Bulgaria Struggling to Attract Foreign Workers After Full Schengen Accession Due to Work Visa Delays

Being a full member of the Schengen Zone for over one month has brought several benefits to Bulgaria. However, the country is also facing additional difficulties.

Sofia is now struggling to hire foreign workers, in particular for its tourism sector, Schengen.News reports. 

Bureaucratic delays, outdated administrative procedures and lack of coordination between institutions are among the main difficulties that businesses in Bulgaria are facing, according to a report from Novinite. 

These concerns were addressed at a roundtable on post-Schengen tourism challenges that was organised by the Bulgarian Union of Balneology and SPA (BUBST). 

According to Novinite, long processing times for work visas are among the main issues that were discussed. 

Excessive work visa times, which can take at least three months, led many approved workers to abandon the process midway, according to some hoteliers and labour recruitment agencies. 

According to a hotelier, processing the documents for 80 workers required a total of 1,000 pages, creating a burden on businesses and approval offices. 

Foreign Workers Subject to Several Other Difficulties 
In addition, employees are also subject to additional difficulties when reaching the country for work purposes. Among them, repeated visits to several institutions before officially starting the work. Waiting times to obtain a banking card sometimes reach two months. 

Bulgarian law requires employers with more than 100 workers to pay salaries through bank transfer. However, workers wait for longer periods for wages. In some cases, employers face fines for paying their workers in cash. 

Officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Novinite that in spite of a total of 2.8 million visa applications each year, budget limits prevent hiring additional staff. Bulgaria has a total of 85 consular services in countries worldwide, but it only has 100 employees and 70 technical assistants. 

Efforts to get more funding have not been successful, therefore leading to long visa wait times. 

Bulgaria’s Visa Application System Needs Modernisation 
Tourism industry representatives argued that Bulgaria’s visa application system needs to be modernised, taking also into account the introduction of electronic visa applications. 

In this regard, the Tourism Minister of Bulgaria, Miroslav Borshosh, said that he plans to establish a working group in order to address the administrative as well as legislative obstacles to which businesses are subject. 

Bulgaria and Romania entered the Schengen Zone on January 1, 2025, in terms of land borders, thus becoming full Schengen members. 

A report from the Economic Research Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences estimated that the full Schengen accession for Bulgaria would bring about €833.3 million per year.

Source: https://schengen.news/bulgaria-struggling-to-attract-foreign-workers-after-full-schengen-accession-due-to-work-visa-delays/