Bulgaria launched its digital nomad residence permit on 20 December 2025, days after joining the eurozone and the Schengen passport-free area. The income requirement is €31,000 a year, equal to fifty times the national minimum wage, one of the higher thresholds in the EU. Parliamentary support at second reading exceeded 73%, yet that consensus does not extend to the street.
In February 2026, the far-right Vazrazhdane (Revival) party stormed the European Union mission in Sofia to protest eurozone accession, and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the action "outrageous". Vazrazhdane polled at 13 to 14 percent through the 2024 cycle. Both the president and the government were in resignation posture as of February 2026, and snap elections are expected in 2026.
The permit covers employees of non-EU firms, shareholders in such firms, and independent remote contractors with at least a year of demonstrable experience, which is the cohort nationalist campaigners will find easiest to rhetoricalise if an incident demands a target. Vazrazhdane itself is broadly anti-EU and anti-migration rather than specifically anti-nomad, but the launch timing places the scheme on contested political terrain from day one.
