Updated information for travellers upon entry in the Republic of Bulgaria

All persons allowed to enter Bulgaria may do so from the following border crossings:

Sofia airport, Burgas airport, Varna airport, Plovdiv airport, Burgas seaport, Varna seaport, and the land border crossings at Vidin, Vrushka chuka, Durankulak, Gyueshevo, Zlatarevo, Ilinden, Kalotina, Kapitan Andreevo, Kapitan Petko voivoda, Kulata, Lesovo, Makaza, Malko Turnovo, Oltomantsi, Oryahovo, Ruse, Stanche Lisichkovo, Samovit-Nikopol, and Strezimirovtsi.

Entry and Exit Requirements:

Foreigners may enter Bulgaria under the conditions listed in the new Health Order of the Bulgarian Ministry of Health (Order RD-01-152/30.03.2022) and (Order RD-01-170/12.04.2022) , that is in effect from April 01, 2022, through May 15, 2022.

Please note that all other requirements for entry as a third country national, such as a visa (if required), still apply.

As of April 1, 2022, the color zones, according to which the procedure for entering Bulgarian has been determined, are abolished. All travelers arriving to Bulgaria, regardless of the country of departure or their citizenship, can enter without quarantine if they present an EU Digital COVID Certificate showing that the person has been vaccinated against COVID-19, has received a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or antigen COVID test result conducted up to 72 hours before entering the country, or has recovered from COVID-19. Similar documents that contain the same data as the EU digital certificate, such as a U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Vaccination Record Card, are also accepted.

Travelers who do not present an EU Digital COVID Certificate or similar document will be allowed to enter but will be quarantined for a period of 10 days. Quarantine may be terminated if the traveler obtains a negative PCR or antigen test result performed not earlier than 72 hours following their arrival in Bulgaria. The quarantine is considered terminated the day after the negative result is registered in the National Information System for Combating COVID-19, which is done automatically after issuance by the laboratory.

Exceptions:

Children up to 12 years;

International bus and truck drivers;

Crews of commercial aircraft and other transport staff as required, including vessel crews and persons involved in the maintenance of vessels;

Frontier workers (persons living in Bulgaria and traveling daily or weekly to a Member State of the European Union, North Macedonia, Serbia, or Turkey for the purpose of pursuing an activity as an employee or as self-employed person, as well as persons who live in the indicated countries and travel daily or weekly to Bulgaria for the purpose of exercising activity as an employed or as a self-employed person);

Persons transiting the country;

Students living in Greece, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Turkey, and traveling daily or weekly to Bulgaria for study purposes, as well as students living in Bulgaria and traveling daily or at weekly to Greece, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Turkey for study purposes;

Bulgarian citizens, persons with permanent or long-term resident status in Bulgaria (and their family members) arriving from countries with a free transit reciprocity agreement with Bulgaria;

NATO servicemen participating in international exercises and multinational contingents and the civilians who are accompanying them;

persons arriving from the Republic of Northern Macedonia, the Republic of Turkey, Romania, the Republic of Serbia, Hungary, the Republic of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Israel and Egypt.

List of countries (territories) whose COVID-19 vaccination, testing and certificates are considered equivalent to the EU digital COVID certificate:

1. Albania

2. Andorra

3. Armenia

4. Benin

5. Vatican (only in respect of vaccination certificates issued)

6. Great Britain

7. Georgia

8. El Salvador

9. Israel

10. Iceland

11. Jordan

12. Cape Verde

13. Lebanon

14. Liechtenstein

15. Morocco

16. Moldova

17. Monaco

18. New Zealand

19. Norway

20. United Arab Emirates

21. Panama

22. Republic of Northern Macedonia

23. San Marino

24. Singapore

25. Serbia

26. Taiwan

27. Thailand

28. Togo

29. Tunisia

30. Turkey

31. Ukraine

32. Uruguay

33. Faroe Islands

34. Montenegro

35. Switzerland

Valid digital COVID EU vaccination certificate or similar document:

Document for completed vaccination against COVID-19. The document must contain the names of the person written in Latin, according the identity document he/she travels, date of birth, last COVID-19 vaccination date, serial number of the dose, and doses total number in double vaccines, vaccine trade name, manufacturer/holder of marketing authorization name, country of issue and competent authority name, for the EU certificate, its unique identification.

Completed vaccination course:

The appropriate number administrated doses COVID-19 vaccine listed in Annex No 3 and 14-day from last vaccination. The combination of one dose of Vaxzevria/AZD1222 with one dose of Comirnaty/BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine) is also considered a completed vaccination course.

Valid EU digital COVID certificate for illness:

Document the person had COVID-19 and is valid from 11th to the 180th day from document test date. The certificate must contain the names of the person written in Latin, according to the identity document he/she travels, date of birth, date of the first positive result of the NAAT test and a positive result (Positive), details of the issuing authority, country, the test was done and its unique identification. “NAAT test” means a molecular test for nucleic acid amplification, such as polymerase chain reaction with reverse transcriptase (RT-PCR), cyclic-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), and transcriptional-mediated amplification (TMA) techniques used to detect the presence of ribonucleic acid of SARS-CoV-2 (RNA).

A document analogous to the EU's digital COVID certificate of illness:

Document the person had COVID-19 and is valid from 11th to the 180th day from document test date. The document must contain the names of the person written in Latin, according to the identity document he/she travels, date of birth, first positive PCR test date or rapid antigen test and a positive result (Positive), information about the medical institution, carried out the examination (name, address or other contact details) or the issuing authority and the country the examination was conducted.

Valid EU digital COVID certificate for testing or a similar document:

Document for negative polymerase chain reaction test performed up to 72 hours before entry into the country or a negative result from a rapid antigen test conducted up to 48 hours before entry into the country, as of the date of sampling entered in the document. The document must contain the names of the person written in Latin, according to the identity document he/she travels, date of birth, type of test, written in Latin method (PCR or RAT) and negative result (Negative), date and time for the test sample, trade and manufacturer test name (mandatory for rapid antigen tests), laboratory name/medical institution that performed the test, country where the test was performed and authority that issued the certificate/document, for the EU certificate - unique identification.

The list of countries whose COVID-19 vaccination, testing and certificates are considered equivalent to the EU digital COVID is in Annex № 4.