Getting a new international passport in Bulgaria: the non-obvious details

Obtaining an international passport

Detailed instructions on how to obtain a new document can be found at the consulate of your home country.

Russia

The Russian Consulate General is located in Varna at 53 Makedonia St. and in Burgas at 111 Tsar Simeon I St. The address of the embassy in Sofia is 28 Dragan Tsankov Blvd. The state fee for issuing a 10-year passport for persons aged 14 and over is 80 US dollars. For children under 14 it is half as much. The money must be transferred to a bank account.

To obtain a 10-year passport you need to print out the application form in advance – it must have a QR code. With the printed form you should go to the consulate, submit the documents and pay for the service.

You should bring your valid international passport, your Russian internal passport, your Bulgarian residence permit card and a birth certificate (for children only). The photograph is taken on the spot. After that all that remains is to wait for the passport to be ready – the process takes about three months. You are usually not notified when the documents are ready, and the information appears on the website with a delay, so you should call the consulate periodically and ask whether it is time to come for the passport. You should not delay too long – passports that remain uncollected for a long time are destroyed, and you have to go through the whole procedure again.

Ukraine

The Embassy of Ukraine in Bulgaria is located in Sofia at 29 Boryana St., Ovcha Kupel district. The consular fee for issuing a passport for Ukrainians over 16 is 90 US dollars. Automated data processing costs an additional 40 dollars.

Kazakhstan

The Embassy of Kazakhstan in Bulgaria is located in Sofia at 37 Sv. sv. Kiril i Metodi St. To obtain a new international passport you will need:

• an application;
• a birth certificate;
• a Kazakh passport;
• a certificate from the Bulgarian Ministry of Justice confirming that the applicant does not hold Bulgarian citizenship (with a translation);
• a marriage certificate;
• for children under 16 – a birth certificate;
• 4 photographs;
• a Bulgarian ID card;
• a copy of the employment contract;
• a payment receipt.

The passport takes 2 – 4 months to produce. The consular fee is 35 euros.

The Embassy of Kazakhstan does not issue passports to all citizens, but only to those who:

• have been studying or working under a contract in Bulgaria for at least a year;
• have a special mark in their passport authorising departure for a permanent residence permit;
• are a family member of a citizen from the previous categories.

What needs to be done after receiving the new document?

It is commonly believed that foreigners need to enter Bulgaria on the new international passport so that it contains an entry stamp. However, this is only necessary if the document was obtained outside the country. If you received the passport in Bulgaria, no departure is required. You simply need to bring both the new and the old passport with you at the next renewal of your long-term residence permit.

Those who have their own company in Bulgaria will have to update their details in the company documents that contain passport data. First of all, you need to provide information about the new passport to the bank where the account is held. Individuals who have accounts with Bulgarian banks should do the same. There is nothing complicated about it: the staff simply scan the new document and enter the data into the system. There is no set deadline for providing the information to the bank, but it is better to do it at the first opportunity.

Trade representatives, however, must inform БТПП of the changes before the preparation of documents for obtaining the certificate begins and, accordingly, for renewing the long-term residence permit. The changes will have to be entered in the power of attorney for the representative – this is a simple procedure, but it should not be left until the last moment.

Long-term residence permit in Bulgaria

Trade representative office

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