Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Hi All, not been on for a while, just recovering after the summer season. The info below may be of use to any frequent travellers to Bulgaria. I recieved this today from the British Embassy in Sofia. Hope it saves some of yopu any hassle.
See you all in Pamporovo.

Steve

Urgent advice to all British Citizens in Bulgaria re. entry requirements

The current entry requirements for Bulgaria state that British Citizens may enter as visitors without a visa for a maximum of 30 days only in any 6 month period. The border police authorities are now enforcing this rule very strictly and are checking previous entry and exit stamps in arriving passengers' passports. In the last few days, many people have been refused entry to the country, both at the airport and at land borders, because they had already used up their 30 day visa-free period on previous visits.

If you travel to or reside in Bulgaria on a regular basis, and therefore normally spend more than 30 days here in any 6-month period, you should make arrangements to apply for an appropriate visa at the Bulgarian Embassy in London, or at one of their other missions overseas, next time you leave the country.

If you already have a residence permit/visa, but have British family/friends/colleagues who visit you here on a regular basis, they will also need to bear this rule in mind and, if necessary, apply for a visa in advance of their next visit.

As mentioned before, this rule is being enforced very strictly now and it seems unlikely that any waiver will be given to people who claim to be unaware of it, whether or not they have been regular visitors to this country for some years and have business or family connections here. The Embassy has no powers to intervene if a British Citizen is denied entry on this basis and has been informed that temporary admission will only be given in extreme (ie urgent or compassionate) circumstances.

For further information on Bulgarian entry requirements you may like to visit the Bulgarian Embassy in London's website at www.bulgarianembassy.org.uk.


British Embassy
Consular Section

Well.. My thoughts are.. If as steve suggested we check out the www.bulgarianembassy.org.uk site, if you click on the visas link you will see that rules for Uk visitors to bulgaria are very different to other European visitors. This in my opinion is not because they dont like us as brits, its because we live on an Island that is goegrphically seperate from the rest of Europe (i know you all knew that..) But, because we are seperate from europe our government refuses to join the 'Shengan' Visa system, this agreement applies to all land joined european countries (and a few that are not) So that, for example a Bulgarian citizen after receiving this visa can travel freely anywhere in europe for the duration of the visa.. Except The British Isles! So in effect its hard for Brits to stay in bulgaria for more than 30 days in 6 months, But its almost impossible for bulgarians to visit uk at all.. At least they let us into thier country. I just recently received my own Permanent residency Visa to stay in BG for 1 year, it took 9 months of aggro to get and cost a lot, but without it i wouldnt be able to run a business there or visit bulgaria for another 5 months so its well worth it folks! Roll on the winter, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.. Cheers.

But Pete.. thats what The letter from steve is about. They are stopping us rule- breaking foreiners from doing exactly that. They have finally started to enforce something that has been Law for over a year already. Now, after your first 30 days in bulgaria, you have to leave the country on the 30th day and they will not let you back in for 6 months.. It is now Not going to be possible to leave Bulgaria via any border crossing then come back in the same day after a few hours in the other country. Thats what they are stopping, you wont get back in..