NSI: Residence permits issued by Bulgaria to non-EU nationals up 19.9% in 2025 y/y
In 2025, the number of first residence permits issued to third-country nationals with a validity of at least three months was 23 577, which is with 19.9 per cent more than in 2024, the National Statistical Agency (NSI) said on July 6.
The highest was the number of permissions to stay for reasons related to remunerated activities, 12 596, followed by the permissions for reasons related to family formation and reunification, 5 136, the NSI said.
Compared with 2024, the number of permits for the reason “work” increased by 45.6 per cent, while the number of permits for family reasons decreased by 4.1 per cent.
In 2025, 11 880 Single Permit for Residence and Work were issued in Bulgaria. Compared with 2024, the number of this type of permits increased by 68.2 per cent.
Previous statistics posted by the NSI and EU statistics agency Eurostat showed that in 2018, Bulgaria issued 11 864 first residence permits to non-EU nationals, 13 500 in 2019, 10 267 in 2020, 11 784 in 2021, 15 389 in 2022, 19 375 in 2023 and 19 662 in 2024.
