r/BulgariaExpats

Hello! I'm a Spanish man moving to Bulgaria in a few days and I'm really excited!

My job got me relocated here, the first month I'll be in an apartment from the company but meanwhile I have to search for a place there.

Do people look for apartments on any website? Do you use real estate agencies?

Also, I'm a single person, with 1300 euros I'll be fine, right?

Any recommendations on neighbours?

Thanks a lot!

Hi all,

Just moved to Bulgaria with my Chinese wife, and while I can use my EU driving license here, hers is not recognized and can't be converted easily.

Also, she hasn't been driving in the last 8 years or so and would rather take the exam from scratch, so I'm looking for recommendations where she could get that sorted in English (or well, Chinese, but that's probably a bit of a stretch :-P).

Thanks a lot for your recommendations!

Hi all,
we currently live in Germany and we are thinking about moving abroad. One of the options is Bulgaria, namely Sofia. My wife and I speak Russian, not as mother tongue, but well enough, and our children know quite a bit of it too. If we would decide to move to Bulgaria, we would learn Bulgarian.

It is on our wish-list that we could do homeschooling with our kids, both in pre-school and school age (in Germany pre-school isn't mandatory, but school is).

Could someone please tell me if that would be possible for our family to do this? If so, what would be the requirements?

From what I've read online and via ChatGPT is that homeschooling is somewhat in the grey zone, and that government is a bit relaxed when it comes to kids of expats. I've also read that pre-school is mandatory for kids from the age of 4.

EDIT: I am not here to discuss pros and cons of homeschooling. I am aware of the fact that Bulgarian is not my mother tongue, and neither of my wife, and that our kids would be going to school at some point. I am just interested in possibilities, because I imagine Bulgaria to be a country to be with less regulations than Germany (I am from Lithuania, and it has less regulations than Germany).

Zdraveyte! Okay so my last post had a lot of great information so I wanted to come on again and ask some more question.

The Summary: My husband and I are thinking of moving to Bulgaria with our two young children for a year or two. He is Bulgarian, raised in the USA and has Bulgarian citizenship, fluent speaker. I am USA citizen. Our children have USA citizenship and we would like to get them Bulgarian citizenship before the move.

We are planning to move for a few reasons.

1. My husband will be receiving a salary from the states that does not require him to be there.
2. The children can learn about their culture and learn the language. We are hoping that childcare will also be free, public school ideally.
3. I would like to improve my Bulgarian and gain more fluency. Professional/Academic Background:
   1. Strong academic foundation in Early Childhood Education, Bachelor of Sciences Behavioral Health, working on getting a TEFL, extensive experience tutoring literacy (In spanish and English, I am fluent in both), hands on childcare experience for 5+ years, and I am working towards B2 level fluency in Bulgarian.
4. Experience culture, be closer to family, learn language better. We would also like to make connections with other expats as well as Bulgarians.

We would be planning to move back to the USA eventually but a couple years abroad.

So here are my questions:

1. Given my background: (I have looked into Fulbright ETA! Looking for other options as well)
   1. what kind of work might I be able to find? Of course probably teachers, children, etc. but what is out there?
   2. Part time would be great, but I just want to know what my options look like with that sort of background.
   3. Given that I am married to a citizen and speak the language, does this simplify the work situation? Make me a more attractive candidate?
2. Asking this question again for new answers - We are very disappointed with a few key factors of American parenting/childcare in the USA. They are food and eating habits (wildly unhealthy and unbalanced for children), time spent outside and off screens and general discipline/orderliness. How are all these things handled for children in school in Bulgaria?
3. We don't necessarily want to have a car - what is the public transportation like throughout the country?
4. Visa process for me as someone married to a citizen?
5. Anything else we should know?

And absolutely anything else we should know before moving?

We do not want to live in the village but we thought maybe Burgas or Varna might be nice as well? Please give me all the information you have!!
Thanks.