Travelling to Bulgaria with Residence Card issued in the UK
Dec 30th 2017, 3:34 pm
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Travelling to Bulgaria with Residence Card issued in the UK
Hi again, this is painful and I really need to hear about any and/or similar experience, thanks a lot.
There are thousands of Bulgarian citizens in the UK who are married to a Non-EU person and travelled to Bulgaria together, but somehow we can't find any shared experience regarding Bulgarian borders.
Shortly speaking, my wife is a Bulgarian citizen, our two children and I are Turkish citizens with valid Residence cards issued in the UK. Two months later we should travel to Bulgaria for citizenship interviews (for children) which will take just one day. We have a clear understanding of EU directive2004/38/ec and know about hundreds of non-EU people travelling to any EU country with their EU citizen spouse.
Moreover we additionally found an official document on BG ministry of foreign affairs website which states that ''Turkish citizens can enter or transit BG with no visa up to 5 days if they hold a valid Residence Permit from any EU coutry''. We have already printed everything in both languages.
In theory there is no problem but in practice it doesn't work that way. This will not be our first travel to Bulgaria and we definitely know what is waiting for us at the BG border (especially the officers). By the way, I kindly asked to BG consulate in London to confirm our travel not to have any discussion with border officers (because they will not look or listen to what we will share with them) but unfortunately the consulate told me that ''we recommend you to apply for a visa before your travel'' which is definitely irrelevant. The main reason lies in a contradiction between BG and TR, hence they push us for visa application even we will go there for an offical reason not for a holiday.
So if anyone has ever had any similar experience please share with me, thanks in advance.
There are thousands of Bulgarian citizens in the UK who are married to a Non-EU person and travelled to Bulgaria together, but somehow we can't find any shared experience regarding Bulgarian borders.
Shortly speaking, my wife is a Bulgarian citizen, our two children and I are Turkish citizens with valid Residence cards issued in the UK. Two months later we should travel to Bulgaria for citizenship interviews (for children) which will take just one day. We have a clear understanding of EU directive2004/38/ec and know about hundreds of non-EU people travelling to any EU country with their EU citizen spouse.
Moreover we additionally found an official document on BG ministry of foreign affairs website which states that ''Turkish citizens can enter or transit BG with no visa up to 5 days if they hold a valid Residence Permit from any EU coutry''. We have already printed everything in both languages.
In theory there is no problem but in practice it doesn't work that way. This will not be our first travel to Bulgaria and we definitely know what is waiting for us at the BG border (especially the officers). By the way, I kindly asked to BG consulate in London to confirm our travel not to have any discussion with border officers (because they will not look or listen to what we will share with them) but unfortunately the consulate told me that ''we recommend you to apply for a visa before your travel'' which is definitely irrelevant. The main reason lies in a contradiction between BG and TR, hence they push us for visa application even we will go there for an offical reason not for a holiday.
So if anyone has ever had any similar experience please share with me, thanks in advance.
