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@Tommydgreen

Welcome,

Please have a look at the forum as this topic has been covered a lot and all your questions will be answered. If you have specific questions please ask away.

In a nutshell: if it's an apartment, you're good to go, but as a rule they're only available in towns/cities and more expensive than a village fixer-upper.  If it's a house with a garden/some land, you'll need to form/buy a company.  There are no ongoing costs/taxes unless your company does any trading, which it won't in the normal course of events; as a non-trading company there's no longer any need to file annual tax returns.  You can form a company quite quickly/cheaply.  Utility bills MIGHT work out a bit more expensive if the supplier decides to bill you at a commercial rate; some do, some don't.  Having a company makes it easy to buy a car (in the company's name).

@Tommydgreen

As @Jimj says you need a company (a legal entity) rather than you need to have/run a business. Bulgaria has a restriction that non-EU citizens (which includes Brits now) cannot buy land or property with land (i.e. a house with a garden) in their own name. It's an administrative formality, and it's fairly quick. easy, and inexpensive to deal with. You can typically avoid this issue by buying an apartment instead.

You can purchase property even as a tourist. However, separately, you need to consider a residence permit in order to live in your new home. Unless you're happy to use your UK passport and your visa-free allowance (up to 90 days in 180). This means you can legally stay up to 6 months a year (in total) here, without a permit. To stay here indefinitely, or exceed the 90 day limit, you need your permit.

There are several ways to qualify for a D visa (the long-term residence visa you must get first) and a residence permit. The easiest options are as an investor (300k euros I think), or a pensioner. You can also be a student, an employee, or self-employed, but these tend to be the trickiest options. If you are already retired, or will be soon, this is probably your easiest option. Another popular option for non-EU citizens is the TRO (Trade Representative Office) where you are the Bulgarian representative of your UK (or other non-Bulgarian) company.

Good luck!

Hi Tommy! Yes, there are a few of us here who missed the Brexit deadlines for various reasons and are now kicking ourselves.

If you just want an apartment, as long as it doesn't include a share of the land the apartments are built on, a company isn't needed, but for a house it definitely is. Setting up the company is a lot of paperwork, and it's easier to pay someone to help. This generally shouldn't cost more than 350 to 600 EUR depending who you use and what other services they offer. Usually the estate agent you buy from will assist with this. It's a one-off thing. Once it's done, there's no further admin or tax requirements as the company doesn't do any business, it just holds assets.

Getting residence to stay there longer than the permitted 90 days per 180 is the trickier bit. Easiest is pensioner, so if you are getting a retirement pension (private or OAP) that's more than the Bulgarian minimum wage, that's the route to go. I'm currently waiting for this, but am getting more and more impatient and may end up paying an immigration lawyer to help me go the Trade Representative Overseas route instead.

So, we own (outright) 2 shops in the uk and rent them out (this is our income). Can we use those as a TRO when we are at the point of wanting to apply for residency? Not knowing what TRO's are or actually do, different from the company one needs to set up to purchase a house with a garden I'm assuming.......

@ButterMyPaws19

My understanding is that TRO means you are a trade representative for a non-Bulgarian company and intend to represent the company in Bulgaria, so it's completely different from the non-trading Bulgarian registered company you use to buy your Bg house.

If you have a company registered at Companies House and two year's tax returns (doesn't need to have turned a profit, just show that the tax forms were submitted) you can do TRO. Or if you have a close friend or family member with a UK or other non-Bulgarian company in good standing who'd be willing to do the paperwork for you.

I am hoping that canny immigration lawyers may have companies set up in advance for such contingencies that clients can become TROs for, at a price!

@janemulberry

That explanation is pretty much on the money, thank you.

I'll just emphasize that the TRO represents an overseas entity, which is typically some form of limited company. So self-employed elsewhere (even with a T/A), or a personally-owned income-generating property would not qualify.

Given that you have an entity (MyCo Ltd, let's say), I'll clarify the TRO here. The TRO is simply a registration (of MyCo Ltd) in Bulgaria with the BCCI (Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry). If you also wanted to do business in Bulgaria, you'd perhaps consider also having a Bulgarian entity (perhaps MyCo EOOD). And this is different from your MyHouse EOOD (which owns something, but doesn't trade). :-)

Having a current TRO registration is what allows you apply for a D visa. And the rules allow that 3 individuals (I suppose they assume they are company employees or managers) can benefit from this registration, and hence get Bulgarian residence. And, of course, their spouses can then come in by Family Reunification. Folks with a current TRO registration can therefore sell one of these three "seats", which allows potential expats to avoid the 2 years wait from setting up their own company abroad.

Thanks for that comprehensive explanation, Gwyn. I'm glad to understand how it works, just in case we choose that route to move sooner.

And I'm so glad @buttermypaws that as you have PR in France you won't need to worry about TRO or any other D visa stuff!

@janemulberry I don't know that buying a place before brexit would have made a difference, I lived in france at time of uk leaving EU and we still had to apply for a right to live there, my sister had lived in france for 40 years and still had to reapply to be able to be resident!

@buckleyps

Yes, anyone who bought a place before Brexit still had to apply for residency, owning property in itself wasn't enough.

But owning property gave the person grounds to apply and showed they had pre-Brexit links to the country. For some time after the Brexit date, Bulgaria gave Brits who could show they'd purchased property before Brexit the right to apply for residency under the old rules.

@janemulberry

That was applied for every Brit living in the EU. Everyone living in the EU before Brexit was protected by the .

Yes, I understand that. And Bulgaria kindly extended their shut-off date for accepting applications for PR under the withdrawal agreement longer than most other EU countries. Unfortunately due to personal circumstance I didn't take advantage of that and am regretting it now!

@janemulberry

I know you're a bit frustrated right now, but I'm sure you'll be able to resolve this in due course. Either by pension or by TRO.

It's unfortunate that Bulgaria hasn't implemented something like Spain's No Lucrativa Visa, a no-working residence visa. This allows anyone with a regular income (pension, rent, dividends, etc.) and/or some savings (30k euros currently) to make the move. Understandably, it's very popular.

For Bulgaria, I think the most likely route for those too young to retire is the TRO (registered at the BCCI). And this is used by many non-EU citizens. The problem is that it sounds like a lot of aggravation, and it's a bit scary hearing that you have to have "a business" elsewhere. I haven't actually gone through the process, so I admit I'm speculating based on what I've read, and some discussion with my attorney, but I think it's much less problematic than folks assume.

The key issue is that you must have a foreign corporate entity, and it must have been incorporated at least 2 years ago. So you need a LTD or LLC formed anywhere but Bulgaria... and there's a time requirement just to stop us from incorporating one today and getting the TRO tomorrow.

There are lots of places you can incorporate very quickly and cheaply including Delaware, USA... any number of sunny (and shady) Caribbean islands... a UK island... and the UK. But if you've never done this before, I know it can be a bit intimidating.

The UK is a pretty good location because it's a very cheap country for incorporation, and plenty of agents who can do this online in a few hours. Companies House is pretty much all online, so you can administer your company very easily.

The issue is how "economically active" your entity is. I'm not sure. But when I was helping my attorney, what he stressed was that he didn't want "dormant" accounts. In the UK, there is a very simplified filing for your annual accounts if you declare that your company is completely inactive, with no sales/no transactions. But when you chose this status any confirmation/accounting documents will say "dormant". So you definitely don't want to show BCCI 2 years of accounts that say Year 1 - dormant, Year 2 - dormant. Instead, you should put some activity through your company, and file "micro entity accounts". This is simplified (and unaudited) accounts for lower turnover businesses.

As an example, I'm closing my current year with an impressive 50 quid in sales, and 100 quid added by the director as equity. It's teeny (2 transactions, for just a few pounds each). But I'm filing proper micro entity accounts rather than saying it's dormant. And next year, I can put 500-1000 pounds through, and it will look like massive growth. :-)

Thanks for explaining, Gwyn. I'm usually pretty good at finding my way through paperwork, but I admit, when I looked at the online forms for registering a UK company last year thinking it could be useful, I think I would have understood more if it was in Bulgarian. At least I could have used Google Translate with Bulgarian. I couldn't find a translator for accountant-speak!

Yes, it makes sense that the company has to have some economic activity, otherwise what's the point of having a TRO. Of course, with the explosive 1000% growth in your company, international expansion will be a must!