D Visa Guidance

@sefv

That's a slight misreading of the rules.

There are a number of specific grounds for granting the D visa. One is a TRO. Another is a Bulgarian company, if it employs 10 or more Bulgarians.

Most of us don't intend to employ 10 locals, so we have to go via TRO. If you do, then you won't need the TRO.

The TRO is a "quasi entity", it's just a registration with the Chamber of Commerce related to an offshore (non-Bulgarian) entity. Getting the registration requires various documents related to the trading and legal standing of that entity. I don't think the amount of trading it does (or has done) matters much, it just needs to be in current legal standing (all taxes and corporate fees paid up to date), and have a minimum amount of trading history (2 years I think).

Your non-Bulgarian company is what enables you to get the TRO registration. The TRO is what qualifies you for the D visa.

But the TRO is not a company, so you'll usually also form a Bulgarian company which will then trade, have employees, file accounts, and pay taxes (or, instead, you can, of course, be self-employed).

Incidentally, UK companies are very cheap to incorporate and keep current. So it's not a huge investment to form one just for the purposes of getting the D visa 2 years down the road.

Yes, this will be the perfect situation - it is a foreign company. But have in mind that this company cannot be new - it must have at least 2 active years and paid all tax to the government.

You can hire employees to your Bulgarian TRO, but you need to know that TRO CANNOT HAVE commercial activity! This means that you will need both TRO and a compnay to run rwal business in Bulgaria. But this will be easy, because as a Resident you can open easily bank account for your company.

You are completely right.
It is important to say that theborurpose of TRO is for research activities for a starting business, but not for the actual business. Everyone who need ato run a real business - trading, manufacturing, construction, needs to open a separate legal entity - a trading company (ООД, ЕООД or AD)

Thank you for clarification @Vasilev. Excellent information as always!

That is what I meant with my previous very short reply!

Hi, can anybody help me, I need clarification on what criminal background check the Bulgarian embassy needs due to being different ones in the UK

https://www.acro.police.uk/s/acro-servi … rtificates

@gwynj

Could you please  also post all  the requirement to extend the Prolonged residence permit?

i have down loaded the form but won’t let me edit it??

@Waynehdragon

You need to open it in Word or a similar program or app. If you don't have Word, it should work in Google Docs. If you're on an Apple device there's a link to some special instructions on the page you downloaded it from.

A general question with regard to the various documents required.

most things such as pension slips, bank statements etc are online. Some bank accounts are online only with no branches.

Are online documents, statements etc which have been printed, translated and notorised etc acceptable? I would imagine it's virtually impossible to get copies of documents through the post from some organisations.

@alanjolly65

My printed statements from Barclays were acceptable at the Embassy, Pension documents must have a certifiable wet signature so I had to ring the provider for this.

@grahamstark1

Thank you Graham. That's very useful.

How did you find this information? Did you use someone to help you through the process?

@alanjolly65

Hi, the woman who used to do the Visa D applications in London was very helpful at the time (2022) but believe she has now moved on. I did a lot of my own research but also employed my Advocate that I already had to double check everything and assist me when I was back here in Bulgaria with my residency applications. I am in the Vratsa Immigration on Monday to go through the process for year 3 of my prolonged residency.

As for the wet signature issue, I believe that was a Bulgarian stipulation for any notarised documents such as private pension annual statements and letters.

The Visa D process is relatively straightforward certainly on Pension grounds, it gets a little more tricky sometimes depending on where you live in Bulgaria with the actual residency application as some areas are more used to expats than others I guess.

I came at 58 on a private pension and have had no issues so far. Good luck and if i can help you at all, just message.