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@Alex_123

Welcome to the forum and good luck with your move!

As an EU citizen you can relocate to any EU country for any reason. The EU Citizen Registration is pretty easy in Bulgaria, so this is definitely the thing to do first. You just need proof of address, proof of health insurance, and proof of funds. Provide your Notary Act (if you buy a property) or your long term rental contract for the address (together with a Landlord Declaration, which must be notarized if your rental contract isn't). Provide your Italian EHIC (or a local health insurance policy for less than 100 euros) for health cover. Provide a bank/brokerage statement showing that you have a good balance (ideally, 6k+ euros, based on 500 per month x 12).

You can do this yourself at your local immigration office, but taking a helper/translator is usually a good idea. A local immigration attorney might charge around 1,000 euros, but they can probably get your residence permit in 2 (work) days, and they might also be able to provide the proof of address for you. This is what I did some years ago, so I just flew in to Bulgaria for a short 3 day trip (with my passport, debit cards, and UK EHIC) and left with my Bulgarian permit.

A Bulgarian bank account with a healthy balance, together with a recent bank-stamped statement from your branch is the best proof of funds. But I'm confident they will, most likely, accept foreign bank statements too. It's also a LOT easier to open an account after you're legally resident, which is another reason to do it later (if at all).

Hello, Alex. Which is your District where you live? I think most of the Migration offices only need a copy of your Debit or credit cards as proof of fundings. So, it is not necessary to have a bank account (unless you don't need it).

I hope I was helpful.

@Alex_123

Hello, Alex. Which is your District where you live? I think most of the Migration offices only need a copy of your Debit or credit cards as proof of fundings. So, it is not necessary to have a bank account (unless you don't need it).

I hope I was helpful.

@gwynj

that is residency for 1 year ?

@Vasilev

Not that easy from my experience. The Migration employee in Sofia specifically asked me for bank statements for the proof of funds. A debit or credit card won't really prove anything. You could only have 100€ on your account in that case and that would work.

@Alex_123

From my experience you won't be able to get a bank account in Bulgaria unless you get that residence certificate first. Personally I have been waiting for 3 weeks now and not a single bank has approved me after answering hundreds of questions about everything, even with a rental agreement in Cyrillic and English. Now some of the banks want a translation of some other documents. Very expensive and they want it certified and notarized, even more expensive. The banks in Bulgaria do a thorough investigation on the provenance of your funds and use the KYC procedure. They take that extremely seriously. In the end, I am wondering if it's really worth it ? They are not business friendly here.

@JuilaOui

I think it's still possible to get a bank account for an EU citizen, but the KYC/AML stuff has been tightened up so it's easier if you already have your residence permit/EU Citizen Registration. Unless it's urgent, I'd recommend trying for your registration first, rather than wasting time trekking around a bunch of bank branches... especially when, as an EU citizen, you typically don't need a Bulgarian bank account for your immigration step.