Bulgaria seasonal work: registration up to 90 days and the nine month permit

Seasonal work in Bulgaria runs on two tracks. Up to 90 days the Employment Agency registers it on an employer declaration, in 10 days, with no fee. Beyond 90 days and up to 9 months in any 12 month period, the Migration Directorate issues a seasonal worker permit under Article 24k of the Aliens Act, within 60 days.

The two tracks are not stages of one document. They have different competent authorities, different deadlines and different consequences for the worker, and the choice between them is made before selection starts, not after.

The registration up to 90 days

The employer files a declaration on annex 5 in duplicate with the Employment Agency, listing worker names, travel document numbers, dates of birth, positions and the length of employment. With it go the establishment categorisation certificate for hotel and restaurant work, a declaration of equal working conditions, a signed fixed term employment contract, professional qualification documents where the role requires them, evidence of arranged accommodation, and health insurance valid for at least three months.

The decision period is 10 days. For a worker who has already held seasonal employment in Bulgaria within the last five years, an accelerated 3 working day route applies. The registration is a single event within 12 months and does not allow a change of employer during the period.

The seasonal worker permit

The permit is issued for the term of the employment contract, at least 90 days and at most 9 months within a 12 month period, and allows one extension inside that window, including with a different employer. For a worker with seasonal employment in Bulgaria in the last five years, the accelerated route applies again.

Sectors are not a free choice. Seasonal employment is recognised only for economic activities on a list approved by Order RD-01-47 of 17 January 2017 of the Minister of Labour and Social Policy, covering agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and hotels and restaurants. A warehouse or production role does not become seasonal because demand for it is seasonal.

What the employer owes beyond wages, and where the season breaks

Obligations on the seasonal track are wider than on the general one. The employer provides suitable accommodation that meets health and safety requirements until the contract expires, with rent proportionate to the wage and to the quality of the housing. The employer bears the cost of transport from the worker's place of origin to the workplace in Bulgaria and back, and the cost of compulsory health insurance.

Rent and transport may not be deducted from pay. That is a prohibition, not a recommendation, and it is the first thing the Executive Agency General Labour Inspectorate checks at seasonal sites. How accommodation is evidenced and what counts as suitable is covered in accommodation for third country workers.

Seasonal work is also the largest block in the Bulgarian statistics. Employment Agency data for 2025 show labour market access granted to 24,642 third country nationals, of whom 19,057 through seasonal employment up to 90 days and 4,211 through short term employment up to 90 days, against 1,295 standard work permits. The most common sectors were hotels and restaurants, agriculture and forestry, and construction.

Here is the failure mode. A hotel registers 40 workers for 90 days from 1 June. The season runs long and in August the manager decides to keep 12 of them until October. The registration, however, is a single event within 12 months and cannot be extended by declaration. Moving to a seasonal worker permit is a separate procedure before the Migration Directorate with a period of up to 60 days, and it requires the application to be filed while the registration is still running. Filed in August for September, it does not arrive in time. The workers leave the country and the hotel closes a floor for the last month of the season.

The practical rule is to decide the length of the season in April, not in August. The comparison with the Greek seasonal route, which works through bilateral quotas and invitations, is in the Greek bilateral seasonal quota, and what Bulgarian agreements do and do not cover is in the bilateral labour agreements. The terms on which Werklist assembles seasonal groups on both tracks are set out on the employers page.

Nine months is a ceiling per 12 months, not per calendar year. An employer counting by calendar will find the difference at the start of the next season.