SA & BG

As usual, I have had an online chat with a South African lady called Sonelja. She and her husband are thinking of making the move to Bulgaria. As usual, my comments are in italics.

Hello. Yes, I think that moving from South Africa to Bulgaria is a great idea. You can read a lot about starting a new life in Bulgaria by going to my blog. The real problem, however, is how to do it, if you have a SA passport.

Sorry for taking so long to read your message. Facebook doesn't alert me of messages if they're from someone I'm not friends with.

No problem. Let me know if I can be of any help. I think that moving from South Africa to Bulgaria is a great idea. I have never been to SA myself, but I have had quite a few friends who came from there. The situation in SA does not seem to be getting better. Someone told me that “load shedding” (we Brits call them “power cuts”) happen almost every day in SA and they often go on for most of the day!”

We're considering moving to Bulgaria permanently as I've read that citizenship by naturalization is an option. I'm thinking our best option is to find a job for me at an international school, as that will allow my daughter to attend for free. She is 9 years old.

Well, I do not like to be a wet blanket, as we Brits say. Most of the international schools are in Sofia, so you need to start making applications asap. Maybe you will be lucky and get a teaching job for September! It does not take long to send off an email and a CV.

Oh yes, things are terrible in SA. But we're lucky, as we live in Brunei now. But we can't become citizens here and it's quite expensive to live here. I'm making good enough money now, but there are no good universities here and I don't want to send my daughter back to SA for university, as it's not safe at all.

On the other hand, I think that you would be wise to consider other options as well.

Luckily I'm not in a rush. I would like to finish my contract here which only ends in December 2025. Our hearts aren't set on a specific place yet, hence all the questions. 

Well, if you have not made up your minds about moving to Bulgaria, my advice would be to decide that you DO want to relocate to BG as soon as possible. You can read all about the joys (and yes, one or two sorrows) of living in Bulgaria in my blog.

Thanks so much. I will visit your blog shortly. I appreciate the time you took to message me.

I really do not know much about property prices in South Africa. Our country house came with 3,000 square metres of land and it cost 81,000 euros. I have no idea what that would be in South African Rand! Anyway, if your husband does not mind your talking to strange men over the Internet, then you could give me a call. Or you could call me with your hubby.

Your place is so charming! Ha ha! My husband doesn't mind at all. What is this second place?

Here are a few photos of a house near Popovo that was recently purchased by a lady called Wendy and her hubby. You can read about this (and everything else!) in my blog. Anyway, they paid £66,000 for this house. I suppose that this would be about 70,000 US dollars.

That is very affordable, even in South African Rands!

Popovo is east of Veliko Tarnovo, just off the Varna road. Your daughter is absolutely lovely, by the way. I think that you already know that...

I'm her mom, so obviously I think so. But thank you! She's the reason we're looking into Bulgaria. We need to get rid of that South African passport.

I never taught in Brunei, but we were in China for five years and we were also in the Middle East quite a lot: Saudi, Egypt, Qatar and the UAE.

We loved China. I've heard rough things about the students in Abu Dhabi.

I have heard some dreadful things about SA: shootings, rape, kidnappings, robberies etc. Maybe it is not too bad if you live in a fortified compound with razor wire and armed guards everywhere.

Qatar was not much fun, but we did save some money there. Saudi teenage boys are horrific. Every teacher's worst nightmare. Okay, so if you are going to be in Brunei until 2025, then you need to save up your pennies (or whatever they have in Brunei and yes, they do have pictures of the Sultan on them) and then you can buy a house (or two) in Bulgaria. Perfect. Someone told me that it is impossible to say anything about Brunei without using the word “Sultan”.

South Africa is just as horrible as you've heard. Final straw for me was standing in my hallway behind the safety gate, listening to them trying to break open the safety gate in the kitchen and hoping they wouldn't be able to, because I was terrified for my daughter, asleep in her room. Our only hope was that the neighbourhood watrch would show up in time. They did! 

It is not quite like that with the Sultan, but it is illegal to speak ill of him or the royal family. Every shop must have a picture of him on the wall. Literally every place. And some holidays we cannot leave the country, out of respect for him. But that stuff doesn't bother me because I don't have to conform to their religion. I turn a blind eye because this place is so safe and the students are still respectful.

I heard that expats sometimes play a drinking game and take it in turns to say something about Brunei. If you say the word “Sultan”, you have to have a drink as a forfeit. Usually everyone gets drunk very quickly!

Ha ha ha! Well, not the expats I hang with. But we do drink our alcohol that we have to buy over the border. I'm sure he comes up at least a few times in a night, now that you mention it. 

Well, Bulgaria is a very safe place. Occasionally we have some stray doggies outside our front gate. My wife gives them some bones and scraps and they go away happily. Once I was driving back from the airport and a deer ran across the road. The deer caused about 300 leva of damage to my car. A dear deer. But at least we do not have carjackings, like in South Africa. And is it true that most people lock their car doors as soon as they get into the car?

Oh yes. And if you are driving alone at night, you don't stop at a red light. You slow down, check for cars and go. I still do it here sometimes, out of habit. 

Anyway, you need to have a look at the website of an estate agency called YANTRA HOMES. This will give you a good idea of what kind of properties you can buy in Bulgaria and how much they are going to cost. You also need to learn to read and speak Bulgarian. Oh yes you do! I have written quite a lot about this (and one or two other things) in my blog.

Thanks, I'll do that. I need to look at jobs first. Do you know if it's true that you can get citizenship after 5 years of living there full time?

Here are a few photos of the first house we bought in Bulgaria. It was about 50 kms north of Sofia.

How do you get Bulgarian residency? I really do not know much about this.

When my wife and I got our residency cards, our lichna carta, Britain was part of the EU and it was all very simple. It is possible and you really need a good English-speaking Bulgarian lawyer who can help you with this one. I am not going to give you any advice on this because I really do not know what to do!

That's fine. It's legal advice anyway, so you shouldn't. I'm sure I'll find an expert on that easily.

Ask around on Facebook. Yes, but it will probably involve visits to the Microwave Woman. You can read all about this charming Bulgarian lady in my blog.

Ha ha! I already saw you mention her.

You should also watch some lovely YouTube videos made by a lady called Susan Ashwell. They are called "Escape to a simpler place and time". It sounds as though quite a lot of people in South Africa would like to do that... The problem with Susan's videos is that you will want to get on a plane and come to Bulgaria immediately!

Well, I am (or I was) a primary school teacher and I always made my students do their homework thoroughly! You have a LOT of homework to do, but the good news is that I honestly think Bulgaria is really the place that you are looking for. God bless you! I hope it all works out for you. Stay in touch and yes, I will try to answer any questions you may have.

Dear Sonelja, I wish that I could help you more with the business of getting Bulgarian citizenship, but my wife and I are not Bulgarian citizens. We have our “lichna carta” (residency cards) and these cards allow us to live in Bulgaria for as long as we like and come and go when we please (we are off to Greece next week). Probably you need to get your “lichna carta” first and then think carefully before moving on to getting Bulgarian citizenship, if that is what you really want to do. 

Why does everyone want to get rid of their South African passport? Is it true that it is a dark green colour, so everyone calls it "the green mamba"?

Oh yes, now I remember why I wanted to write to you. I recommend you and your hubby to have a good look at the website of an estate agency called YANTRA HOMES. This will give you a good idea of what kinds of properties are for sale in Bulgaria and the kinds of prices that you might pay. We used Yantra Homes to buy our third property, our country house near Elena, about 50 kms from Veliko Tarnovo.

Yes, we do sometimes call it that! We just want to leave the country for good and become citizens of another country, so that we never have to deal with South African governments again. We also would like to enjoy the same benefits that citizens reap, which we miss out on, since we don’t live in our own country.