Updated 08.10.2024

In various situations in Bulgaria you may need to prove your marital status (whether you are married, have children), that you have/do not have a family relationship with someone - for example in the case of inheritance, property purchase, marriage, etc. In such cases, you may need to present official documents issued by the Bulgarian authorities when they have the necessary information in their records. In this article, we will look at some of these documents to establish family ties in Bulgaria. The list is not exhaustive. 

Important! You can get the bellow-mentioned certificates if you are a Bulgarian national or a foreigner or stateless person who has a long-term or permanent residence permit in Bulgaria or has refugee or humanitarian status. 

Certificate of marital status 

This certificate gives information about who your spouse and children are. You may need such a document when buying a property or a car, or if you want to get married and need to prove that you have no other current valid marriage. 

For this you need the following documents:

  • Application form for the certificate (an example form can be found here);
  • A proof of payment of the state fee - the fee is determined by each municipality, but is generally between 5 and 10 BGN
  • If another person submits the documents on your behalf, you must provide a notarized power of attorney or a court document proving that they represent you and have the right to apply on your behalf.

The documents must be submitted to the Civil Registration Office (GRAO) of the municipality where you live. You will find the telephone numbers of the relevant territorial offices for further information on this link . 

Certificate of heirs

You may need such a certificate in order to settle your rights as an heir after the death of a relative. For example rights related to:

  • inheritance or transfer of an inherited property;
  • pensions;
  • division of property;
  • issuance of a notary act;
  • filing an inheritance tax return, which you must file within 6 months of accepting the inheritance. 

A request for such a certificate must be submitted to the municipality of the last permanent address on the deceased person's identity document. 

The documents you must submit are as follows:

  • Application form:
  • Document of paid fee - again the fee is determined by each municipality individually, but varies between 5 and 15 BGN;
  • If another person is filing the document for you, you must submit a notarized power of attorney or a court document. 

When filing, you may also be asked to provide proof of identity (ID card/passport).

In order to issue a certificate of heirs, the deceased person must have already had a death certificate drawn up, the serial number of which is entered on the application. 

Even if only one heir asks for this certificate, it can be used by all because it lists all the heirs. 

Certificate of children born by the mother

You may need this certificate if you are applying for social/family benefits relating to your children. The documents you need to provide are:

  • An application form which can be found here;
     
  • Proof of payment of the fee - the fee here is also determined by each municipality individually, but varies between 5 and 15 BGN;
     
  • If another person submits the documents on your behalf, you must provide a notarized power of attorney or a court document proving that they represent you and have the right to apply on your behalf. 

The documents must be submitted to the Civil Registration Office (GRAO) of the municipality where you live. You will find the telephone numbers of the relevant territorial offices for further informationon this link . 

Certificate for providing a foreign national with a document for a civil marriage in Bulgaria

You need this certificate if you are a foreigner and wish to enter into a civil marriage in Bulgaria with a person who is registered in the population register in Bulgaria. The documents to be submitted are:

  • Application for the certificate, which can be found here;
  • Identity document;
  • Document of paid fee - each municipality determines its fee, but it varies between 10 and 20 BGN;
  • If another person is filing the document for you, you must present a notarized power of attorney or a court document. 

The request can be filed in any municipality with a civil registration officer in Bulgaria. At this link you will find the telephone numbers of the relevant territorial offices for further information. 

Certificate of family relationship

Unlike the certificate of marital status, this certificate provides information on a wider range of relatives other than spouses and children. It can be useful if you want to find out who your relatives are and to find out whether you are related to someone. To obtain such a certificate, you must submit the following documents: 

  • An application form (which you can download here); 
  • Identity document (ID card, passport);
  • Civil status documents proving kinship (e.g. birth certificate, marriage certificate, death certificate) if there is no information about the person in the population register of Bulgaria;
  • Document of paid fee - the fee is determined by each municipality, but is generally from 4 to 10 BGN;
  • If another person submits the document instead of you, you must submit a notarized power of attorney or a court document.

The documents must be submitted to the civil registration office (GRAO) of the municipality where you live. You will find the telephone numbers of the relevant territorial offices for further informationat this link .

Online application for certificates

You can also apply for the above certificates online via:

You can read more about electronic requesting of services at the following links:

Legalisation of a foreign document

If your document was issued by foreign authorities and you want to use it with the Bulgarian authorities, you can read more about legalising it in this article:

Legalising documents and recognising qualifications