Moving to Bulgaria from New Zealand
New Zealand passport holders can visit Bulgaria visa-free for up to 90 days, but living there takes a residence permit. The self-funded residency routes we track start at an income of about $721 a month or an investment of about $596k, and our residency index rates Bulgaria 60/100 for New Zealand citizens (possible, with conditions). We estimate €2,581 a month for a couple living centrally in Varna and €2,707 in Sofia. Bulgaria is in our low to medium tax tier. Check the official requirements before you apply.
12 questions, about 4 minutes, no account needed. Taking the quiz is free, and so is seeing your #1 city. Full results for both of you are a one-time US$12 (€12 in Europe).
- Short stays
- Visa-free 90 days
- New Zealand passport
- Residency
- 60/100
- Possible, with conditions, our index
- Tax tier
- Low to medium
- Moderate personal income tax
- Est. cost for two
- From €2,581/mo
- Varna, our estimate
Living there long term
Our residency index: 60/100, possible, with conditions. It is our own rating of how realistic long-term residency in Bulgaria is for New Zealand citizens, based on the routes Bulgaria publishes. Realistic long-term routes are skilled employment or an EU Blue Card, opening a representative office of a foreign company, a retiree/sufficient-means residence permit, family reunification, or the investor golden visa granting permanent residency.
The cheapest self-funded routes we track:
- Income: about $721 a month (Bulgaria retiree/sufficient-means continuous-residence permit, means at least the minimum monthly wage EUR 620.20/mo (BGN 1,213; lower minimum-pension alternative ~EUR 322/mo also accepted); euro adopted Jan 2026, converted at EUR/USD 1.1633; as of June 2026)
- Investment: about $596k (Bulgaria golden visa (immediate permanent residency), EUR 512,000 lump sum in a licensed AIF/ETF fund; converted at EUR/USD 1.1633; as of June 2026)
Check the official requirements before you apply: amounts, conditions and exchange rates change, and what a couple needs can differ from a single applicant's threshold.
For short visits, New Zealand passport holders can visit visa-free for up to 90 days, according to the passport-index dataset. Short-stay entry covers visits; living there takes a residence permit.
Source: OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed approximations researched against published immigration rules, figures as of June 2026. Not legal advice: check the official source before you apply. Short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT).
Where in Bulgaria to start
Ranked by our match model for a typical couple who both hold New Zealand passports, using the preset answers of our best places to live list. Your own answers would change the order. We pick the cities, up to five, by how often English Wikipedia readers looked them up over the past year.
Cost of living for two
Our estimate for a couple living centrally runs from €2,581 a month in Varna to €2,707 in Sofia. For comparison, we estimate €3,812 a month in Auckland. Use these figures to compare places rather than to set a budget.
Source: our cost model: a country-level cost-of-living index scaled for city size, from our city dataset (last rebuilt June 2026). An estimate, not a survey of current prices.
Taxes
Bulgaria is in our low to medium tax tier (moderate personal income tax); New Zealand is in our low to medium tax tier (moderate personal income tax). Tiers describe each country's own income tax. They do not cover tax you may still owe in New Zealand after you leave, or the treaty between the two countries, so check both with a tax adviser before you move.
Source: OurNextCity tax tiers, assigned by hand from each country's top marginal personal income tax rate and overall tax reputation, with no fixed rate cut-offs. Coarse by design; not tax advice.
Lists with cities in Bulgaria
Moving to Bulgaria from elsewhere
How we built this page
Every figure here comes from the datasets behind our city and country pages:
- Short-stay entry: the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT license), which records the entry rule for short visits on each passport.
- Residency index, routes and thresholds: the OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed against published immigration rules, figures as of June 2026. It is a summary, not legal advice.
- City ranking: our match model, the one behind the quiz, run with a typical couple's preset answers and both partners holding New Zealand passports. It ranks up to five of the country's best-known cities: of the cities in our quiz (100,000 people or more, capitals and a few towns movers seek out, such as Faro), the five most read about on English Wikipedia over the past year. It folds suburbs into their main city and leaves out countries with a residency index under 40 and areas under a US State Department Level 4 advisory, as our best-cities lists do.
- Costs: our cost model, a country-level cost-of-living index scaled for city size, from our city dataset (last rebuilt June 2026).
- For Bulgaria, the cost index and the safety score are country-level estimates from World Bank indicators, calibrated to our reference tables; our Bulgaria country page names each indicator and year. Source: The World Bank (World Development Indicators, Worldwide Governance Indicators), CC BY 4.0.
- Tax tiers: three coarse bands we assign by hand from each country's top marginal personal income tax rate and overall tax reputation.