Citizenship is a fundamental right that provides individuals with access to social, economic, and political life. Losing or being denied citizenship can have devastating consequences, leaving individuals without protection, identity, or belonging. Yet, in practice, some legal requirements designed to regulate citizenship may inadvertently produce statelessness—a condition that international law explicitly seeks to prevent.
Foundation for Access to Rights (FAR) has documented several such cases in Bulgaria, where the application of domestic citizenship rules has led to serious violations of the right to nationality. One particularly concerning case involves a person who became stateless as a direct result of the procedural framework for obtaining Bulgarian citizenship by naturalization.
Legal Framework
Under the Bulgarian Citizenship Act, one of the requirements for naturalization is that the applicant must have been released from their previous citizenship or will be released from it at the time of acquiring Bulgarian citizenship (Art. 12, para. 1, p. 6).
Additionally, Regulation No. 1 of 19 February 1999 on the application of Chapter Five of the Act requires the applicant to provide “a document from the relevant foreign authorities certifying that the applicant has renounced his or her previous citizenship; if no such document is available, it must be submitted within three years of receiving notification that the Citizenship Council at the Ministry of Justice has approved the applicant for Bulgarian citizenship” (Art. 4, para. 1, p. 12).
In theory, this provision protects applicants by allowing them to renounce their previous citizenship only after receiving conditional approval for Bulgarian nationality. In practice, however, FAR has identified situations where the state’s subsequent actions have rendered individuals stateless—contrary to both the Bulgarian Constitution and Bulgaria’s international obligations under the 1954 and 1961 UN Conventions on Statelessness.
Case Summary
The applicant, a man of Foreign citizenship, applied for Bulgarian citizenship by naturalization. As none of the exceptions to the renunciation requirement (such as marriage to a Bulgarian citizen) applied to him, he was required to renounce his Foreign citizenship.[1]
Following the law, he awaited official notification that the Citizenship Council at the Ministry of Justice had approved his application. Upon receiving this notification, he proceeded to renounce his Foreign citizenship, successfully completing the process in 2024.
However, after he submitted the documents confirming his renunciation, the Citizenship Council—despite its previous approval—conducted additional checks. Based on a subsequent negative opinion from the State Agency for National Security, the Council reversed its position and decided that the applicant should not be granted Bulgarian citizenship on the grounds that he allegedly posed a threat to national security.
This decision left him without any nationality. Having relinquished his Foreign citizenship in reliance on the Bulgarian state’s approval, he is now stateless—deprived of the protection of any country and unable to exercise her fundamental rights.
Implications and Concerns
This case exposes a critical gap in the Bulgarian legal framework for naturalization. The current procedure allows for situations in which an applicant may lawfully lose their previous citizenship before their Bulgarian citizenship is finalized—thus becoming stateless through no fault of their own.
Such outcomes are incompatible with Bulgaria’s obligations under international and European human rights law, including Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (“Everyone has the right to a nationality”) and the Council of Europe’s European Convention on Nationality.
The current legislation does not provide a possibility to appeal in any way the decision to deny Bulgarian citizenship to the applicant, even in such cases where the Citizenship Council has reversed its decision and as a result of this the applicant has been rendered stateless.
The Foundation for Access to Rights calls on the Bulgarian authorities to urgently review and amend the citizenship procedure to ensure that no person is rendered stateless as a result of administrative or procedural decisions. The protection of the right to nationality must remain at the heart of Bulgaria’s citizenship policy.
Conclusion
The case presented in this brief illustrates how gaps in Bulgaria’s naturalization procedure can directly generate statelessness, even for applicants who strictly follow the law and comply with all administrative requirements. Such outcomes are not isolated; they reflect broader structural weaknesses in Bulgarian nationality law and practice. These systemic issues are thoroughly documented in the Statelessness Index and its Bulgaria country profile, updated by Dr. Valeria Ilareva and the legal team at the Foundation for Access to Rights – FAR. The Index highlights, among other concerns, the risks created by the renunciation requirement, the absence of effective safeguards against statelessness during naturalization, and the lack of procedural remedies for individuals whose nationality is at stake.
This legal brief forms part of FAR’s outreach and engagement efforts to disseminate the findings of the Statelessness Index and to ensure that policymakers, civil society, and the broader public understand how legal provisions operate in practice. The case discussed here demonstrates the urgent need for legislative and procedural reforms to align Bulgaria’s citizenship framework with international standards and to prevent statelessness in all circumstances.
For further analysis, comparative data, and detailed assessments of Bulgaria’s performance across all relevant indicators, readers are encouraged to consult the full Statelessness Index profile on Bulgaria, available at:
https://index.statelessness.eu/country/bulgaria
[1] For the purposes of this brief, the beneficiary’s identity and nationality have been withheld to protect their privacy.
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