The Ministry of Tourism has initiated a working meeting on visa policy issues

At the initiative of the Ministry of Tourism, a meeting was held to discuss the visa policy for foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria, as well as opportunities for a facilitated and digitized process for issuing visas for third-country nationals.

“At the beginning of my term as Minister of Tourism I held numerous working meetings with representatives of the tourism industry, in which the main problem of the business was the lack of staff in the sector and visa policy for foreigners to work in the Republic of Bulgaria. The subject-matter of issuing visas electronically and quickly is extremely important and it affects the tourism sector the most. It is often raised with us by ambassadors of third countries outside the European Union. In Bulgaria, we have the potential for a year-round tourism business, but it needs to be secured with staff. Absolutely, we have the political will to facilitate the process of issuing tourist and work visas as much as possible”, Minister Prodanov opened the meeting. The working meeting was attended by the Minister of e-Government Bozhidar Bozhanov, the Deputy Minister of Tourism Mariela Modeva, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Velislava Petrova, the Chairman of the Tourism Committee Ilin Dimitrov, MPs, Directors of Directorates from the Ministry of Tourism, National Employment Agency, Ministry of Interior and Migration Directorate, advisers in the political cabinets of the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of e-Government.

Deputy Foreign Minister Velislava Petrova said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expects to launch a single online portal through which to optimize the process of submitting applications and payment of visa fees for Bulgaria, and by the end of the year, it must be applied almost everywhere in consular posts and be widely available to citizens. Currently, online services are used, but only in the part of submitting documents and with the mediation of accredited tour operators.

An important issue on which the decision was made is the need to create a single electronic platform that would unite the efforts and activities of the various agencies responsible for the visa issuance process - Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Employment Agency, Ministry of Interior and the State Agency for National Security. This will optimize and facilitate the process of submitting documents.

The meeting also discussed a proposal for bilateral agreements between EU member states, which Bulgaria should use to issue visas in countries where there is no permanent diplomatic mission.