Paternity leave in Bulgaria: 15 days and two months

Working life · Last reviewed: 2026-08-24

Three tracks, three different logics

When people in Bulgaria talk about „paternity“, three different things go by the same name, and that is what produces most of the bad planning. The first track belongs to THE MOMENT OF BIRTH: the short leave that lets a father be with his family when the child arrives. The second is the TRANSFER OF THE MOTHER'S ENTITLEMENT: the leave she is taking passes, on the conditions the law sets, to the father. The third is the FATHER'S OWN ENTITLEMENT and has nothing to do with the mother's leave; it is taken during the child's first eight years, whenever the family judges best.

What the three share is that each has a corresponding benefit from social insurance; what separates them is the conditions, the timing and the offset rules. The table below sets the three side by side, and the sections that follow open up the detail.

15 days at the birth: the best known and most often missed

The short leave a father may take when the child is born is the best known of the three tracks. To qualify for the benefit, the condition the НОИ sets out is clear: as of 1 August 2022, fathers must have at least six months of insurance record as insured for general illness and maternity in order to receive benefit for leave at the birth of a child of up to 15 days.

This leave is taken in the period after the birth and falls in the family's busiest days; that is precisely why it is so often skipped with „I will take it later“. Once missed it does not return: this track has its own window, and when the window closes so does the entitlement. The conversation with the employer belongs weeks before the birth, not the day after it.

Article 164v: two months until the child turns eight

This is the newest and least known entitlement in the family-leave line. With the ministry's announcement, fathers gained the right to two months of leave to raise a child, and the НОИ publishes the corresponding benefit under a separate heading: benefit for raising a child up to the age of eight by the father (or adoptive father).

Two features set this right apart. The first is FLEXIBLE TIMING: the family decides when in the child's first eight years the two months are taken. It need not be at the birth — it can be when nursery starts, in the first month of school, or whenever a gap opens in the mother's return-to-work calendar. The second is that it is the FATHER'S OWN ENTITLEMENT: it is not deducted from the mother's leave and does not depend on whether she took hers.

In the wording of the law, the right under Article 164v belongs to every worker — provided they have used less than two months in total of the listed leaves. The entitlement is therefore not a fixed „two months“; where leave has already been used, the entitlement is the difference.

The offset rule: what is deducted from the two months

This is the most technical section of the article and also the one with the most money in it. The two-month entitlement under Article 164v is offset against certain leaves the father (or adoptive father) has taken IN PLACE OF THE MOTHER. The situations the law lists are: pregnancy and childbirth leave, leave to raise a child up to the age of two, leave on adoption of a child up to the age of five — where these were used instead of the mother — and leave taken because of the mother's death or serious illness.

The mechanics are simple: a father who has used none of those leaves is entitled to the full two months. One who has used LESS than two months in total is entitled to the difference between two months and the time used. One who has used two months or more acquires no separate entitlement under Article 164v. The provision therefore does not grant „a second two months“; it guarantees that a father's total care leave does not fall below two months.

Adoptive parents and single-parent families

The law grants this track not only to the biological father but to the ADOPTIVE parent: the НОИ page states the right as belonging to „the father (adoptive father)“, and the two months and the benefit apply in the same way. For families in an adoption procedure this is one of the most practical supports available, because the first months after a child joins the family are the counterpart of the adjustment period following a birth.

Adoption also appears expressly in the offset list: leave on adoption of a child up to five, used instead of the mother, is among the items deducted from the two-month entitlement. An adoptive father who has taken such leave therefore calculates the remainder of his own two months by the same logic as after a biological birth.

The situation of the mother's death or serious illness is also expressly regulated, and leave taken on that ground is again on the offset list. The presence of that line reveals the purpose of the provision: the law treats the father not as a „helping parent“ but as a parent who takes over care entirely where necessary, and it guarantees that the total care period does not fall below two months.

Transfer from the mother: the third track

The leave the mother is taking may, on the conditions the law sets, be transferred to the father, and the transfer carries both the leave and the benefit. This is a different mechanism from the standalone right under Article 164v: here the father uses not HIS OWN entitlement but the remainder of the mother's. The amount of the benefit likewise follows the regime of the transferred entitlement.

The reason families use this mechanism is usually economic: if the mother's return to work is better for household income, the remaining leave passes to the father. Before deciding, two calculations should sit side by side — the income the mother will earn on returning, and the benefit the father will receive on leave. Comparing those two numbers turns the decision from an emotional one into a concrete one.

Why no amounts are written here

No monetary AMOUNT is written in this article for any of the tracks, and that is a deliberate decision. The reason is this: the monthly amounts of the benefits attached to care leaves are set anew each year by the State Social Insurance Budget Act. Writing a figure without a clear year misleads the reader exactly while they are planning — and when such a figure is wrong, the error stays invisible, because there is no source either.

There is one step to take: read the monthly amount set by the budget act in force on the relevant НОИ page. For the benefit attached to the 15-day birth leave, the calculation depends on the father's own insurable income; for that too the institute's own page and tools are authoritative.

When it makes sense to use the two months

The eight-year window makes this right more of a TOOL than a leave — and the value of a tool depends on using it at the right moment. Four moments serve families best in practice. The first is the gap when the mother's leave to the child's second birthday ends and a nursery place has not yet opened; in most cities that gap runs to several months and is covered exactly by two months of leave. The second is the settling-in period when nursery or kindergarten begins; the first weeks are short days and one parent needs to be free during the day.

The third moment is the first month of school: a new routine, new hours and, in most families, a new transport plan. The fourth is the unplanned one — illness in the family, a move, or an unexpected crunch in the mother's job. That is the real value of the eight-year window: while unused, the entitlement sits there as a reserve and engages when it is genuinely needed.

A warning is needed too, though: holding something in reserve turns very easily into forgetting it. As the child's eighth birthday approaches, an unused entitlement closes quietly and nobody sends a reminder. The simplest fix is to add seven and a half years to the date of birth and leave yourself a calendar note.

Applying: step by step

1. 1

   Measure your insurance record

   The benefit for the 15-day leave requires at least six months insured for general illness and maternity. Without it, the right to leave and the right to benefit come apart.
2. 2

   Decide which track you are using

   Leave at the birth, transfer from the mother, or the two months under Article 164v? All three have different paperwork and different timing.
3. 3

   Work out whether you have taken leave in place of the mother

   If you have, the two-month entitlement drops to the difference between two months and the time used. Do this calculation before applying.
4. 4

   Apply to your employer in writing

   The request and the dates should be in writing; the employer files the data with the institute on that basis. A verbal understanding does not trigger the benefit.
5. 5

   Make sure the НОИ has your bank account

   Payment comes straight to you. This is the commonest cause of delay for fathers receiving a benefit for the first time.
6. 6

   Record how much you have used

   Keep your own note of how much of the two months you have spent; you will need it for a second child and for future calculations.

The employer's obligation and job security

Paternity leaves are statutory entitlements; the employer's discretion here is not as wide as with annual leave. Their main role is to record the leave and file the necessary data with the НОИ on time. The commonest cause of a delayed payment is a stall in exactly that chain, not slowness at the institute.

During the leave the contract continues, annual leave keeps accruing and the insurance declaration continues. A probation period, however, does NOT advance during these leaves, just as it does not during sick leave, because only time actually worked counts towards it. Where discrimination or adverse treatment because of leave is alleged, the address is the Labour Inspectorate.

Why take-up is low

These rights are strong on paper, but take-up — especially of the two months under Article 164v — is low. The reasons gather under three headings. The first is lack of information: the right is new, and in many workplaces even the HR function does not know the detail. The second is the income calculation: because the monthly benefit is a fixed sum, a high-earning father going on leave creates a visible drop in the household budget. The third is cultural: „the father taking leave“ is still not treated as ordinary in many workplaces.

Two of those three are solved by information. A family that knows the right and the offset rule can plan the two months as flexibility spread across eight years — timing them, for instance, to the first month of school. The income calculation can only be done with concrete numbers: read the current benefit amount on the НОИ page and set it against your own salary; the decision becomes meaningful only after that comparison.

Self-insured fathers and company owners

The right to leave rests on an employment contract; for someone working for themselves, „going on leave“ is not a legal act but a practical decision. The BENEFIT side, however, works differently: self-insured persons may also insure for the general illness and maternity risk, and once insured for it the benefit track opens to them too. The question for a self-employed father is therefore not „will my employer allow it“ but „am I insured for this risk and is my record long enough“.

The point to watch is carrying on activity during the benefit period. The rule introduced in 2025 on the maternity track says benefit is not paid while a person pursues an activity that grounds insurance; similar logic should be borne in mind for care-leave benefits. A father working for himself should check with the institute how his activity will be assessed before applying — corrections made later turn into demands for repayment.

Notes for foreign fathers

For a father who is an EU citizen insured in Bulgaria the system works just as it does for Bulgarian nationals; the only difference lies in documenting the six-month record. Insurance periods in another EU state can count through the coordination rules, but they must be documented. If the collection of those documents starts after the birth, the benefit arrives months later.

For non-EU nationals the extra layer is the basis of the residence and work permit: how it continues through a longer leave must be clarified in advance. That question belongs to the migration authorities. For families moving between Türkiye and Bulgaria the question is the same again: which country are you insured in — because that is where the benefit is claimed.

Building the family calendar together

Read separately, maternity and paternity leaves each look reasonable; read together, they reveal that the family holds a surprisingly long block of time. The mother's 410 days, the leave to the child's second birthday, the father's short leave at the birth and his two months to the age of eight — these can be planned not in sequence but LAYERED and ALTERNATING. Families who draw that plan see the nursery allocation and the return-to-work calendar a year ahead.

The practical method is simple: write the child's date of birth on a sheet, draw four lines under it — the mother's 410 days, the second birthday, the father's 15 days, the father's two months — and mark which month each line falls in. The resulting table shows which months are covered and which are empty. The maternity article on this site fills in the first two lines; this one fills in the last two.

The commonest mistakes

• •Treating the three tracks as one entitlement — the 15 days at the birth, the transfer from the mother and the two months under Article 164v have different conditions and different calendars.
• •Assuming you have the six months — since 1 August 2022 the benefit at the birth requires six months of insurance record on the father's side.
• •Skipping the offset rule — leaves used in place of the mother are deducted from the two months; the entitlement is the difference.
• •Thinking the 15 days count in the offset — that leave is not on the care-leave list and does not reduce the two months.
• •Treating the two months as „birth leave“ — Article 164v leave may be taken at any time until the child turns eight.
• •Taking the amount from old articles — the monthly benefit is set each year by the budget act; the current figure is only on the НОИ page.

How to verify this page today

The durations and conditions of paternity leaves rest on the Labour Code and the Social Insurance Code, and this area has moved quickly in recent years: the record condition for birth leave arrived on 1 August 2022, and the two-month leave to the age of eight is a new right. The information here is tied to official sources as at 24 August 2026; before building your plan, confirm the current value on the official page: for the two-month right and its benefit, the НОИ page „Парично обезщетение за отглеждане на дете до 8-годишна възраст от бащата“ and the institute's announcement on the subject; for the framework of leave, the ministry's „Отпуски“ page and its announcement on the two-month leave.

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