Visa requirements for Bulgarian citizens

Bulgaria belongs to the European free movement area, so Bulgarian citizens need no visa anywhere in the Schengen area and can use a national ID card.

Of the 198 countries whose entry rules are known in both directions, Bulgaria and 92 of them let each other’s citizens in without a visa obtained in advance (visa-free, on arrival or with an ETA; an e-visa counts as a visa).

1 country asks holders of the Bulgarian passport for a visa beforehand, although its own citizens enter Bulgaria without one: United States.

The reverse holds for 66 countries: holders of the Bulgarian passport get in without a visa obtained in advance, but their citizens need one for Bulgaria (Angola, Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus and 61 others).

14 countries ask holders of the Bulgarian passport for a visa obtained before travel from an embassy, a consulate or a visa centre. 4 of them have an embassy or consulate on record in Bulgaria.

10 countries have no embassy or career consulate on record in Bulgaria, so the application usually goes to one of their posts in another country. Counting the post an official diplomatic list names for Bulgaria, or else the nearest one within 2,000 km, those posts are most often in Turkey (3), Italy (2) and Romania (2).

The United States refused 5.1% of visitor-visa (B1/B2) applications from citizens of Bulgaria in fiscal year 2025, by the State Department’s adjusted refusal rate. 9 of the 197 nationalities with a published rate had a lower one and 187 a higher one; the middle value was 32%.

Visa-free travel with the Bulgarian passport

By continent, the Bulgarian passport is visa-free in 43 countries in Europe, 28 countries in the Americas, 22 countries in Asia, 15 countries in Africa and 11 countries in Oceania. The longest visa-free stays for Bulgarian citizens are allowed in Georgia (360 days), Antigua and Barbuda (180 days), Armenia (180 days), Costa Rica (180 days), Dominica (180 days) and Mexico (180 days).

Visa on arrival

Bulgarian citizens can get a visa at the airport or land border of Bahrain, Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia, the Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt and 23 others.

E-Visa and electronic travel authorisation

An e-Visa, applied for online before the trip, is how Bulgarian citizens enter Azerbaijan, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cuba and 19 others. Australia, Canada, Israel, Ivory Coast, Kenya, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and 3 others ask instead for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a lighter online check than a visa.

Bulgaria’s neighbours

North Macedonia, Greece, Romania, Turkey and Serbia admit Bulgarian citizens without a visa.

How the passport compares

Among neighbouring passports, the Greek passport ranks 19th (160 destinations), the Romanian passport ranks 28th (159 destinations), the Serbian passport ranks 71st (121 destinations), the North Macedonian passport ranks 74th (118 destinations) and the Turkish passport ranks 86th (112 destinations). Of the 198 passports in the data, 93 can enter visa-free and 105 need a visa from an embassy or consulate for Bulgaria.