More than 77,000 citizens of North Macedonia applied for Bulgarian citizenship over 10-year period

In the past 10 years, from January 1, 2010 to October 22, 2020, a total of 77,829 applications for acquisition of Bulgarian citizenship have been received from citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia.

Almost all the applicants based their claims on Bulgarian origins.

The data was reported by the Bulgarian Justice Minister Desislava Ahladova during the Fridays’ question time in Parliament on December 10. The question to her was addressed by MP Hristo Gadzhev from the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party.

The Bulgarian Citizenship Directorate at the Ministry of Justice conducts interviews with the applicants and forms files on the applications and proposals, Ahladova specified and stressed that the number varies in each year during the period.

However, a total of 73,324 files ended with a proposal from the Citizenship Council to the Vice President to issue a decree for the acquisition of Bulgarian citizenship, as provided by the legal procedure.