Moving Within Bulgaria: The 30-Day Deadline and Who You Must Tell

A move inside the same country rarely feels like a reportable event. That is precisely where deadlines get missed in Bulgaria: you set up the flat, sort out electricity and internet – and notice weeks later that your residence card still shows the old address.

The short answer: Third-country nationals with granted residence must report the change of address to Migration within 30 days. Anyone also recorded in the population register has two authorities to notify – and has to start with the municipality, not with Migration.

Who do you have to notify?

That follows from your status, and the three cases differ more than most people expect:

Status	Authorities	Deadline
EU, EEA, Switzerland	Migration office for the new address	Confirm with your Migration office; report promptly when in doubt
Third country, prolonged residence	Migration	30 days from the change of address
Third country, long-term or permanent	District administration first, then Migration	30 days for Migration; ask the district administration about the municipal deadline

The third case is the only one with two steps – and the only one where the order matters.

Why the municipality comes first

Holders of long-term or permanent residence are recorded in the Bulgarian population register. The district (rayon) administration maintains address data in that national register – and Migration reads from it.

Go to Migration first and you may find the old address still on file and a second trip waiting for you. Municipality first, Migration second avoids that detour.

One thing to get right: municipal address registration uses a prescribed form, the “Декларация по чл. 92, ал. 3 ЗГР”. A free-text declaration of the kind used for Migration is not a substitute. This is one of the most common wasted trips to an authority there is.

Permanent and current address are not the same thing

Bulgarian registration law runs two kinds of address side by side:

• Permanent address (постоянен адрес) – a person's enduring register address.
• Current address (настоящ адрес) – the address where they actually live. It can differ from the permanent one.

When you move within Bulgaria, one or both may be affected depending on your situation. Check with the district administration which one has to change in your case – the documents and forms differ.

Going to the right office

Two address mix-ups regularly cost half a day:

• At the municipality, the competent body is the district administration for your new flat, not the central city hall building. In Sofia, the city district the apartment sits in decides.
• At Migration, the competent office is the one responsible for the new address – not the one where you collected your first document.

We link the official offices and forms on our Useful Links page; opening hours and fees live there and change without telling us.

What to bring

The exact list depends on your status – the status-by-status breakdown is at Address registration in Bulgaria. These items belong in practically every case:

• Passport or national ID card, and your current residence document
• Proof of ownership or right of use for the new flat
• If you rent: the rental agreement and the owner's declaration in the notarisation form that matches your status
• A copy of the owner's notarial deed
• Copies of everything – better two spare sets than a hunt for a copy shop on the day

What this typically fails on

• Missing the deadline, because a domestic move does not feel like an administrative event.
• Wrong order – Migration before the municipality, even though the municipality feeds the register.
• Wrong form at the municipality: a self-drafted declaration instead of the prescribed one.
• Wrong notarisation type, because the advice came from a different residence procedure – the starting point of this whole series, in Does the rental contract have to be notarised?
• Only one original of the owner's declaration when there are two applicants.

Frequently asked questions

How long do I have after moving?

Third-country nationals with any type of granted residence must report the change of address to Migration within 30 days. Municipal registration has its own, similarly short deadline – 30 days is the period commonly cited; ask your district administration what currently applies.

As an EU citizen, do I need to do anything at all?

Yes – the address on your residence document should be correct, and for that you go to the Migration office for your new address. Confirm the exact deadline directly with that office.

Municipality or Migration first?

If both apply: the municipality. The district administration updates the national population register that Migration reads from.

What is the difference between permanent and current address?

The permanent address is a person's enduring register address; the current address is where they actually live. The two can diverge, and which one you need to change depends on your situation.

Which office in Sofia do I go to?

The district administration for the city district your flat is in – not the central city hall. For the residence document, the Migration office responsible for the new address.

Does this change my company's registered office too?

No. Your registered office in the Commercial Register is a separate register with its own procedure. A private move does not change it automatically.

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Order, documents and deadlines by status

Which office, which deadline, which notarisation: the status picker at Address registration in Bulgaria shows the procedure that belongs to your card. If the municipality and Migration contradict each other, talk your situation through with us.

As of July 2026. This article is editorial orientation, not legal advice. The competent authority is always the binding source.