Bulgarian passport means first of all visa free travel. For travel to the EU Member States, as well as the few other European countries, not Members of the EU – Switzerland, Norway, etc., Bulgarian citizens don’t even need carrying their passport. Merely showing their national identity card (ID card) guarantees them entry and right of residence. For the rest of the world, Bulgaria as part of the EU family has signed visa free agreements, allowing its citizens to effortlessly travel the world round.
Bulgaria shares, together with Monaco and Liechtenstein, the prestigious 12th place in the world in terms of freedom of its citizens to travel visa free. It means that Bulgarian passport holders can travel to about 145 countries worldwide either visa free or be granted “visa on arrival”. This spectacular score is what makes Bulgarian citizenship the preferred choice for many individuals from all over the world.
- 12th place worldwide for visa free travel (shared with Monacoand Liechtenstein);
- 145 visa free countries;
- Sustainable and rising number of visa free travel countries in future, guaranteed by Regulation (EU) 1289/2013.
In addition to the impressive number of countries who keep their doors open for Bulgarian citizens, it is worth mentioning the ease of travel with EU (Bulgarian) passport. Most countries worldwide (even outside of Europe) will provide dedicated immigration passages for citizens of the European Union. Instead of waiting the long cues marked with “All countries“, you will enjoy fast border crossing under the reserved for EU citizens corridors marked with “EU citizens only“. You will be also spared time consuming (and also intimidating) forms fillings or showing supporting documents, such as hotel bookings, return tickets, etc. at the border checkpoints.
Another advantage of having Bulgarian citizenship is that the European Parliament and the Council have adopted in 2013 a Regulation (EU) 1289/2013 in order to apply visa reciprocity mechanism for all of its Member States. The visa reciprocity mechanism is a legal provision under EU law aiming to achieve completely visa free travel for citizens of all (EU) Member States to every non EU country whose citizens can travel to the EU / Schengen area without a visa. In other words, the EU is applying a policy that guarantees that all EU countries will at one point have the same visa free regime, ensuring the sustainability of the Bulgarian citizenship and passport in regard to visa free travel.
