About 78,000 Macedonians Applied for Bulgarian Citizenship within Last Decade

In the last ten years - from 1 January 2010 to 22 October 2020 - a total of 77 829 applications for granting Bulgarian citizenship were filed submitted by citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia. Almost all are applications are based on Bulgarian origin.

The data were reported by Justice Minister Desislava Ahladova during Friday's parliamentary Q&A session, according to BGNES. The question MP of the Bulgarian Socialist Party Hristo Gadzhev asked the question.

The Bulgarian Citizenship Directorate with the Ministry of Justice holds interviews with the applicants and starts individual cases on applications and proposals, Ahladova said, stressing that the number of applicants varies for each of the ten years. However, a total of 73,324 files ended with a proposal from the Citizenship Council with the Vice President for issuing a decree on granting Bulgarian citizenship, as is provided for by the legal procedure.