Bulgaria, country page
Research date: 2026-08-09. The revenue agency's site blocked our reads, so what we say about its service comes from the Council of Ministers' service register. Every age and service figure below carries its year: Bulgaria's pension age and required contributory period rise on a legislated schedule, and no figure may be stated for any other year.
Start here
$99
Country Pension Identification Report, Bulgaria
Within 24 to 48 hours
Full refund if we find nothing material.
Enhanced Pension Identification Report, $499: your Action Pack, a complete request pack for every fund we identify, written in your voice and ready to send, delivered within five working days of your intake form. Global Pension Identification Report, $799: the same across every country you worked in, up to all 41 we cover, within ten working days. Full refund if we find nothing material, decided at identification.
At the Country Report you contact the administrators yourself, using the routes in your report. On Enhanced and Global: We stay with your case after delivery. If an administrator asks you a question, refuses, or simply does not reply, send it to us and we will tell you exactly what to send next. That continues until every fund we identified has answered you, or the route is exhausted and we say so plainly.
Identification only. We do not open credential-protected accounts, and we do not transfer, negotiate, or make decisions regarding any pension. Everything below is the free official route, and it stays free: you are welcome to use it instead.
nssi.bg, English section, nssi.bg, EU social security coordination
The Financial Supervision Commission states that insurance in a universal pension fund is compulsory for persons born after 31 December 1959 who are insured in the state Pensions fund, that is, born on or after 1 January 1960, and in a professional pension fund for people in first or second category labour conditions regardless of age.
Anyone born on or after 1 January 1960 who was ever employed in Bulgaria has an individually owned account with a private company, and anyone who did hazardous-category work may have one at any age, including people born in the 1950s. NOI does not hold that money.
The same Commission page states that a person who does not choose is allocated ex officio on a random basis. It adds that the company must give account information on request, and that the account is inheritable.
fsc.bg, insurance market for consumers, fsc.bg, licensed pension insurance companies
I never signed up for anything is not a rule-out. You were assigned a company by the state, at random, and a balance sits with a company you have never heard of. Only ten are licensed, so the universe is small.
NOI states that the pension is granted from the date the right was acquired if the application is filed within two months of that date, and that if the deadline is missed it is granted from the date of filing.
There is no backdating beyond those two months. A person who finds an entitlement five years late gets a pension starting the day they applied, not five years of arrears. Every month of silence is money destroyed.
In 2026, women qualify at 62 years and 6 months of age with 36 years and 10 months of contributory service. In 2026, men qualify at 64 years and 9 months of age with 39 years and 10 months of contributory service. These rise annually, and the table must be re-checked each January.
From the same table: from 2023 there is a route at age 67 with a minimum of 15 years of actual insurance record. For a short Bulgarian career it is the 15 years that matter, not 37 or 40. Stated honestly: we could not establish whether periods in other EU member states count toward those 15 years.
NOI states that periods completed under the legislation of other member states are taken into account, and that the application is filed with the institution where you live, that filing date counting in Bulgaria too. So four Bulgarian years plus twenty-five elsewhere can open a small, real, lifelong pension.
The certificate of employment and insurance record and insurable income from the NOI Insurance Archive. No fee is due for it. A duplicate costs 7.20 leva including VAT, so keep the original.
administrativeservices.nssi.bg, certificate of employment and insurance record
The EGN, the ten-digit unified civil number, on a Bulgarian identity card, passport or birth certificate. Without it no online route works.
NOI's electronic services catalogue is at eportal.nssi.bg. NOI states that it accepts an NOI PIK, a revenue agency PIK, or any qualified electronic signature.
The limits, which we do not resolve: that page asked for a mobile number in Bulgarian format, and we could not establish whether a non-Bulgarian number works, nor whether Evrotrust checking can be done outside Bulgaria. Treat the online route as one that may work from abroad for a Bulgarian citizen with a valid passport, never as one that is guaranteed.
The PIK is free.
Cost. The certificate and the claim are officially free. A duplicate certificate is not.
Language. NOI keeps an English section, but everything we read was in Bulgarian.
Cases for people resident abroad go to the EU Regulations and International Agreements Directorate through NOI's territorial division for the city of Sofia. The claim may be lodged in person, through the portal, through the state secure electronic delivery system, or through a licensed postal operator. It is free, and the decision is due within four months.
The contrast that is easy to get wrong: post is accepted for the claim, and refused for PIK issuance.
NOI territorial division for the city of Sofia
Sofia 1303, bul. Aleksandar Stamboliyski 62-64
Email Sofia@nssi.bg
Pensions department 02/926-18-69
Insurance archive 02/926-18-17
NOI centrally: noi@nssi.bg
NOI's published 0700 line is national-rate and may not be dialable from abroad, and no international number is published. We print no address or email for the directorate itself, because none is published.
nssi.bg, Sofia city territorial division, nssi.bg, contact us
In practice there is one discovery route: the revenue agency's report of data from the account for supplementary mandatory pension insurance. It is free, and it is reached through that agency's portal with a qualified electronic signature or a revenue agency PIK.
Ordered by how often the missing item stops everything.
Aggregation tests eligibility, but it cannot manufacture a pension out of no contributions.
That puts a person outside the universal fund, but never outside the professional fund if the work was first or second category.
NOI's certificate of non-receipt settles that question.
Two, and the second is not held by the state. The Financial Supervision Commission states that insurance in a universal pension fund is compulsory for persons born after 31 December 1959 who are insured in the state Pensions fund, that is, born on or after 1 January 1960, and in a professional pension fund for people in first or second category labour conditions regardless of age. So anyone born on or after 1 January 1960 who was ever employed in Bulgaria has an individually owned account with a private company, and anyone who did hazardous-category work may have one at any age, including people born in the 1950s. NOI does not hold that money.
No. The Financial Supervision Commission states that a person who does not choose is allocated ex officio on a random basis. You were assigned a company by the state, at random, and a balance sits with a company you have never heard of. Only ten are licensed, so the universe is small. The same page adds that the company must give account information on request, and that the account is inheritable.
Barely. NOI states that the pension is granted from the date the right was acquired if the application is filed within two months of that date, and that if the deadline is missed it is granted from the date of filing. A person who finds an entitlement five years late gets a pension starting the day they applied, not five years of arrears. Every month of silence is money destroyed.
In 2026, women qualify at 62 years and 6 months of age with 36 years and 10 months of contributory service, and men at 64 years and 9 months with 39 years and 10 months. Those figures rise annually and the table must be re-checked each January. The door most emigrants need is on the same table: from 2023 there is a route at age 67 with a minimum of 15 years of actual insurance record. For a short Bulgarian career it is the 15 years that matter, not 37 or 40. We could not establish whether periods in other EU member states count toward those 15 years.
For eligibility under EU coordination, yes. NOI states that periods completed under the legislation of other member states are taken into account, and that the application is filed with the institution where you live, that filing date counting in Bulgaria too. So four Bulgarian years plus twenty-five elsewhere can open a small, real, lifelong pension.
Ask for the certificate of employment and insurance record and insurable income from the NOI Insurance Archive. No fee is due for it; a duplicate costs 7.20 leva including VAT, so keep the original. The claim itself is free too.
Start here
$99
Country Pension Identification Report, Bulgaria
Within 24 to 48 hours
Full refund if we find nothing material.
Enhanced Pension Identification Report, $499: your Action Pack, a complete request pack for every fund we identify, written in your voice and ready to send, delivered within five working days of your intake form. Global Pension Identification Report, $799: the same across every country you worked in, up to all 41 we cover, within ten working days. Full refund if we find nothing material, decided at identification.
At the Country Report you contact the administrators yourself, using the routes in your report. On Enhanced and Global: We stay with your case after delivery. If an administrator asks you a question, refuses, or simply does not reply, send it to us and we will tell you exactly what to send next. That continues until every fund we identified has answered you, or the route is exhausted and we say so plainly.
Identification only. We do not open credential-protected accounts, and we do not transfer, negotiate, or make decisions regarding any pension. Everything below is the free official route, and it stays free: you are welcome to use it instead.
Important Information
PensionHunter is a research and administrative assistance service only. We search pension registries and employer records to identify whether pension entitlements may exist in your name, we do not provide financial advice, manage pension funds, arrange pension transfers, or assist with claiming or accessing pension funds.
PensionHunter is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or any equivalent financial-services or pensions regulator in your jurisdiction. Our service is limited to research and information provision. We charge a fixed research fee paid in advance, Full refund if we find nothing material.
All decisions about your pension, including whether to contact providers, transfer funds, or take any other action, remain entirely yours. We strongly recommend consulting a qualified independent financial adviser regulated in your jurisdiction before making any decisions about any pension we locate.