Bulgarian citizenship by descent

Who qualifies, generation by generation

The dates that matter

No date named in Bulgaria’s rule decides who qualifies. The answers above turn on the family’s facts, not on when anyone was born or left.

Claiming through your mother or grandmother

Bulgaria’s rule gives the same answer whether the line runs through a mother or a father.

Dual citizenship with your home country

You keep your citizenship.

On every open route, the rule lets a citizen of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina or South Africa keep that citizenship.

• Holding this citizenship alongside another is addressed by the law cited; check the current position before relying on it. Bulgarian Citizenship Act, as amended to State Gazette No. 55 of 2026 ↗

Every way to apply, and the law behind it

The documents, as the rule lists them

Most countries also want proof that your ancestor didn’t become a citizen somewhere else before their child was born: the naturalization record with its date, or a letter saying there isn’t one.

What it takes: time, cost, the hard part, who decides

Fees are each office’s published fee, converted to U.S. dollars.

Where each record lives, and how to ask for it

• birth1830–1893

  Regional state archives of the State Agency "Archives" (Държавна агенция „Архиви“): parish registers of the Bulgarian Exarchate and Orthodox churches, school and community records

  The regional state archive for the ancestor’s town (27 regional archives). For Bulgarians from Bessarabia, Banat, Macedonia or Thrace, records sit in Ukrainian, Moldovan, Romanian, Serbian, North Macedonian or Greek archives.

  Ask

  By email, in Bulgarian

  Fee

  5.11 EUR (about $6)

  Takes

  4–17 weeks

  Good to know (2)›

  • Tariff in euros since the 2026 euro changeover: certificate €5.11, certification €1.29 first page and €0.77 each further page, plus postage paid by the applicant.
  • Requests by post, fax or electronic means; certificates are released after the fees are paid.

  source ↗

• birth1893–2026

  The municipality (община) civil-status office where the birth was registered; civil-status registers began on 1 January 1893

  Municipality of birth or permanent address. The municipality keeps each register for 130 years, then hands it to the regional state archive, which answers for the older years.

  Ask

  Through an agent, in Bulgarian

  Takes

  2–13 weeks

  Good to know (1)›

  • Bulgarian citizens abroad and their heirs can obtain a certified copy or extract of a birth or death act from the municipality of birth or permanent address; a Bulgarian consulate issues a duplicate birth certificate or multilingual extract when the act is in the national civil-status register.

  source ↗

• marriage

  Municipal civil-status office (from 1893) or the regional state archive (church registers before that)

  Ask

  By email, in Bulgarian

  Takes

  4–17 weeks

  source ↗

Places on old papers that lead to Bulgaria

If your family’s records name one of these, Bulgaria’s law may be the one that applies. The town decides.

• Ottoman Empire · also Turkey (before 1923)

  Pick the country the town is in today.

  Today: Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania, Egypt

Recent and pending changes

We know of no pending bill or recent court ruling for Bulgaria.

We re-read the official pages behind this guide every day. When one changes, a person checks the rule before we update anything here.

If descent doesn’t reach you

2 residence programs lead to Bulgaria without an ancestor, each with its own law and road to citizenship.

• Remote workRemote work residence permit

  Bulgaria’s December 2025 remote-worker permit: a one-year, once-renewable residence permit for non-EU freelancers, remote employees and business owners earning from abroad.

• Job offerEU Blue Card for highly qualified employment

  A non-EU national with a qualifying offer for highly qualified work in Bulgaria may apply for a residence and work permit. The salary and qualification tests are country-specific.

Every source on this page

1 laws and official pages behind the answers, then the offices and pages behind the records and filing.

1. LawBulgarian Citizenship Act, as amended to State Gazette No. 55 of 2026 · Art. 8; Art. 15(1)(1) and (2); Art. 12(1)(3)
2. RecordsThe regional State Archives (Държавен архив) or the local municipality’s civil registry: Your ancestor’s Bulgarian birth or church record
3. RecordsHow to file: Bulgarian origin (Art. 15)
4. RecordsApplication (молба) per Annex 1 to Ordinance No. 1 of 19 February 1999, written in Bulgarian
5. RecordsAppointment by phone with the post (Washington +1 202-387-7969); New York books through calendly.com/consulate_newyork
6. RecordsBirth records, 1830–1893: Regional state archives of the State Agency "Archives"
7. RecordsBirth records, 1893–2026: The municipality
8. RecordsThe passport: where, the fee and the wait

Not legal advice. Every answer comes from the country’s own laws and is tested against real cases. Where the law isn’t clear, we say “possible” rather than guess.