The Council of Ministers adopted a decree amending and supplementing the 2011 regulation on the conditions and procedure for issuing visas and determining the visa regime. It synchronizes the legal framework with the requirements of the Schengen visa procedure.

The national procedures for issuing long-term residence visas are being improved. A legal provision is being created that allows external service providers to collect biometric data from long-term visa applicants in countries where representation agreements have been signed. This will expand the opportunities/locations for submitting long-term visa applications and will alleviate the workload at the busiest representations of the Republic of Bulgaria abroad, which process a large number of visa applications, the Council of Ministers said.