Certificate of Bulgarian origin: how it works

Visas and residence · Last reviewed: 2026-10-10

What the certificate establishes

The certificate establishes administratively that the applicant descends from a person of Bulgarian origin. The authority deciding on citizenship is a different one and makes its own assessment; the certificate is evidence in that file, not the outcome. This explains why the expectation that everything else follows automatically does not hold.

Which records count as evidence

• •Birth, marriage and death records — both those kept in Bulgaria and their foreign counterparts.
• •Archival material from periods of migration and from population registers.
• •Church and community registers, which for some periods are the only surviving source.
• •School, military and administrative records, used to close a gap in the chain.
• •Civil-status documents from the country where the applicant now lives.

How to structure the case

1. 1

   Write out the descent chain

   Set out names, dates and places generation by generation. Hunting for documents without that map wastes time.
2. 2

   Find a record for every link

   Bulgarian data is sought in archives and population registers; foreign data before the competent civil-status authorities.
3. 3

   Make the documents usable

   Foreign records need an apostille or consular legalisation, followed by translation into Bulgarian by an accepted route.
4. 4

   File with the competent authority

   The body establishing origin and the body deciding on citizenship are different; get the sequence right from the outset.

Where cases stall

One obstacle is name spelling: the same person may appear differently across documents. Second come archival gaps for certain periods and regions. Third is legalisation applied to the wrong document. All three are solvable with planning at the start and far harder to fix once the file is open.

Who issues the certificate and in which file it is needed

The certificate of Bulgarian origin (удостоверение за български произход) is issued by the Executive Agency for Bulgarians Abroad (ИАБЧ). In the state register of administrative services (ИИСДА) it is service 222, based on Article 24в(3) of the Foreigners Act (ЗЧРБ) and Article 35(1) of its implementing regulation. Under the agency's own rules, the certificate is issued when the applicant cannot present a birth certificate and the Migration Directorate cannot check the origin in the agency's information system on its own. The listed procedures are: extended residence for students, permanent residence, extended residence under Article 24(1)(5) ЗЧРБ and a type D visa application.

What to attach

• •A certified copy of your identity document showing citizenship and address registration (Art. 10(1)).
• •Written instructions from the Migration Directorate; not needed for a type D visa application (Art. 10(2)).
• •Original documents proving that at least one ascendant is Bulgarian; they may be issued by a Bulgarian or foreign state authority or by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (Art. 10(4)).
• •A certified copy of your passport or residence document.
• •A declaration of Bulgarian national consciousness — with a notarised signature or signed before an agency officer.
• •For documents in a foreign language, a translation by a licensed translator whose signature is notarised (Art. 10(5)).

The certificate is issued only if the file establishes that at least one ascendant is Bulgarian (Art. 14(1)); it also states the procedure it was issued for.

Frequently asked questions

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