Bulgarian sports clubs are now recruiting athletes from Western Europe
Bulgaria is no longer the poor country of the 90s, from which athletes fled abroad in search of a better life. Bulgaria has transformed into a country that attracts good athletes from all over the world, offering good opportunities for a sports career and good pay.
Bulgarian residence permit for athletes from the EU and third countries
Employing nationals of other EU countries is easy, but when it comes to obtaining a residence permit for third-country nationals, the situation is quite different. On the website of Posolstvo.eu, a special case is examined in which a Bulgarian sports club hired an athlete – an EU citizen. The interesting about the situation is that the athlete’s wife is from a non-EU country. The author of the article, Mr Dobrinov, discusses the different options in which the foreign family can legalize their stay in Bulgaria. The advantages obtained from the application of Directive 2004/38/EC are also analyzed.
What we find amazing (and unfortunate as well) is that the EU citizen and his family get more rights in Bulgaria than in their own country. The same applies to cases in which a Bulgarian citizen settles in another EU member state. There, he can legalize the stay of his non-EU family members much easier than in Bulgaria.