As you know, Bulgaria is a favorite vacation spot among Russians. In addition to the favorable climate, sandy beaches, delicious national dishes and the lack of a language barrier, tourists from Russia are attracted by the opportunity to purchase local real estate. For travelers who constantly travel to Bulgaria and book hotel rooms on their own, the issue of obtaining a national visa is especially acute. Here we are not talking about the owners of Schengen - they are allowed to visit EU countries with permits issued in different countries. Information about what documents for a visa to Bulgaria are needed will become more useful and relevant for ordinary people. This article is devoted to this article.
Ways to apply for a Bulgarian visa
The process of obtaining a visa to Bulgaria is simple, in practice there are two ways to do this: contact the travel agency or go through all the instances yourself. Today, most tourists have absolutely no time to independently collect documents for a visa to Bulgaria. It is easier for them to contact a specialized service or an accredited travel agency. Travelers who can afford trips to visa centers can get all the paperwork done.
Getting a visa through a travel company
In Russia, there are a large number of companies and travel agencies that are involved in obtaining national visas. They work directly with visa centers, control the process of obtaining documents. You only need to bring the necessary papers, they will do the rest themselves. Some companies even deliver home visas. Of course, this service is not free.
If the documents are submitted not by you personally, but by a trustee, you need a power of attorney written by the owner of a foreign passport and certified by a notary.
Getting a visa yourself
It is not at all necessary to seek the help of intermediary firms; many travelers are involved in the issue of tourist visas themselves. First you need to have the necessary list of documents. A visa to Bulgaria is made on the basis of the collected papers.
Visa centers of all regions of Russia work five days a week from morning to evening. There is no prior appointment, so you can contact the document processing service at a time convenient for you. An employee of the visa center checks the correctness of filling out the questionnaire, and after accepting all the necessary papers, the employee is obliged to issue you a special receipt by which you can get a visa.
Information on the whereabouts of the Bulgarian embassies and consulates in Russia will be useful. The Consulate General of Bulgaria is in Novosibirsk, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg. If you need an embassy, then you will have to go to the capital. As for visa centers, they are located in the same largest Russian cities, including Moscow.
What else do tourists need to know? For the execution of documents you need to pay a certain amount. This fee is called a consular fee. 35 euros is a regular visa to Bulgaria (a list of documents is presented below). For urgency, Russians also need to pay, the consular fee for such a document will be 70 euros. In addition to this mandatory fee, you must pay a service charge. It is charged from citizens in the amount of 836 rubles. This amount is the same for all visa centers, it must be paid every time, regardless of the type of document.
Residents of the CIS countries, including Belarus and Kazakhstan, are suitable for all the rules of the visa regime, the consular fee for them is 2640 rubles. However, in the case of traveling with children, residents of neighboring countries must pay for a child visa. This applies to children under 6 years old.
The term for issuing a regular permit takes on average 5-8 business days, urgent - 3 days. Only after a personal visit is it possible to obtain a visa to Bulgaria. Documents can be collected from 11.00 to 16.00 at the Visa Application Center.
Tourists who have just received a passport or haven’t traveled anywhere are provided with some bonuses. So, travelers with "clean" passports are usually issued a visa for six months. If you have already been to Bulgaria, you have the right to count on a different permit period - 1 year. However, the question of for what period a national visa will be issued is not discussed with tourists.
Documents for a visa to Bulgaria
To go abroad, any Russian tourist needs to apply for a special permit. To do this, you need to collect a whole package of documents:
1. Visa application form.
2. Foreign passport. For travelers, it must be valid for another 3 months, including the day the trip ends.
3. Color photo. Size - 3.5x4.5.
4. A copy of the home page of a foreign passport (2 pcs).
5. Copies of pages with valid visas.
6. Ticket or reservation (copy and original).
7. Certificate of medical insurance in the amount of coverage of at least 30,000 euros (copy and original).
8. Evidence of cash. The amount is calculated at the rate of 100 euros per day per person. Even if you are traveling for a couple of days, the amount of insurance must be at least 500 euros - this is the limit.
Traveling with children: visa application documents
Young travelers also need a visa to Bulgaria. What documents are needed if you plan to go on vacation with children?
1. Birth certificate (copy, preferably with the original).
2. A completed application form. It is necessary even when information about children is entered in the passport.
In the case when the child is traveling abroad with third parties or one of the parents, it is necessary to take a power of attorney from mom / dad, who / she has remained at home. In addition, copies of the permission certified by the notary and the home page of the passport must be available.
When traveling with children you need to know that:
- the child does not need to pay a consular fee if he is not 6 years old;
- a child’s photo of their baby should be pasted into the passport of mom / dad. This rule applies to children who are entered in the parent's foreign passport. Age restrictions - 6 years.
Documents for obtaining a visa D
A visa for a long stay is issued to foreigners who plan a long or permanent residence in this country. Such citizens are issued the so-called D visa in Bulgaria. Documents need to be collected for those who wish to carry out either labor or commercial activities. In addition, the following persons have the right to obtain such permission:
- foreign specialists who arrived in the country under an international agreement;
- citizens who have a reason for permanent residence (for example, marriage with a resident of Bulgaria);
- representatives of companies that are registered in the Chamber of Commerce of Bulgaria;
- family members of a citizen of Belarus;
- correspondents of foreign media, etc.
Such permission is issued to those who plan to stay in the country from 90 to 360 days, but no more. The temporary residence permit is regulated by the law of the Russian Federation “On Aliens in the Republic of Belarus”, article 24. The fee for processing such a document is 100 euros, the term for preparing the permit is from 30 business days.
Private visit to Bulgaria. What do tourists need to know?
For a personal trip, Russians can take advantage of the invitation of a citizen with a residence permit, or from an indigenous resident of this country. On the basis of this paper a visa is issued to Bulgaria. The necessary documents must be notarized, and the permit must be noted in the Public Organization at the place of stay of the inviting party. The same applies to family members of a Bulgarian citizen, the only difference is that instead of an invitation, you must provide an act of civil status, which takes into account the types of communication - kinship or marital. In order for the spouses to enter the country, you need to provide a marriage certificate, children - a birth certificate. Both originals and copies of documents are required.
A personal tourist trip requires confirmation of the hotel reservation to the visa center. Most often they provide a copy of the fax signed by the person in charge. In this confirmation all the components of the tour must be indicated: the date of the trip, the name of the hotel / hotel, its address, email, phone. In addition, it is necessary to fix the payment of the hotel by the applicant. Sometimes the Visa Application Center may require a certificate of employment or a copy of the work book, so it is better to have them with you.
In principle, tourists from Russia can apply for a visa to Bulgaria without any problems. The standard package allows you to do this without wasting time looking for any “important” help. A fairly simple visa regime for our compatriots is one of the main reasons for the unlimited love of Bulgaria.