FOREIGNER CARDS IN BULGARIA CHANGE

Sofia echo, 15th January 2006

New rules have come into force about the identity cards of European Union citizens permanently resident in Bulgaria.

The changes follow the recently adopted law for EU citizens and members of their families entering, residing and leaving Bulgaria. The law, in force since October 3 last year, makes a distinction between EU citizens and nationals of other countries. For the latter, all previous regulations remain unchanged. This distinction is in line with Bulgaria’s obligations to the EU since the country became a member state on January 1 2007.

The new regulation replaces the identity cards (lichni karti) issued to EU citizens living in Bulgaria with new residence permit cards, or certificates as they are officially called. These certificates are still issued by the National Police Service Migration Directorate. As seen in the sample below, the new cards do not have a picture of the holder, nor do they give the national identification number (EGN in Bulgarian). The document contains only the name, sex, date of birth, date of registration, date of expiry and a police stamp, possibly making forgery very easy. Strangely enough, this change of rules was not made public by the Migration Directorate and it became known to The Sofia Echo only through a reader of the newspaper, a citizen of an EU country, whose identity card had expired and had to get a new one.

The Sofia Echo questioned Tsvetomira Stoimenova of the Migration Directorate.

“People should not worry about identity cards that have not expired, they will be valid till the date of expiry.”

Asked about the appearance and contents of the new card, and about the misspelling of the word certificate (as “sertificate” on the card), Stoimenova declined to comment.

As for the absence of an EGN, which is essential for dealing with institutions in Bulgaria, Stoimenova said that the EGN still existed but only in the computer system of the Migration Directorate. Her advice was for EU citizens residing permanently to memorise their EGNs because these do not appear on their new certificates.

She said that besides the new documents being issued to EU citizens, the other major change applied to any members of their families who are not citizens of an EU state. The new rules provide for these family members to be issued with residence card “for long or permanent stay in Bulgaria”. The period of the long stay depends on the period of the long stay of the EU citizen.

The Sofia Echo found several other minor changes in the new law in terms of long and permanent residence. The two categories of long and permanent residence in Bulgaria still exist, but according to the new law, “long stay” is up to five years while the old regulation provided only one year, renewable on application. There are only three conditions that an EU citizen must meet in order to apply for long stay in Bulgaria. He or she must either be working in Bulgaria, enrolled in school or university or have a health insurance number or sufficient funds to support himself and his family. The amount of “sufficient funds” will be decided by the Cabinet. For permanent residence, an EU citizen must also have been living in the country for the past five years and have legal work status.



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