BULGARIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Diana Milkova and Victoria Penkova, Penkova & Partners Law Firm
mit, the EU Blue Card (for highly skilled employment), the Seasonal Worker Permit, and the Intra-corporate Transfer Permit. In other cases, the work permit is issued by the Executive Director of the Employment Agency, and a residence permit is then granted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs based on the work permit (for example, for seconded Foreign Workers, freelance activities, or for the family members of Foreign Work - ers who already hold a residence permit). Foreign Workers who have legal access to the labour market may be employed under an employment con - tract or may work as seconded or posted workers within the framework of providing services in Bulgaria. However, they can only work for the local employer or entity providing work to seconded or posted workers, and only in the positions, places of work, and terms of employment specified in the permit granted by the competent authorities. 4.2 Registration Requirements for Foreign Workers The Employment Agency registers Foreign Workers for: • employment of persons of Bulgarian origin; • secondment within the scope of providing services on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria for a period of up to three months, six months, or up to 12 months; • seasonal employment up to 90 days; • employment of scientific workers for the purposes of conducting a scientific research project; • employment of full-time students in higher educa - tion institutions in the Republic of Bulgaria; and • employment of interns under an employment con - tract with an internship condition. Employers shall declare the employment of Foreign Workers who reside on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria as family members of: • foreigners with permitted long-term or permanent residence in the Republic of Bulgaria; • Bulgarian citizens, citizens of a member state of the European Union, of a state party to the Agree - ment on the European Economic Area, or of the Swiss Confederation, who by virtue of international
treaties with the European Union have the right to free movement; • foreigners enjoying rights under the Asylum and Refugees Act; • third-country nationals to whom expulsion orders have been issued and the expulsion has not taken place after one year from the issuance of the order; and • third-country nationals who are victims of human trafficking and have special protection status under the Anti-Trafficking in Human Beings Act. The employer is required to notify the relevant ter - ritorial directorate of the Labour Inspectorate within seven days of the actual commencement of work of the respective Foreign Worker. Bulgarian legislation does not include specific regu - lations regarding mobile work. The ability to perform work from various locations without prior approval from the employer is only available to contractors under service agreements. However, amendments to the legislation, effective from 1 April 2024, have addressed remote work. These amendments allow employees to work from more than one location outside the employer’s premises, as long as the locations are specified in the employment con - tract. The employer may change the employee’s place of work for up to 30 working days per year, based on a written request from the employee, and subject to the conditions and procedures outlined in the employ - ment contract and/or internal employer policies. Employees are required to comply with the minimum daily and weekly rest periods and are not obligated to respond to communications initiated by the employer during these rest periods, unless such conditions are expressly agreed in the individual employment con - tract and/or collective agreement. The procedure for assigning and reporting remote work should be outlined in the individual employment 5. New Work 5.1 Mobile Work
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