios available in the 300-400 range, I think.

Alternatively, there are several immigration attorneys who can probably rustle up a rental contract suitable for immigration purposes (but not for living in) for around 500-600 euros. Not sure if they'll do it as an independent service... probably is part of the package of helping you file the D visa application, and then doing the residence application once you get here.

Anyone who owns a Bulgarian property, could, provide this too. I've done a couple.

For immigration, they want TWO documents. The Rental Contract. AND the Landlord Declaration. And the rule is that AT LEAST ONE of the documents is notarized. This means that this can also be done remotely, as the landlord goes alone to the notary for the declaration. (If you notarize the rental contract you need both landlord and tenant.)

@georgewheelwright

I suppose there is always a bit of uncertainty. But a D visa for a retiree is just about the easiest visa and residence option there is! Understandably, as most countries welcome retirees with their savings and their big British pensions. :-)

As long as your pension has started, and you have the appropriate letter of entitlement, I very much doubt you will be refused. If you're very worried, then pay a bit for an immigration attorney to handle the D visa application prep for you... and then take you to the migration office to get your residence permit once you arrive here. It's a small amount to pay for some peace of mind, I'd guess the lawyers rarely get turned down (unless your ACRO certificate shows that you were a Ruthless Mafia Boss in your past life).

If you buy something then the property deeds (Notary Act) can be used for the proof of address for your application (instead of a rental contract).

@grahamstark1         Hi    Graham,            can you explain what you said   ?       '' to satisfy the long stay status  on pensioner grounds you must reside in Bulgaria for at least 6 months and 1 day of each year for the 1st 5 years '' ?  for what reason  ?      regards     birt.           

@birt

I think it's because if you stay less than exactly half the year in Bulgaria, you're not considered "ordinarily resident" in Bulgaria, but in the UK or wherever else you're moving from. The UK has the same rule to be considered "ordinarily resident" here.

Pre-Brexit residency requirements were very relaxed and someone who owned a property in Bulgaria could hold Bulgarian residency without ever going to the country. But now, they actually expect people seeking residency to be resident.

If someone doesn't want to meet the residency requirements, the alternative is to forget the D visa and stay the permitted 90 days per 180. I can't imagine why anyone would do all the work of getting a D visa if they didn't want to spend the time in Bulgaria required to get a long-term residency permit.

@grahamstark1

Hi

Yes iv had to get it notorised for use as it's not a government issue document . I'm Using a company called apostille .org  up in Coventry .. the delays iv already suffered on this a few weeks ago     and had to then get another ACRO check coz mine would have been out of date by the time a put in for the residence card .. the acro check is really the most sensitive of all the docs coz it's time restricted and takes a month to get right now .  But anyway fingers crossed .. 

To be honest I was in 2 minds to even bother after all the problems iv had with the pension administrator mercer.  Took 7 months to get my pension and the letter which they then did not even sign .. omg the incompetence of them !

Fact is all this is about filling the 90 day gap we have in the spring from 1st April till end June where I would rather be in Bulgaria and not having to return to UK..   we stay in Philippines 3 month in autumn anyway so deffo not in BG then .. did sort of look at turkey for the spring but with the inflation problems there felt a little uneasy about it .. I also see  the spring as a good time to get on with DIY stuff in BG

@janemulberry                                                                                                                                                                                                       Hi    thanks for reply,              i have my residential  house  in England  and a holiday home in Portugal  ,   my idea was to get  the  D visa and go to Bulgaria and stay with a relative and  get the  residence permit ,  once i had the residence permit  i was going to go to Portugal to tie things up there and  sell my holiday home  which could take a few months  would that be a problem ?            and if it took longer to sell      seeing as i would have the Bulgarian  D visa   and  residence permit  could i stay longer then 90 days in  Portugal   ?           

@philip Mckay

Turkey is our next door neighbour, and I think they do an extended tourist visa (1 year) which is very easy to get (and to renew, I believe). So it can be a useful option.

I would not worry about Turkey's high inflation unless you did something silly like move all your money over there and change it to Turkish Lira. :-) We had a place in Argentina, where inflation has been nuts for years. Typically, in these troubled economies,  locals will suffer intensely... but expats with savings/pensions in decent currencies (USD, GBP, even Euros) can live EXTREMELY well.

@philip Mckay

I have not used the outfit you mention, but I'm suspicious of these little intermediary companies to government services you can access directly.

The recommended option is the Legalisation Office in London.

https://www.gov.uk/get-document-legalised

I used it recently for birth certificates. Using the above link, you order x legalisations (for x documents). Maybe just 1 required for D visa, I think it's only your ACRO that needs this. They give you a label to print/include, and you send the certificate to them. They legalise (not apostille) it and send it back to the address you specify with your order. It takes a few days.

    @janemulberry                                                                                                                                                                                                       Hi    thanks for reply,              i have my residential  house  in England  and a holiday home in Portugal  ,   my idea was to get  the  D visa and go to Bulgaria and stay with a relative and  get the  residence permit ,  once i had the residence permit  i was going to go to Portugal to tie things up there and  sell my holiday home  which could take a few months  would that be a problem ?            and if it took longer to sell      seeing as i would have the Bulgarian  D visa   and  residence permit  could i stay longer then 90 days in  Portugal   ?           
   

    -@birt

If I understand the process correctly, I don't think the time spent in Bulgaria need to be continuous (someone please correct me if I'm wrong!). So what you want to do should be okay, provided that over the year you spend at least six months in Bulgaria. I am guessing if you can't spend 184 days in Bulgaria in the year after getting the residency permit, then it doesn't count as a year's residence toward applying for permanent residency (normally needs five years). 

Do you intend to make Bulgaria your main home?

@gwynj

Yes I suppose if you just transfer money as use it quickly it reduces the risk significantly ..  yes I read Al about Argentina . They seem yet again to be walking the tight rope !

@janemulberry               hi,      yes   our main home ,     as pensioners  once we get the D visa  and come over and get the residence permit  what does that entitle us to    ?                 ,    as its a long while to 5 years  ,         

Birt, if I understand correctly, as pensioners we need to reapply for the residency permit every year for the first five years (only the first one for the initial D visa needs to be done in the UK), and then we can apply for permanent residency which means we can stay in Bulgaria permanently.

@janemulberry        hi thanks for your help,    funny how nearly every answer turns up another question  !     

@philip Mckay

Hi Phil , yes i used apostle.org.

@birtbirt

Exactly as Jane said.

@janemulberry

Yes your correct about the first five years for which you get a "prolonged stay card" annually , you cannot register a car or have phone contracts etc with this card. You can then apply for a five year residency  if you have satisfied the rule of not spending more than 30 months out of the country in that five year period.

@grahamstark1

one can register car with a yearly prolonged residence permit/card and sign a phone contract… we did. Also have successfully exchanged my UK driving license to a BG one.

@tutisservis

I was only allowed to register through the company or on temporary import plates and A1 wouldnt give me contracts just for a year.

@grahamstark1

For telecommunication companies, I think most will let foreign residents sign a 2-3 year contract if they put a larger deposit (such as 400 leva with Vivacom, then they deduct it each month until it’s all gone). I also heard that people showing passport are also allowed to sign contracts with them.

I am not sure why you have to register your car under your company’s name, did you have your residence permit at the time you registered? or it was a foreign plate?

@tutisservis

Yes i had my residents permit and it was a UK plate.

@grahamstark1

that must be it. We had no hassle buying and registering a BG plate car with my residence permit and UK driving license. Bringing your car over or buying an imported car does cause some problems.

@tutisservis

Did you register it in Sofia and do you have to reregister every year for your first five years ?

@grahamstark1

No, didn’t register in Sofia but at our regional KAT office; and just need to do it once.

@tutisservistutisservis

I was told i couldn't register our other Bulgarian car on a one year residency in Vratsa.

Seems different KAT offices must read the rules differently.

After your visit to the Bulgarian embassy,is there a wait for your visa,or do you leave with it?

@joyburtonbewdley

yes there is a wait. The waiting period depends on what type of D visa and which embassy you go to.

Joy, I could be wrong but I think I read on a London-based immigration lawyer's site that it's a five or six week wait after the interview for the retirement visa in London.  AFAIK, they keep you passport, too, to enter the visa, so applicants are stuck in the UK. Hoping either I am wrong or yours goes faster!

@janemulberry no they don’t keep the passport… we flew to Sofia while we waited for the D visa to process. I did hear that some states in America do though. But in London, no.

I waited for my retirement D visa for 6 weeks. Some waited shorter.

@tutisservis

That's good to know. Thank you!