Using an intermediary country to get into Bulgaria

@denerobt

Good luck with the trip!

No indication as yet for when Bulgaria allows UK citizens to visit without restriction

The restrictions are not on "UK citizens" per se, but is based on the country that you're travelling from. The UK is now in Bulgaria's Red list. For travellers from Red, only Bulgarian citizens/residents are allowed.

Germany is on the Bulgaria green list, and on the UK green list too
Yes. So this is a good choice of intermediate country.

Do we need to stay for 2 weeks in Germany prior to getting a flight to Bulgaria?

I don't know the exact number of days required but it will be 10-14. So 2 weeks sounds like a good plan.

I'm assuming a health deceleration is needed?

Yes.

You're a star sir!

Time to book the hotel then. Best get a swimming pool as the bier and Bratwursts may start to weigh me down.
Thank you gwynj

I’m looking into this too, supposed to be moving out full time at end of September. Can’t stay here in UK as we’ve sold up & everything is almost packed & ready to be collected in a month! Spoke with our immigration lawyer yesterday & she said that yes you can transit through another country but need to stay there for a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed this works otherwise we’ll be living a nomad’s life 😂

What exactly is a health declaration? Proof of vaccination, pcr tests? Thanks!

@Mel1702

The health declaration is just a simple declaration document. It's separate from any proofs (PCR test, full vaccination) that you might have.

Some countries have online systems for filling this in, but the Bulgarian one is just a document you fill out and sign.

If you Google health declaration Bulgaria, you should get a couple of useful links.

I think this is the one my partner used recently:
https://www.tourism.government.bg/sites … k_en-2.pdf

Green Zone countries (I think correct as of August) includes the following, so it doesn't have to be Germany. But while these are OK for onward flight to BG, I haven't checked which of these accept travellers from UK.

    The Republic of Austria;
    The Federal Republic of Germany;
    The Republic of Estonia;
    The Republic of Lithuania;
    The Republic of Poland;
    The Slovak Republic;
    Hungary;
    The Republic of Finland;
    The Republic of Croatia;
    The Kingdom of Denmark;
    The Italian Republic;
    The Republic of Slovenia;
    The Kingdom of Norway;
    The Republic of San Marino;
    The Vatican City State;
    The Confederation of Switzerland;
    The Czech Republic;
    Тhe Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

& Romania.

This comes from government guidance online, which includes all the requirements for entering from each zone.
https://www.mh.government.bg/media/file … _final.pdf

Yesterday I arrived in Sofia from Madrid, Spain with a negative PCR-test. No problem at all.
Even without a PCR-test it's possible to enter Bulgaria but then being full-vaccinated and undergoing a 10-day quarantine.
So, most likely travelling via Spain is quite possible.

Did you originate from the UK and if so, how long did you stay in Spain? Thanks for all the help

Welcome back @ernstbrandes!

Spain = Orange zone. Admission from Orange list countries with PCR test or Covid Double Vaccination certificate (not required to be Bulgarian citizen/resident).

So looks like Green list and Orange list OK... as long as you can get there from UK.

We have another poster who is coming via Netherlands, if I recall correctly. And he originally said that he wasn't planning on staying there 2 weeks (he hasn't posted again with an update on whether he changed it, or succeeded).

The Bulgarian health declaration does NOT explicitly ask where you've been in the last 14 days (whereas, for example, Spain, Brazil, and UK do ask about your movements in the preceding days). And the airline in your transit country will only check if you have the documents required for travel from that country to Bulgaria.

So nothing stops you from having a short stay. But if the immigration officer in Bulgaria asks you any kind of questions (which I'd guess he might well do with UK citizens), you would be in the difficult position of lying (potential large fines) or telling the truth (and not being admitted).

I posted a Bulgarian Declaration earlier. I found another one (I think this might be the latest?), and this does mention "last 14 days" and also ask about "starting point of departure, regardless the stay or transit through another country":

https://www.tln.nl/app/uploads/2020/06/ … ration.pdf

I think this is the newer declaration form:
https://www.tln.nl/app/uploads/2020/06/ … ration.pdf

I am a citizen from The Netherlands, travelling to Spain to do some business during 5 days. After that flying from Madrid to Sofia (I am full-vaccinated) plus a negative PCR-test. Starting/checking in in Madrid without any problems, no questions at all, only showing the necessary documents. Arriving in Sofia without any problems at all. Only showing the necessary documents, no questions asked by the border police! All done in less than a minute!!
Yes, I am a Dutch citizen and that could be different from a UK-citizen.
I have found the following text of a Bulgarian order:

"From Thursday, July 29, Bulgarian citizens, persons with the status of permanent, long-term or long-term residence in Bulgaria and their family members, EU and EEA citizens, etc., arriving from a country falling into the red zone, are admitted to the country at presentation of a valid EU digital COVID certificate for vaccination or a similar document containing the same data and a negative result from a PCR test conducted up to 72 hours before entry into Bulgaria, certified by a valid EU digital COVID certificate for testing or a similar document containing the same data. This was ordered by the Minister of Health Dr. Stoycho Katsarov with his order issued today, July 27.
Citizens of the EU, the EEA, the Swiss Confederation and members of their families arriving from an EU Member State, the EEA and the Swiss Confederation arriving from a country in the red zone who do not present a valid EU digital COVID vaccination certificate or similar document containing the same data allowed the country upon presentation of a negative result of the 72 hours before entering the country PCR test certified by a valid digital COVID certification examination or a similar document containing the same data and are placed under a 10-day quarantine.
Bulgarian citizens and persons with the status of permanent, long-term or long-term residence in Bulgaria and their family members who do not present a valid digital EU COVID vaccination certificate or similar document containing the same data, as well as a negative result of up to 72 hours before entry into the country PCR test, are allowed in the country and are placed under a 10-day quarantine.
The same order allows children up to the age of 12 to enter the country without the need to present COVID-19 documents, regardless of the area in which they come from".

Thanks for that ernstbrandes,

Not sure I could be so brave and risk being turned away!
I'm sure on the ground it isn't as cumbersome as we're led to believe and the policies suggest.

I'm hopeful that once in a transit country, the legislation will alter and we can be on our way.
Travel is such a nightmare right now. Makes me wish I should have been a courier!!

I have been in sofia for 8 months from scotland. happy to help any questions

That's very thoughtful of you bustydata 👍 Thank you.

Well, the Romania route worked a treat. No issues at all getting into BG using that route and flying.

Yay! So glad you made it in safely! Happy house buying!

Hi Denerobt, glad you made it to BG.

We are thinking of using this route too, flying into Romania staying for a while and then travelling by bus over the border.

How long did you stay in Romania for, was it Bucharest and did you fly to BG or go by another means please?

Thanks and regards.

Yoo-hoo @ThompsonTitterton

Luckily, my specialist subject is The Cunning Travel Plans of @denerobt 2020-2021. If I get through this round, I'll try... Getting a D Visa for Bulgaria after Brexit next. :-)


How long did you stay in Romania for?
14 days

was it Bucharest
It was, relaxing next to the pool. It's a hard life, innit.

and did you fly to BG or go by another means please?
Flew in, easy peasy, mission accomplished. Bish-bash-bosh!

But... he was fully vaccinated, so perhaps check if that matters, if you're not.

Thanks for the update Gwynj

We are both double vaccinated, but were planning on staying for 10 days 11 nights in Bucharest. Do you think 10 days is long enough please?

Couldn’t have found more help anyway else, just good people making other people’s lives better, helps my faith in humanity. Thanks everyone x

Aren' t you people tired of this Covid bulshit?
I am:)

Different forum buddy

There is new travel guidance from Bulgaria effective 27 August. (Original Bulgarian version.)

https://www.mh.government.bg/media/file … 2021-2.pdf

Partial translation on Bulgaria Air
https://www.air.bg/en/news/important-in … n-bulgaria

The Green List is now:

Republic of Austria, Republic of Poland, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Republic
Finland, the Kingdom of Norway, the Vatican City State, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg and Romania

UK is still in the Red List.

Hungary is OK to enter from UK with PCR test.

Czech is OK to enter from UK if you're fully vaccinated (otherwise essential travel only).

Austria is OK to enter from UK with PCR test.

So some options, not just Romania.

TIME REQUIRED IN TRANSIT COUNTRY (e.g. Romania)

I don't think we actually know the answer to this. I personally haven't found specific guidance online.

As long as you don't have one journey ticket (UK-Romania-Bulgaria = transit in Romania) but hold separate flights (UK-Romania and Romania-Bulgaria = stopover in Romania) then you might very well get lucky, if the immigration officer doesn't ask you any questions or check your travel dates.

Romania/Bulgaria have a special reciprocal agreement as neighbouring countries, so perhaps the level of checking is minimal.

But I think we're all trying to play it safe to avoid the hassle/expense of being refused boarding (in Romania) or entry (to Bulgaria).

Most countries are using 10 or 14 days as their guidance.

The post-vaccination period (for fully vaccinated) is 14 days.

One of the Bulgaria Health Declaration forms asks you to declare if you've been in contact with Covid in the last 14 days.

Many countries now require some kind of health declaration form. Bulgaria has one too. Some explicitly ask about your travel/countries visited in the last x days. Bulgaria's form does not.

However, the official Bulgarian quarantine time is currently 10 days.

So perhaps longer is better, but anything over the 10 days would seem to be a pretty safe bet. (Especially if you get a PCR test too, although it's not strictly required if you're fully vaccinated.)

This made my girlfriend laugh as we could have written  it 👍😀 Everything sold or packed and on our way by November after getting married in Scotland in October. Sure beats midlife crisis having a purpose in life. We’re 55 xx

But you are exempt from quarantine in Romania travelling from uk if you are double vaccinated :

On 1 July the Romanian government announced that for individuals arriving in Romania from Great Britain only, the following exceptions from quarantine will apply:

individuals who have completed a full course of vaccination at least ten days before arriving in Romania
individuals confirmed positive with COVID-19 in the last 180 days prior to entry into Romania, and for whom at least 14 days have passed from the date of confirmation to the date of entry into the country
children aged 6 years or younger
children over 6 years and under 16 have to present a negative RT-PCR test for COVID-19, performed no later than 72 hours before boarding
Travellers ineligible for exemption from quarantine when arriving from the UK will be required to quarantine for fourteen days.

The text of the declaration can be found on the Romanian government website(in Romanian).

Absolutely right Loutollhouse,

Having done this, the only entry inspection we encountered was a very cursory inspection of our NHS COVID certificate. They do stamp your passport on both entry and exit though, which is in a way a good thing, extra proof !

denerobt wrote:

Absolutely right Loutollhouse,

Having done this, the only entry inspection we encountered was a very cursory inspection of our NHS COVID certificate. They do stamp your passport on both entry and exit though, which is in a way a good thing, extra proof !

They should not be stamping your passports.

As we are now non EU our passports are stamped upon entry. It is the same as if we travelled to any other country outside the EU PRIOR TO BREXIT

loutollhouse wrote:

As we are now non EU our passports are stamped upon entry. It is the same as if we travelled to any other country outside the EU PRIOR TO BREXIT

Incorrect

I was stamped in and out of Bulgaria in March. If you have 90 days/180 allowed in a country then this is how they evidencevlength of stay

loutollhouse wrote:

I was stamped in and out of Bulgaria in March. If you have 90 days/180 allowed in a country then this is how they evidencevlength of stay

It all depends if you have permanent residence.

That is very true but as a regular tourist they will stamp you.
So maybe you know the answer to this-
You’ve come from UK to Romania. Just your vaccine certs. No need to quarantine.
The following day you head to Bulgaria. Are you expected to have. PCR because you were in the IK 2 days before despite the exemption for all travellers coming in via Romania irrespective of nationality? 🤷‍♀️

It’s like the UK’s 2 and 8 day test. Do you really
Need it? No. Do they check? Not really.

I'm also interested in the answer please.

So, maybe a rambling post, but I’m going to try and impart what we did and how we got our home and bank account sorted plus gave power of attorney to 2 individuals so that our water and electricity are sorted whilst we’re back in the uk.

As most of you know, we went via Romania. Both BG and Romania are close allies and have reciprocal arrangements for entry. In MY belief, this helped with passport control and it was a question that was asked - along with why are we in Bulgaria (finish buying a house). Our passports were stamped both in Romania -entering and leaving, and in BG, again, entering and leaving. This is no big deal. If we went to Tunisia or Egypt we’d get our passports stamped, and we’d expect it too ! We’re not in Europe anymore and we actually like the fact we have stamps in our passports. For us, that’s a lovely memory.

At Bucharest and Sofia airports they wanted to see our vaccination record from the nhs. They did not scan the document. The only person to check our document was the Ryanair desk at Bucharest airport…..that was it ! We had to do a lateral flow test via a video call 2 days prior to flight to get back to the uk and show our proof of that negative test to the easyJet desk on day of departure.

We had already been in touch with an estate agent in VT (Yantra Homes) and they have been superb. Honestly, the behind the scenes ground work that Petya had done made it plain sailing and we cannot recommend her enough. She speaks English VERY well. Our contracts were ready to sign, a solicitor already sorted and some damn good advice about banking.

Our solicitor was an English speaking lady called Nora. Again in VT and I know a number of people on this forum have used her. She was excellent and spent the whole day with us on our arrival. She sorted the first power of attorney out with us so that if things got stuck, she could operate on our behalf. Luckily, we got everything sorted in 24 hours. We set up a business account because t he business had to buy the property because it had land with it and as we are not in the EU, we could not buy land as individuals. So that was that sorted. That whole day cost us £150 in total. Honestly, amazing service and price.

Ok, banking…….
There are a few main banks in BG. A few have now started charging a non refundable deposit in order that you can open, or should I say, apply, for a bank account. So you could pay your £200 or £300 deposit, do the paperwork, only to find out the next day that their Jed office thinks it’s too much effort and they don’t want your business - because maybe they think you’ll just go elsewhere once the business account is done with. Whatever their reasoning, that deposit gets kept.

OBB bank does not charge as yet. We used the branch in VT and a lady called Maggie, who speaks English, sorted everything out for us, made sure that extra details were added to make sure the application went through and even set up online banking for us and downloaded & setup the mobile banking app on my phone. All done and dusted in 4 hours.

We then have to wait for the business to get registered overnight, then get a unique number for all transactions - such as purchasing the house and transferring monies to everyone. Some banks take a few days to sort everything out, but OBB made it easy.

Ok, second Notary………

This was so that Petya from Yantra Homes could sort out the transfer of electricity and water once the home legally becomes ours. All sales go through a notary who then puts the paperwork in front of a judge, who then signs it off if he’s happy with everything - like it hasn’t been sold 3 times to different people etc.

Luckily, our estate agent uses OBB too, so all monies to the seller etc, we’re made very quickly due to us having the same bank and online banking - so we didn’t need to visit the branch each time.

So this week, because we’re back in Blighty, Petya will sort out the notary in Pavlakeni (because our new home is in the municipality), she’ll arrange the water in our name, ring the electricity company, get the house keys and will probably be asked a hundred questions by us about electricians, builders and who knows what else ! She knows what needs doing and can arrange names for people who can help.

Don’t expect things to be done there and then. It’s just not the way. Time enough to have a coffee, be pleasant and watch a bit of the world go by without the expectations that it’ll be done in 5 minutes. It just won’t be like that, and I like it like that.

That being said, to get online banking done in 30 minutes, when a uk bank will post you the stuff out and you’ll be waiting a week, is pretty amazing, and in the end way quicker. It just meant being in the bank for a few hours. Worth every moment.

Now to apply for our D visas. We can prove home ownership, bank account, money in said account, proof of pension income etc etc etc. THATS now an easier process than having neither of those in place.

A big thank you has to go to Nora, our solicitor, Maggie in OBB bank and Petya who  is just an amazing lady.

I think that’s about it. We gained a lot of knowledge in our short time there. There is a huge investment in infrastructure going on, there are an awful lot of brand new Audi’s, BMW’s and Range Rovers in VT, so there is money around. Business seems to be getting back on track. The bars and restaurants were busy, shops were mostly open and there were lots of people buying. This is what we saw.

Lots of Bulgarians are returning to BG and moving back to the homes they had left to them. Prices in the Pavlikeni area are rising, and because some of the roads are getting upgraded, what used to be an hours journey to the nearest big town, is now a 30 minute drive so people can commute easier. That has a massive impact on more rural properties.

OK, I’m going to end it there before I ramble. I thought I’d just let you all know our experience and hope it gives you some hope and insights.

Thanks  for the great update, really helpful.

A quick question please   did you fly Ryanair to Romania and did you have a PCR test to show at check in please?
Thanks

You need a PcR to Romania but when travelling from Romania you get away with antigen test nice and cheap