Depending on the type of visa, foreigners can stay in Bulgaria for a different number of days. If you exceed this period by at least a day, it will lead to unpleasant consequences. Violators face fines, visa refusals in the future and other punishments. So it is worth carefully planning your stay in the country so as not to inadvertently exceed the terms determined by law.

The calculation of the time of stay in Bulgaria is made according to the same rule as the calculation of the permitted period of stay in the Schengen countries. It is commonly referred to as "90/180". It means that a foreigner can stay in the country for 90 days in each 180-day period. This is often misinterpreted as the right to live in Bulgaria for three months every six months. This is wrong, the calculations must be accurate, since even an error of 1-2 days can be critical.

So, in order to assess the possibility of staying in the country on a particular day, you need to take into account the period of 180 days preceding this date.

Please note: you can only live in Bulgaria for 90 days in a row, even If you do not plan to visit the country for a long time. Many people make the following mistake: they live in the country for three months, and then want to stay for the same amount of time under the pretext that they will then leave the country. This cannot be done, only past visits are taken into account when counting, but not future ones.

Important! When calculating days, travel within the framework of a long-term visa or residence permit is not taken into account. Travel to the Schengen countries, Great Britain, Ireland, Cyprus, Croatia, Romania is also not taken into account.

Counting algorithm

You need to count back 180 days from each day of the proposed trip and check how many days were spent in each such period in the country. Border crossing stamps in the passport will help you not to make mistakes in the calculations. If in any of the periods received the sum of days on Bulgarian territory exceeds the allowed value, you will have to adjust your plans.

When calculating manually, it is easy to make mistakes. The EU Home Office website has a handy tool that allows you to automatically do all the calculations – the Stay Time Calculator ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs. It is suitable for counting according to the 90/180 system. If the C visa has a different number of days allowed, you will not be able to use this tool.

Features of using the calculator

The date format dd/mm/yy is used, but you do not need to enter the "/" sign. Example: to indicate November 1, 2018, you need to enter "011118" on the keyboard. If the date format isn't met, you'll see a notification.

The calculator works in two modes:

• Control is designed to find out the total length of stays on the control date. Information is provided on whether rule 90/180 has been violated.
• Planning is for planning trips. You need to enter the future date of travel in the Date of entry/Control field, and the system will provide information about the maximum possible period of stay in the country on the specified date.

To make it easier to work with the calculator, let's consider the purpose of its main fields and buttons.

Date of entry/Control – the date on which the period of stay is calculated.

Passport – When you click the button, a table will open for entering the dates of crossing the borders. The system will automatically arrange them in chronological order. Example: if you are in Bulgaria from May 10 to October 7, 2018, you need to enter +10/05/18 and -07/10/18 in the table.

Enter previous stay(s) in the Schengen area. In chronological order, you need to enter the date of entry in the left column, and the date of departure in the middle column. In the third column, the days of stay for each period will be automatically counted.

Calculate – When all the information is entered, click this button to calculate. The system will calculate the number of days spent on the territory of Bulgaria and provide information on compliance with the 90/180 rule.

In Control mode, the system will inform you if the number of allowed days has been exceeded. If not, the screen will display information until what date you can still stay in the country.

The Planning mode allows you to get information about how many days you can stay in Schengen (or Bulgaria), the start date of the previous 180-day period and the previous 90 days by the date entered in the Date of entry/Control field.

If the available number of days is not enough for you, and you want to live in Bulgaria all year round, you should think about getting D visas and residence permits. We are ready to provide you with professional assistance and comprehensive support in these matters.