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Hello wrightkarl,

Welcome to º£½ÇÂÒÂ× ðŸ˜€

Do not hesitate to share more about what you and your girlfriend are looking for in your future destination, and feel free to ask anything.

There are plenty of experienced members who will be happy to share tips and personal insights.

All the best,

Cheryl

º£½ÇÂÒÂ× team

Hi Karl, and welcome to the forum, and hopefully the start of a Bulgarian adventure!

If you haven't visited Bulgaria yet, the first step might be a trip there. It's very different to the UK, and tends to be like Marmite -- people either love it, or they don't like it at all! Think about where you might want to live, city or country village, mountains or coast, and look at property prices, which have risen quite a lot in the last few years. Rightmove or Bulgarian Properties are good places to start to get an idea of realistic property prices. Many village houses will need more money spending as most require quite a bit of renovation.

Possibly the most important thing to consider if you intend to live full-time in Bulgaria is how you will get a long-stay visa. Post-Brexit, UK passport holders, like most non-EU citizens, can stay in the Schengen zone (Bulgaria and most of the EU) for a maximum of 90 days per 180 days. That's plenty enough to have a holiday home for summer stays or if you want to divide your time between the UK and Bulgaria. But to live there, you'll need to get a D visa as a first step to applying for residency. This isn't necessarily easy, though isn't impossible either! There's a good explanation of the process and the types of D visas here (an immigration lawyer's site, not specifically a recommendation, but she makes it clearer than the Bulgarian Embassy site does):

Good luck with your journey!