Sofia Offices registers a Bulgarian company for founders who live abroad, and you never travel to Bulgaria for it. The form we use is the variable capital company (VCC; in Bulgarian, дружество с променлив капитал, ДПК). Its filing list has no bank document for the capital. That one paper is what holds up a foreign founder who picks the usual limited company.
Quick answer: you sign a short set of documents where you live, some of them in front of a notary or a Bulgarian consul. We prepare the set, file it with the Commercial Register and hand you a registered company. Send us your case and we'll tell you whether the VCC is the right form for it.
Who this is for: people and companies abroad who want a Bulgarian company without the trip. We take founders from any country and in any line of business. The law's own limits are listed further down.
Last reviewed: October 2026. Legal points checked against the Commerce Act, Ordinance No. 1 on the Commercial Register and the Registry Agency's fee table.
What a VCC is
A VCC is a Bulgarian company that answers to its creditors with its own assets, not with yours. One or more people or companies can found it, and a single-founder VCC carries the label ЕДПК. Its capital is variable and isn't entered in the Commercial Register. A share needs a nominal value of only one euro cent, and shares can come in classes with different rights.
The form is new. Bulgaria's Registry Agency has accepted applications to register variable capital companies since 15 December 2024, on form A19. The rules themselves entered the Commerce Act earlier, through an amendment in State Gazette No. 66 of 1 August 2023. So any guide written before that December describes a company nobody could register yet.
Why it suits a founder who isn't in Bulgaria
No bank paper at filing. For an ordinary limited company (OOD, or EOOD with one owner), Ordinance No. 1 asks for a document showing the capital was paid into a bank. The VCC list in the same ordinance has no such item. Why does that matter from abroad? Because Bulgarian banks keep their fast lanes for locals. UBB's page on digital onboarding for personal clients says the service is open to Bulgarian citizens only. UniCredit Bulbank offers its online capital account to an EOOD or OOD whose owner and manager is a Bulgarian citizen.
Shares move without the register. A VCC's shareholders aren't listed in the Commercial Register. A transfer takes effect toward the company once it's written into the company's own book of shareholders. The articles can even allow a plain written contract in place of notarised signatures. In an OOD, each transfer needs a notary to certify both signatures and content, and then an entry in the register.
Meetings work from anywhere. The articles can let shareholders meet and vote by electronic means, or decide in writing without meeting at all. The company can also grant staff options over its own shares, up to 15% of all shares.
What we do, and what you do
A VCC filing is a fixed set of papers. We prepare them in Bulgarian, get them to you for signature and file the set with the Commercial Register. The set contains:
- the founding minutes, with the decision to set up the company and appoint the manager;
- the articles of the company (a founding act, if you're the only founder), plus a copy with personal data removed;
- the list of shareholders and the shares each one takes;
- the manager's consent with a specimen signature, certified by a notary;
- the declarations the Commerce Act asks from founders and managers;
- the declaration naming the beneficial owners (the people who own or control the company), with a notarised signature;
- application form A19.
The beneficial-owner declaration is the price of the VCC's privacy. Shareholders aren't on the public file, and the anti-money-laundering act makes a company declare any beneficial owner who isn't.
What you send us: a proposed company name, a copy of your passport and a short description of what the company will do. If a founder is a company, send a current extract from its home register and a copy of its manager's passport.
How you sign: by hand, on paper. You sign the whole company set: the minutes, the articles, the declarations and a power of attorney to a lawyer, who files for you. Send us scans first, then the originals by courier. We arrange the translation into Bulgarian, and it's in the price. We don't work with electronic signatures, because only certain kinds are accepted.
The law fixes one part of that answer, whatever route you take. Two signatures need a notary: the manager's consent and the beneficial-owner declaration. A notary where you live can certify them. An apostille (a standard certificate for use abroad) then makes that notary's seal count here. Bulgaria has been a party to the Apostille Convention since 29 April 2001. A Bulgarian consul can do it too, but you must appear in person. (If you don't speak Bulgarian, the consulate appoints a translator.) So you don't travel to Bulgaria, but you do visit a notary or a consulate where you live. That's why this page doesn't say "100% online".
One more point for a manager who lives abroad. If nobody on the company's file is a legal representative permanently resident in Bulgaria, the law wants a resident contact person named there. Our guide to the AML contact person in Bulgaria explains the role. We provide this person alongside our virtual office service, and your quote states the cost.
Price and timing
Our fee: EUR 600 to EUR 800, whatever the number of founders. It covers the registration work, the notary and state fees we pay in Bulgaria and the translation of your documents. If a founder is a company, we also translate and certify its register extract. Your quote gives the exact figure.
State fee: the Registry Agency charges EUR 56.24 to register a VCC on paper and EUR 28.12 online, per its own euro fee table. An OOD costs the same. It's included in our fee.
Registered address: every VCC states a seat and a management address in Bulgaria in its articles, and must keep its founding documents at that address. Our virtual office in central Sofia can be that address. It's a separate service, and the registration fee doesn't cover it. It comes with mail handling (receiving, scanning, forwarding and archiving) and someone to receive and sign for official post. You can use your own address in Bulgaria instead.
How long it takes: normally about 5 days from the day we have your signed documents. In October 2026 the register is running slow, and our filings are taking about 38 days.
By law, the register looks at a first registration by the end of the working day after it arrives. It isn't keeping to that clock this autumn, so plan around the longer figure. Your own leg comes on top: the notary, the apostille and the courier.
Bank account: we don't open bank accounts for clients. Founders abroad who register through us run the company on an online business account, such as Revolut Business or Wise. Revolut's help page for Bulgaria lists the variable capital company among its supported business types (read on 13 October 2026). Each provider still decides every application itself.
You don't need a bank account to register a VCC. You will need one to trade. Prefer a Bulgarian bank? Each one runs its own identity check on a foreign owner. We describe that process in our article on opening a bank account in Bulgaria.
VCC vs OOD at a glance
| Point | VCC (ДПК) | OOD / EOOD |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum capital | None set; a share starts at one euro cent | EUR 1 |
| Capital shown in the Commercial Register | No | Yes |
| Bank document for cash capital at filing | Not on the list | Required |
| Owners shown in the Commercial Register | No; kept in the book of shareholders | Yes |
| Share transfer | Written contract, notarised signatures unless the articles drop that; recorded in the book | Notarised signatures and content; entered in the register |
| Manager's notarised consent and specimen signature | Required | Required |
| Size limit | Under 50 staff; turnover and/or assets up to BGN 4,000,000 | None |
| State fee to register | EUR 56.24 on paper, EUR 28.12 online | EUR 56.24 on paper, EUR 28.12 online |
The size limit is printed in leva in the Act. At the fixed rate of BGN 1.95583 per euro, BGN 4,000,000 is EUR 2,045,167.52.
What a VCC can't do, and when it's the wrong form
It can't outgrow its limits. A VCC must average fewer than 50 staff, with turnover and/or assets of no more than BGN 4,000,000. If the yearly meeting finds the company past that line, it has to convert into a capital company such as an OOD. Miss the deadline, the end of the financial year after that meeting, and a court can dissolve it on a prosecutor's claim. Expecting to pass those numbers within a year or two? Start with an OOD.
Your stake stays off the public file. The register shows a VCC's name, address, business and managers. It doesn't show the capital or who owns what. A partner or lender who wants to see those on the public file gets them from an OOD, not from a VCC.
The state still sees the owners. The beneficial owners still go on the company's file through the notarised declaration.
The notary stays. The manager's consent and specimen signature need one in both forms.
No bank account comes with it. The VCC only takes the bank out of the registration itself. And a licence still comes first: a business that needs a state permit must file it with the application.
Two exclusions apply from the start. A company declared bankrupt can't be a founder. And a person who recently sat on the board of a company that went bankrupt owing its creditors can't manage a VCC.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to travel to Bulgaria to register a VCC?
No. Nothing in the filing requires you to be in Bulgaria. You do have to appear before a notary or a Bulgarian consul in your own country, because two signatures must be certified. We handle everything on the Bulgarian side.
Do I need a Bulgarian bank account before the VCC is registered?
No. The VCC's document list in Ordinance No. 1 contains no bank certificate, unlike the list for an OOD. You'll want an account once the company starts trading, and that is a separate step with the bank's own checks.
Can a foreigner own 100% of a Bulgarian VCC?
Yes. The Commerce Act lets one or more people or companies found a VCC and sets no citizenship or residence condition for them. A founder that is a foreign company adds two papers: proof that it exists and its decision to take part.
Is a VCC or an EOOD better for a single founder abroad?
Pick the VCC if the bank is your obstacle, or if you plan to bring in investors or give staff options. Pick the EOOD if you want your ownership and capital visible on the public register.
Start with a short message
Tell us who the founders are, what the company will do and where you'll sign. We'll answer with the form that fits, the documents we need and our quote. You pay nothing for that answer. Contact Sofia Offices to begin.
Before you write, three pages linked above are worth five minutes. One covers the virtual office that gives the company its Sofia address. The second explains the contact person a foreign-managed company must name. The third shows what Bulgarian banks ask a foreign owner for.