Updated 19.06.2024
It is common practice for Bulgarian employers to hire foreigners for short-term seasonal work in Bulgaria. Seasonal work is such work that depends on the change of seasons and can only be done during a certain period of the year - e.g. agricultural work, construction, hotels, restaurants.
What conditions do I have to meet?
To work in Bulgaria on a seasonal basis, you must reside in the country legally and temporarily for the job. This means that you are only in Bulgaria for the duration of the seasonal work, but your main place of residence is still your home country.
For this purpose, you need to:
obtain a continuous residence and work permit of the type "Seasonal Worker Permit";
You need such a permit if you are going to live and work in Bulgaria from 90 days to 9 months in a 12-month period. This means that for a period of 1 year you can stay in Bulgaria for seasonal work from 90 days up to a maximum of 9 months after obtaining a continuous residence and work permit.
Details about the procedure can be found below.
OR
be registered with the Employment Agency.
This is another regime that applies if your seasonal work in Bulgaria will last less than 90 days. In these cases, you only need to be registered with the Employment Agency (EA) for seasonal employment up to 90 within the period of 1 year.
Details of the procedure can be found below.
For both procedures you need to:
be outside of Bulgaria at the time of application for a permit or registration with the EA.
have a fixed-term labour contract with the employer you will work for. The residence permit is issued for the duration of your employment contract.
Duties of the employer
When a Bulgarian employer hires a foreigner for seasonal work, he is obliged to pay:
The transport costs of the foreigner from their place of origin to their place of work in Bulgaria, as well as the cost to return.
The cost of compulsory health insurance and insurance premiums.
Your employer cannot ask you to reimburse these costs or deduct them from your salary.
In addition, your employer must provide or help you find accommodation to live in while you work for them in Bulgaria.
What is the procedure for obtaining the 90-day to 9-month seasonal work permit?
Your employer is obliged to submit the necessary documents to the Migration Directorate or the Migration Unit of the Ministry of Interior in accordance with the address of the employer's headquarters:
Application form.
A copy of the passport or a supplementary document with the pages that include your phono and personal data.
A statement from the employer that the seasonal worker has been provided with suitable accommodation to live in until the end of the contract.
A declaration from the employer that the working conditions and pay are respected and that they are not less favourable than those for Bulgarian nationals. This declaration must state the name of the foreigner who will be employed.
Criminal record of the worker from the country of their nationality or the country in which the worker has their habitual residence.
A copy of a fixed-term labour contract certified by the employer. This contract must state that the employer will bear the transport costs from the foreign country in which the worker lives to the place of work in Bulgaria, as well as the costs of the return journey, no matter what the reasons for terminating the contract.
A copy of the job description attached to the labour contract.
If the profession you are going to exercise is regulated, you must provide a document showing that the conditions for exercising this profession, included in the List of regulated professions in the Republic of Bulgaria, have been met, e.g. if you are going to work as a doctor by the sea during the summer season, a tour guide, a ship mechanic, etc.
In this case, your qualification must be recognised to practise this profession in Bulgaria, which is done differently for each type of regulated profession. You can read more about it here. In most cases, seasonal work refers to agricultural work, hotels, restaurants, which do not fall under this list and no recognition of qualification is required.
A document certifying that your employer is active in the economic sectors included in the List of Economic Sectors Including Activities Dependent on the Change of Seasons. If your employer is active in the 'hotels and restaurants' or 'agriculture, forestry and fishing' sector, a copy of the permit/certificate/registration for the activity concerned must be attached.
Other documents, if any, required for the job - certificates, diploma, etc.
If there are missing documents or irregularities, the Migration Directorate will give your employer 7 days to submit and correct them.
If you are allowed to carry out seasonal work, the competent authorities will notify your employer, who will then be obliged to notify you. You then have 20 days in which to apply for a long-stay visa (type D visa). You can find out more about this visa here:
Once you have obtained a visa and arrived in Bulgaria, you have a 7 days in which you and your employer or a person authorised by him/her must report to the Migration Directorate or Migration Unit of the Ministry of Interior in accordance with the address of the employer's headquarters and present:
A copy of your passport with the page the visa is on; and
Compulsory medical insurance valid in Bulgaria.
Migration services then issue a decision on the residence and work permit within 3 days and a document stating "seasonal worker" in the "type of permit" box. The fee for this type of document is 110 BGN.
The whole procedure should not take more than 2 months.
If you have already worked in Bulgaria as a seasonal worker for 90 days to 9 months in the last 5 years, your permit will be issued under a fast-track procedure.
Your employer must notify the relevant territorial directorate of the Executive Agency "General Labour Inspectorate" within 7 days that you have been employed by completing and submitting a notification form.
If you want to continue working or start seasonal work with a new employer, this permit can be extended once within the maximum 9-month period. To do this, you must submit a new application to the Migration Directorate or the Migration Unit before your first permit expires. If your original permit expires after you have applied for an extension, but the authorities have not yet issued a decision, you can still reside in Bulgaria, provided that the application was submitted within the validity period of your previous permit and the maximum 9 months have not expired.
You also have the right to change your employer. In such a case, the procedure will be repeated, and you will be issued with a new residence permit, but the validity period will not start from the beginning and the expiry date will be the same as the original permit. You can only change your employer once!
After your maximum period of residence under the seasonal work permit has expired, you may continue to live in Bulgaria if you have been issued with another type of residence permit without having to leave the country. You cannot do this if the second permit would be another seasonal work permit of 90 days to 9 months, a single residence and work permit, an EU Blue Card or an intra-corporate transfer permit.
What is the registration procedure for seasonal work up to 90 days?
The procedure for seasonal work of up to 90 days in a 12-month period differs from that described above. In this procedure you do not need to apply for a residence permit, but your employer must register you with the Employment Agency and you must have a short-stay visa type C. If you are a national of a country exempted from such a visa, then there is no need to obtain one for seasonal work purposes. But you must still be registered with the Employment Agency.
Your employer must submit the documents to the Central Administration of the Employment Agency in the city of Sofia, Blvd. "Dondukov" № 3, and you can do it:
on site at the Central Administration; or
online via the Secure Electronic Delivery System OR the official website of the Employment Agency. The employer must have a qualified electronic signature.
in the offices of the Labour Office Directorates in Burgas, Blagoevgrad, Varna, Plovdiv, Razlog, Samokov and Smolyan.
The required documents are:
Sample Declaration. It needs to be submitted in 2 copies in original.
A copy of the passport or a supplementary document with the pages containing your photo and personal details.
A statement from the employer that the seasonal worker has been provided with suitable accommodation to live in until the end of the contract.
A declaration from the employer that the working conditions and pay are respected and that they are not less favourable than those for Bulgarian nationals.
A certified copy of a fixed-term labour contract, which must state that the employer will cover the costs of the trip to Bulgaria and the return journey.
A copy of the job description attached to the labour contract.
If the profession you are going to exercise is regulated, you must provide a document showing that the conditions for exercising this profession, included in the List of regulated professions in the Republic of Bulgaria, are met. The specifics described above apply.
A document certifying that the employer is active in the economic sectors included in the List of Economic Sectors Including Activities Dependent on the Change of Seasons. If your employer is active in the 'hotels and restaurants' or 'agriculture, forestry and fishing' sector, a copy of the permit/certificate/registration for the activity concerned must be attached.
This registration procedure for seasonal work of up to 90 days should not take more than 1 month.
Once you've registered, your employer must notify you and you'll need to obtain a visa type C (unless you're exempted). You can find out how to apply for visa here.
In this cases, again the employer is obliged to notify the relevant territorial directorate of the Executive Agency "General Labour Inspectorate" within 7 days that you have started working for him by filling in and submitting a notification form.
If you decide that you want to continue working for the same employer or a new one, you can extend your stay in Bulgaria for seasonal work, but for no more than 180 days within 1 year. In this case, you will be issued with a continuous residence permit.
For the extension you need to submit personally the documents described above in relation to seasonal work permit from 90 days to 9 months to the Migration Directorate or the Migration Unit of the Ministry of Interior. If the state authorities grant you this residence and work permit, the employer should notify the relevant territorial directorate of the Executive Agency "General Labour Inspectorate" within 7 days by completing and submitting a notification form.
In any of these cases, when your employment ends, you leave or your contract of employment is terminated for any reason, the employer is required by law to notify the Migration Directorate within 3 days of the date of termination.
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