Minister Zaharieva: We Have Grown Quicker in Issuing Seasonal Worker Visas
11 June 2018 News
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has shortened the issuing period for long-term visas that allow their holders to reside and work in a Member State from 90 days to 9 months, and is working on speeding up the process further. This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva during the Education and Work: Local Problems, Global Solutions conference, which took place in Sofia.
‘My data indicate that this used to take 20 to 40 days, which is too long a period for business,’ the Minister stated. ‘That is why we have tried to shorten the procedure and the time for issuing long-term visas, and you can be granted one in 15 working days now,’ she said, and went on to explain the efforts of the MFA to further shorten the procedure to 10 working days. This should happen following inter-institutional coordination, and upon approval of a draft Decree to Amend the Ordinance on the Conditions and the Procedure for the Issuance of Visas and Laying Down the Visa Regime by the Council of Ministers. This amendment should streamline long-term visa issuance.
The above is part of the MFA’s efforts to facilitate the operation of businesses. ‘There is certainly more to be desired, but I would like to call on businesses to contact me any time they experience difficulties with the issuance of such visas, because this always leads to measures on our part, and these lead to improvements.’
Another priority in the MFA’s efforts to tackle the shortage of workers has been cooperation with Bulgarian expat communities. ‘These are 1.5 to 2 million people – a vast untapped potential – and even though we know most of them have found employment abroad, I would like to see us deploy this initiative with businesses for the benefit of our fellow Bulgarians who believe they can find employment here,’ the Minister stated. She pointed out that even though a further 30.000 Bulgarians left the country last year, another 27.000 settled back in Bulgaria. ‘This trend towards coming home has been growing as compared to previous years,’ she said, and added that initiatives offering positive examples of Bulgarians who have come back after spending time abroad and found suitable employment here needed to continue.
‘We are prepared to open our representations abroad to businesses, and to connect to our expat communities; each time I meet people from these communities I highlight the advantages of living in Bulgaria nowadays,’ the Minister said. ‘My words would ring more compellingly, though, if I had reliable employers by my side.’
The Deputy Prime Minister also pointed to another MFA move that has had a direct positive impact on finding seasonal labour. ‘This is the opening of our consulate in Taraclia; you can see the effect straight away: the labour market has grown more dynamic.’ The government is now working on this ‘and it is imperative that we achieve this: providing employment to the members of families with one long-term visa holder,’ she highlighted.
‘We should not forget that the main benefit of issuing visas is not the money the stickers will bring our treasury, but the businesses tourist visas will foster, the labour force covered by long-term visas, and the talent that goes with the so called blue cards,’ the Minister concluded.
The conference organized by the KRIB (Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria), the 24 Hours newspaper, Economics magazine, and the website Kmeta.bg was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev, Ministers Krasimir Valchev and Nikolina Angelkova, the Mayor of Sofia Yordanka Fandakova among others.
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