Company Formation in Bulgaria

Understand it, plan it, register it – registration commonly within 2–3 weeks

Before you incorporate, it is worth knowing how a Bulgarian formation actually runs: which steps fall to you, which belong to the notary, the Registry Agency and your bank, and what decides the total cost. All of it is set out on this page.

Start in BG does not form companies and does not refer providers. This page explains the process; you engage a provider directly.

What Start in BG handles

Our formation support – one named line in your written quotation.

Formation coordination
Preparation of the standard formation documents
Coordination of the notary appointment
Attendance and practical translation at the appointment
Commercial Register filing
Preparation for bank onboarding

Fees charged by authorities, notaries, banks, translators or other third parties are not included unless they are expressly stated in your written quotation.

Plan your company setup

No payment required. We review your information and confirm the scope, external costs and realistic next steps first.

Not sure yet whether Bulgaria fits your situation at all? Work through the decision matrix first →

Running an online shop or Amazon business? Check the e-commerce setup first →

What formation support typically covers

Bank Onboarding

The provider prepares the documents and goes with you to the appointment. Opening the account is the bank's decision.

Notary Visit

Somebody introduces you, translates and helps with the formalities. Confirm in advance whether that is included in the price.

Commercial Register

The filing with the Registry Agency. Whether it is entered is the authority's decision, not the provider's.

How the project runs, and who owns each step

Your company formation project – who does what

Forming a Bulgarian company is not something one firm does on its own. This is the whole sequence in one place, with the party responsible for each step: us, an official authority, an external partner, or you.

Responsible for the step

Start in BGWe carry out this step ourselves.
Official authorityThe notary or the Registry Agency – the authority sets the procedure, the review and the pace.
External partnerA bank, accountant or specialist partner works and decides independently.
Your decisionWaits on your information, documents and choices.

Step 1: Initial consultationResponsible: Start in BGTiming: Normally within a few working days of your enquiry.Show details
What happens in this step
We look at your situation, work out what is realistic in your case and agree the next steps.
What Start in BG does
We review your plan, explain the process, name the requirements you are likely to face and coordinate what happens next.
What you contribute
You describe your plan, your nationality, where you live and your timeframe.
What influences the timing
How quickly we find a slot that suits us both, and how complete your information is.
Step 2: Preparing the formation documentsResponsible: Start in BGTiming: Around 1–3 working days once your information and documents are complete.Show details
What happens in this step
Company name, business purpose, shares and management are settled, and the formation documents are drafted from them.
What Start in BG does
The provider drafts the documents; you confirm the details and check the paperwork for completeness before signing.
What you contribute
You decide on the name, purpose and structure, and supply your personal documents.
What influences the timing
How complete your information is, and whether foreign documents need certified translation or legalisation.
Step 3: Your documents and signaturesResponsible: Your decisionYouTiming: No fixed window – in practice this is the step that most often sets the overall pace.Show details
What happens in this step
You sign the prepared documents – in person, or through a notarised power of attorney if you are forming remotely.
What Start in BG does
We tell you in advance which document is needed for what, and check everything before it reaches the notary.
What you contribute
You sign, obtain any missing evidence and decide whether to travel or work through a power of attorney.
What influences the timing
How quickly you can obtain documents from your home country, translations or an apostille.
Step 4: Notarial certificationResponsible: Official authorityNotaryTiming: Depends on the notary office's appointment availability.Show details
What happens in this step
The notary certifies signatures and documents under Bulgarian law.
What Start in BG does
We book the appointment, prepare the paperwork and come with you – with practical translation on the spot.
What you contribute
You attend the appointment, or are represented under a power of attorney.
What influences the timing
Appointment availability, completeness of the documents and whether representation by power of attorney is permitted.
Step 5: Commercial Register entryResponsible: Official authorityRegistry AgencyTiming: commonly around 2–3 weeksShow details
What happens in this step
The Registry Agency reviews the filing and registers the company.
What Start in BG does
The provider submits the filing and handles the authority's queries; the case number lets you track it yourself.
What you contribute
Usually nothing – unless the authority asks for something to be supplemented.
What influences the timing
The Registry Agency's processing time and any requests for further documents. The entry itself is the authority's decision.Counted from the point where all required documents are complete.
Step 6: Business bank accountruns in parallelResponsible: External partnerYour bankTiming: determined by the bankShow details
What happens in this step
The bank runs its KYC review and decides whether to open the account.
What Start in BG does
We prepare the documents, explain what the bank expects and go with you to the appointment.
What you contribute
You choose the bank, attend in person where it requires that, and answer its questions.
What influences the timing
The KYC review, the ownership structure, the evidence the bank asks for and whether it wants to see you in person.Timing and approval sit with the bank: its KYC review, the ownership structure, the documents it asks for and whether it wants to see you in person.
Step 7: Accounting and ongoing obligationsafter registrationResponsible: External partnerAccounting partnerTiming: Starts once the company is registered.Show details
What happens in this step
The accounting partner takes over bookkeeping, deadlines and filings – under a separate agreement with you.
What Start in BG does
No step for Start in BG. You engage an accounting firm of your choosing, directly.
What you contribute
You decide whether to keep your existing accountant or engage a Bulgarian firm.
What influences the timing
When the registration comes through, and whether VAT registration is also needed.
More about this step →
Step 8: Handover – company ready to tradeResponsible: Start in BGTiming: Once the registration is in place and the follow-on steps you commissioned are complete.Show details
What happens in this step
You receive your documents, an overview of the ongoing obligations and the status of anything still open.
What Start in BG does
We hand over in a structured way, record what is still outstanding and stay your point of contact.
What you contribute
You start trading and come back to us when something follows on.
What influences the timing
Whether the account, the accounting or a VAT registration is still open at that point.

We coordinate the process. Final decisions remain with the responsible institution.

This overview describes the usual sequence, not a commitment about a third party's decision. Which steps arise in your case is confirmed beforehand, in writing, before any cost is incurred.

Talk through the process for my case

Free and without obligation. We go through the steps that actually apply to you.

What a formation consists of – and who charges for what

The same breakdown appears on every page. The third column tells you who actually performs and invoices each item.

Part of our formation support

Formation coordination
Somebody drives the process and keeps the appointments aligned. Ask who that is and how you reach them.
Part of our support?: Yes
Who provides or charges it?: Formation provider
Preparation of the standard formation documents
Articles of association, resolutions and filing forms in their standard form.
Part of our support?: Yes
Who provides or charges it?: Formation provider
Coordination of the notary appointment
Booking the appointment and preparing the paperwork the notary needs.
Part of our support?: Yes
Who provides or charges it?: Formation provider
Attendance and practical translation at the appointment
Someone is there with you, introduces you and translates what is being discussed.
Part of our support?: Yes
Who provides or charges it?: Formation provider
Commercial Register filing
Submitting the company's registration to the Bulgarian Registry Agency.
Part of our support?: Yes
Who provides or charges it?: Formation provider
Preparation for bank onboarding
Preparing the documents and attending the appointment. Opening the account is the bank's decision — nobody can promise it.
Part of our support?: Yes
Who provides or charges it?: Formation provider

Paid separately where applicable (8)Show external and conditional costs

Notary's official fees
Certification of signatures and documents, invoiced by the notary.
Part of our support?: No
Who provides or charges it?: Notary
Commercial Register fee
The Registry Agency's official filing fee.
Part of our support?: No
Who provides or charges it?: Registry Agency
Bank fees
Account maintenance, transactions and service charges from your bank.
Part of our support?: No
Who provides or charges it?: Your bank
Certified translations
Only needed where foreign documents must be submitted in certified translation.
Part of our support?: If required, quoted separately
Who provides or charges it?: Certified translator
Apostille or foreign notarisation
Where documents from your home country need legalisation.
Part of our support?: If required, quoted separately
Who provides or charges it?: The relevant authority or notary
Registered business address
Included only where your quotation says so explicitly.
recurring cost
Part of our support?: If required, quoted separately
Who provides or charges it?: Address provider
Ongoing accounting
After formation, under a separate agreement with the accounting partner.
recurring cost
More about this →
Part of our support?: If required, quoted separately
Who provides or charges it?: Accounting partner
VAT registration
Included only where it is expressly commissioned and listed in your quotation.
More about this →
Part of our support?: If required, quoted separately
Who provides or charges it?: Accounting partner

This table describes the scope of the service, not a third party's price list. What actually applies in your case is in your written breakdown, before any cost arises.

We deliberately keep concrete amounts out of this page: official fees and partner terms change, and your case decides which items arise at all. A number here would eventually be wrong – your quotation will not be.

Scope last reviewed: 2026-08-03 · Third-party fees and banking requirements change. We review this breakdown regularly – your individual quotation is always the binding version.

What decides the cost

What your formation actually costs depends on these eight things

No single price fits every formation, because the cases differ too much for one to be true. These eight points decide what the total comes to – and you already know the answer to most of them.

Nationality and residence
EU or non-EU decides which documents you have to produce, which certifications they need, and in some cases which banks will take you on at all.
Payable to: The relevant authority or notary
In person or remote
A notary appointment you attend, a notarised power of attorney, or a combination of the two. This is the single biggest difference in how a formation runs.
Payable to: Notary
Where your documents come from
Foreign records may need certified translation and, depending on the country, an apostille. Both are charged by effort.
Payable to: Certified translator
Company structure
A single-owner EOOD is the simplest case. Several shareholders, a foreign parent company or bespoke provisions in the articles all mean more coordination.
Payable to: Start in BG
Bank and payments
A Bulgarian bank, an EU business bank or a fintech – requirements, charges and the work to get an account open differ considerably.
Payable to: Your bank
Registered address
Your own premises, an address provider, or an address you already hold. A provider charges on a recurring basis, not once.
Payable to: Address provider
Scope of your accounting
Document volume, employees, cross-border sales. In almost every first year this is the largest item, and it recurs.
Payable to: Accounting partner
VAT registration
Whether it is voluntary, mandatory or not applicable at all depends on your business model and where your customers are.
Payable to: Accounting partner

That is why this page carries no figure. After the first conversation you get a written breakdown in which every item is named and attributed to whoever charges it – before any cost arises.

How long does it take?

Company registration and bank onboarding are two separate processes. We coordinate both – but we do not promise a bank decision that is not ours to make.

Company registration

commonly around 2–3 weeks

Counted from the point where all required documents are complete.

Business bank account

determined by the bank

Timing and approval sit with the bank: its KYC review, the ownership structure, the documents it asks for and whether it wants to see you in person.

That is why the bank account is no longer inside our 2–3 week figure. It can finish earlier – or later.

We coordinate the process. Final decisions remain with the responsible institution.

Ready to plan your setup?

Take the breakdown above into every quote. A provider who does not separate their own fee from third-party costs is making the comparison harder than it needs to be.

What to take into a quote

The points below decide what a formation actually costs you. Take them into every conversation — and always ask about the first full year, not just the registration.

Before you engage a provider

A fee covers the formation work described above. Charges from banks, notaries, translators, accountants or other third parties come on top unless they are explicitly in the written quotation. If a quote does not separate the two, ask.

Ask for a written breakdown before any paid work begins, showing:

the provider's fee for the formation itself
the known external costs
the conditional items that may apply
who is responsible for each item

No cost arises before you have explicitly accepted a quotation.

Where to go next

Your result above is complete — nothing here sits behind a form. These pages go deeper on what you have just told us.

In the book

The full formation sequence — template documents, authority overviews and the points where it stalls in practice — is covered at length in the book.

About the book →Compare providers →

Want to prepare the documents yourself?

With our free generator you can create the standard formation documents for an EOOD yourself in just a few minutes.

Create documents for free

Not sure whether you need our service at all? Compare self-service and supported formation →

Still have questions?

Check our FAQ section or contact us directly.

FAQ What it costs Provider Comparison

What we can confirm

A Bulgarian company comes into existence on entry in the Commercial Register kept by the Registry Agency.
Official
The common legal forms for small businesses are the OOD (several members) and the EOOD (single member), both with limited liability.
Official
In the formations Start in BG supported up to 2026, registration commonly takes around 2-3 weeks once all documents are complete.
Experience
In the later formations Start in BG supported up to 2026, banks have commonly asked for additional documents or wanted to meet the beneficial owner in person.
Experience
Start in BG sells no company formation and charges no fee for one. What these pages say about cost is what a notary, the Registry Agency, a translator, a bank, an address provider or an accountant charges — each attributed to the party that invoices it.
About us
Start in BG coordinates nothing on your behalf and refers no providers. We research and explain the process; the engagement is directly between you and the provider you choose, and final decisions remain with the responsible institution.
About us

What depends on your situation

Whether and when a business account is opened is decided by the bank on the basis of its own compliance review. We deliberately give no timeframe for it.
Processing times at authorities depend on the workload of the competent office and cannot be guaranteed.
Notary appointments, the certifications they involve and their fees are set by the individual notary.
Whether a certified translation or an apostille is required is decided case by case by the receiving body.

We work these out with you from your own details - a website cannot answer them.

Discuss your situation

Sources and verification

How we verify →

The statements this page relies on, each labelled with where it comes from. The superscript number refers to the source list below.

Editorially reviewed: 30 July 2026
Sources: 8 of 10 statements checked against the primary source

2 statements are still awaiting a check against their primary source.

Statements on this page

A Bulgarian company comes into existence on entry in the Commercial Register kept by the Registry Agency.^{1, 2}
Source check outstanding
The common legal forms for small businesses are the OOD (several members) and the EOOD (single member), both with limited liability.^{1, 2}
Source check outstanding
In the formations Start in BG supported up to 2026, registration commonly takes around 2-3 weeks once all documents are complete.³
Checked against the source · 27 July 2026
In the later formations Start in BG supported up to 2026, banks have commonly asked for additional documents or wanted to meet the beneficial owner in person.³
Checked against the source · 27 July 2026
Start in BG sells no company formation and charges no fee for one. What these pages say about cost is what a notary, the Registry Agency, a translator, a bank, an address provider or an accountant charges — each attributed to the party that invoices it.³
Checked against the source · 27 July 2026
Start in BG coordinates nothing on your behalf and refers no providers. We research and explain the process; the engagement is directly between you and the provider you choose, and final decisions remain with the responsible institution.³
Checked against the source · 27 July 2026
Whether and when a business account is opened is decided by the bank on the basis of its own compliance review. We deliberately give no timeframe for it.^{3, 4}
Checked against the source · 27 July 2026
Processing times at authorities depend on the workload of the competent office and cannot be guaranteed.^{1, 3, 5}
Checked against the source · 27 July 2026
Notary appointments, the certifications they involve and their fees are set by the individual notary.^{3, 6}
Checked against the source · 27 July 2026
Whether a certified translation or an apostille is required is decided case by case by the receiving body.^{1, 3, 7}
Checked against the source · 27 July 2026

Show sources (7)

1.
Registry Agency (Commercial Register)Authority
Keeps the Commercial Register. A Bulgarian company comes into existence on entry there, and annual financial statements are filed there.
Open source →
2.
State Gazette (Darzhaven vestnik)Legal basis
The official gazette. Bulgarian statutes - the Commerce Act, the Corporate Income Tax Act, the Personal Income Tax Act, the VAT Act - apply in the version published there.
Open source →
3.
Start in BG operational experienceOur own experience
What we actually observe in the formations we accompany, and the documented scope of our own service.
No public address - this source is either us, or a body that decides case by case.
4.
The individual bank's compliance functionDeciding body
Decides whether an account is opened, when, and against which documents. None of those decisions sits with us or with an authority.
Open source →
5.
Municipal administration (population register)Authority
Keeps the population register and performs address registration for permanent-residence holders.
Open source →
6.
Bulgarian notariesDeciding body
Perform notarial certifications and set their own appointments and fees.
Open source →
7.
Sworn translators and legalisation servicesDeciding body
Translation and legalisation of foreign documents. Whether and in what form either is required is decided by the receiving body.
Open source →