Bulgarian Universities provide good and still not expensive education and specialization, and well-recognized university diplomas, which allows graduate students to work abroad (in Western Europe too). Therefore, education in Bulgaria is attractive and for decades, foreign students from different countries (Greece, Turkey, Cameroon, Cyprus, Germany, Ukraine, Nigeria, Moldova, etc.) choose to study at Bulgarian Universities. Foreigners mostly come here to study medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, physiotherapy, and other disciplines. And once graduated here, they usually start working in their home countries or somewhere else abroad with their recognized Bulgarian University diploma.
In 2016 dough, the Bulgarian Immigration legislation changed, and namely the visa rules. There has been a new prohibition for the appeal of visa D types, which applies now several years later, except in cases where the claimant pretends harming of his/her personal rights listed in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Bulgarian strident visa is also a type of D visa issued to foreign applicants who are not EU/EEA citizens. So the result of the above new restrictions is that it is more complicated to appeal student visa refusals in court.
In my view, to reduce the possibility to get their student visa applicant rejected, applicants should consider the following:
1) The visa applicants first get visa D to study and only then pay the semestral fee towards the chosen University. The Ministry of Education and Science precisely instructs the applicants on the above. But since the instruction in the issued Certificate is in Bulgarian, the applicants may not be fully aware of these instructions. Advanced payment of the semestral fee made before you apply for a Bulgarian student visa, won’t help to convince the Consulate of your intentions to become a student in Bulgaria. Neither will convince later the court in case of an appeal of eventual visa refusal. Also, you can avoid a situation where you pay the study fees, but the Consular refuses to issue the visa to you. I recently had several identical cases with visa applicants from Asia, who faithfully paid their individual 1250 Euro semestral fee to the Univesity but didn’t get a Bulgarian student visa.
2) Several visa refusals issued on Bulgarian student visa applications, implemented motives for the attempt of illegal immigration by the applicant. These motives have been then confirmed by the local Administrative court in Sofia, which court entity deals with appeals of visa refusals. So, when applying for a visa to study in Bulgaria, by an applicant who resides outside the European Union and the EAA, I think it is very important for him/her to leave no doubts with their application in any eventual illegal migration to Bulgaria. This applies to the attached documentation to the visa application, on one hand, and to the verbal interview with the applicant, too.
Therefore it is advisable for these particular visa D applicants who wish to get an education or specialization in Bulgarian University, to consult in advance with an Immigration lawyer in Bulgaria about the needed documents to attach to the student visa D application. And respectively to increase the chances to get a student visa. Me and my colleagues at Yosifova, Ivanov and Petrov Law Firm in Sofia have good knowledge and court experience of the student visa.