Bulgaria has announced today that the government has revoked citizenship of four foreigners, these include 3 russians and one kazakh.
The prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov have asked the Justice Minister to strip of Bulgarian citizenship of four foreigners, said Tsatsarov’s office Friday.
The move follows as alert by the State Agency for National Security about violations in the course of the citizenship award procedure and failures to meet obligations going with Bulgarian citizenship, reported the Bulgarian State News Agency.
Two Russians have been revoked of citizenship for failing to maintain the investment under the citizenship investment scheme, while other two committed document fraud by concealing information. It is not clear these two obtained citizenship by making investment.
The two Russians who were CBI citizens acquired citizenship in 2011 and 2016 respectively.
In March 2019, The Bulgarian Ministry of Justice announced draft law for abolishing the citizenship for investments scheme, as this scheme brought little or no benefit to Bulgaria. Under this draft law, the possibility for foreigners who have been granted permanent residence in Bulgaria against investments will be denied the possibility of receiving citizenship. This includes family members and those who have increased the investments under fast track scheme.
Although this scheme is fully not abolished, foreigners can obtain golden visa or permanent residency in Bulgaria by investing EUR 512,000 in real estate. The fast track citizenship requires investment to be doubled to EUR 1mn to become eligible for citizenship granted after one year.
In 2018, Bulgaria granted 29 fast track citizenship to foreigners for investments through presidential decree. Bulgaria only received 193 applications for CBI scheme since the inception of the fast track scheme in 2013.
Bulgaria is not the first country to revoke citizenship of CBI citizens, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Vanuatu have revoked citizenships passports for fraud, engaging in illegal activities and bringing disrepute to the country.
Malta and Cyprus have significantly tightened the checks for granting citizenship for investments by subjecting all applicants under Enhanced due diligence measures.
