New rules for entering Bulgaria in force from 1 May 2021

With Ordinance № RD-01-278 of 29 April 2021, the Minister of Health introduced new temporary anti-epidemic measures for entering into the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria, to be applied from 1 May 2021 to 31May 2021.

From 1 May the entry into Bulgaria of persons arriving from India, Bangladesh, Brazil and countries and territories in Africa is temporarily prohibited. An exception is applicable to Bulgarian citizens and persons with the status of permanent or long-term residence in Bulgaria and their family members arriving from these places, but they are subject to a 10-day quarantine. Countries and territories in Africa that do not fall within the scope of the ban on entering into the country are indicated.

All other persons entering into the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria, regardless of their citizenship and the country from which they come, are allowed to enter the Republic of Bulgaria upon presentation of one of the following documents:

• document for completed vaccination scheme against COVID-19. A complete vaccination schedule is considered to be the administration of an appropriate number of doses of COVID-19 vaccines listed in the annex to the Ordinance and the expiration of a 14-day period after the administration of the last dose;
• a document showing a positive result of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test or a rapid antigen test for COVID-19 – for persons suffering from COVID-19 for the period from the 15th to the 180th day from the date of the conducted research, entered in the document.

Bulgarian citizens, citizens of EU member states, Schengen countries and their family members; citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Australian Union, Canada, United States of America, Japan, New Zealand, People’s Republic of China, Republic of Rwanda, Republic of Korea, Kingdom of Thailand, Republic of Tunisia, Oriental Republic of Uruguay, United Arab Emirates, The Republic of Northern Macedonia, the Republic of Serbia, the Republic of Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, Israel, the State of Kuwait, the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Turkey; the persons with the status of permanent or long-term residence on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria and the members of their families; persons holding a Bulgarian long-stay visa type “D”, as well as persons holding a residence permit in a Member State of the European Union or a Schengen country (including the Republic of San Marino, the Principality of Andorra, the Principality of Monaco and the City State Vatican) and members of their families may enter our country upon submission of a document showing a negative result from a polymerase chain reaction test conducted up to 72 hours before entry into the country or a negative result from a test conducted up to 48 hours before entry into the country. rapid antigen test for the detection of COVID-19, as of the date of the study entered in the document.

Annexes 1 and 2 to the Ordinance indicate, respectively, the trade name of the vaccine according to the EU marketing authorization / WHO list and the antigenic tests for entry into the country.

The Ordinance also specifies the cases in which the submission of a document for entry into the country is not required.

In case the Bulgarian citizens and the persons with the status of permanent or long-term residence on the territory of Bulgaria and the members of their families do not present a document from the above, they are subject to 10-day quarantine after arrival into the country. Quarantine may be revoked if a negative result is obtained from a polymerase chain reaction test performed within 24 hours of entry into the country for the detection of COVID-19 or from a rapid antigen test.

The full text of the Ordinance is available via the following link: https://www.mh.government.bg/media/filer_public/2021/04/29/zabrana_vlizane_bg_29_04_2021-9.pdf