Bulgaria labour market test: proving no local candidate was available

The labour market test is the prior search an employer runs before asking for market access for a third country national. The regulation implementing the Labour Migration and Labour Mobility Act sets the frame: no shorter than 15 calendar days and no longer than three months, advertised in national and local media including the labour office branch.

The test is not filed as a separate application. It is evidenced by documents inside the file the Migration Directorate forwards to the Employment Agency for an opinion. That is why the quality of the test only becomes visible once the case is already moving, and why fixing it costs weeks.

What actually goes into the file

The justification the Employment Agency reads has three parts, not one sentence.

Copies of the advertisements. The national and local media placement, the internet placement, and the vacancy announced at the labour office branch covering the place where the third country national will work. The dates on the advertisements have to cover the whole test period.

A statement of facts and circumstances. Why the position exists, what production or seasonal event created it, and why existing staff cannot fill it.

A written reasoning for each rejection. If Bulgarian nationals, nationals of an EU member state, of a state party to the European Economic Area Agreement or of Switzerland applied, the employer states in writing why the individual candidate did not meet the advertised requirements. The reasoning has to point at an advertised requirement, not at a general impression.

Why the job description decides the outcome

The test checks a profile, not a workplace. An employer who advertises "production worker" gets a check against the entire supply of general production labour and ends up answering questions from the Employment Agency, because that supply exists. An employer who advertises "welder, process 141, stainless steel, EN ISO 9606-1 certificate, three years on pipe assemblies" gets a check against a profile whose local supply really is thin.

The same logic governs language requirements. "English" is read broadly. State the level on the Common European Framework and the working context that makes it necessary.

When the test does not apply, and where it breaks

Not every hire runs a labour market test. For occupations on a list approved by the Minister of Labour and Social Policy under Article 18(1) of the Labour Migration and Labour Mobility Act, labour market access is granted without the prior 15 day search. Outside that list, the test also falls away for employment arising from an international treaty to which Bulgaria is a party, for guest lecturers and teachers in Bulgarian schools and universities, for professional athletes and coaches, and for persons of Bulgarian origin.

It also falls away by the nature of the route for the EU Blue Card and for intra corporate transfers, where the law substitutes other conditions for the supply check. Seasonal employment follows its own track.

The 20 and 35 percent ratio is checked separately from the test, and it is checked every time the route requires it. How it is calculated, and what changes in 2026, is covered in the 20 and 35 percent quota.

Here is the failure mode. An employer files in October for roles starting in April. The advertisements are correct, the test period is respected, the opinion is positive. Meanwhile the position is restructured because the line changed, and a different job title goes into the employment contract. The Migration Directorate file describes one position, the contract another, and the permit is issued for a third. The case is returned and the test has to be repeated, because the advertised profile no longer exists. Five months pass between the first advertisement and the real start date instead of two.

The practical rule is to test the position that will appear in the contract, not the position that is convenient to advertise. The other common reasons files come back across European corridors are collected in work permit refusal failure modes, and the place of the test inside the wider chain is set out in the single permit procedure. The terms on which Werklist prepares the file and the justification are set out on the employers page.

Fifteen days is a minimum, not a plan. An employer who runs the test in parallel with selection in the origin country wins back exactly the month that is later missing at the visa stage.