The complete checklist for a 100% foreign-owned remote EOOD setup

1. Identity documents

A clear copy (scan or photo) of a valid passport or national ID for every owner and every director, if the director is a different person. If you're the sole owner and will also be the sole director — the most common setup for a single-member EOOD — one document covers both roles. No proof of address, credit check, or minimum-income requirement applies to a foreign founder.

2. Company name — three options, in both scripts

Bulgarian company names are registered in Cyrillic; a company can also carry a Latin-script transliteration for use on international invoices and its website, provided it's a faithful transliteration of the Cyrillic name (not an unrelated foreign name). Give us three ranked options — availability is checked with the Commercial Register before filing, and the first free one is used. Having a second and third choice ready avoids a round trip if your first pick is already taken.

3. Registered address

Every Bulgarian company needs a registered address in Bulgaria — this is where official correspondence and NRA notices are legally deemed delivered, not necessarily where you work from. If you don't have Bulgarian premises of your own, a virtual office / registered-address service is the standard and fully legal solution for a remote-owned EOOD, and is what most non-resident founders use. You don't need to visit or lease physical space to satisfy this requirement.

4. Share capital — €1 minimum, and how it actually moves from abroad

The legal minimum share capital for an EOOD is €1. In practice, a capital account is opened in the company's name at a Bulgarian bank before filing, and the capital is deposited into it — a wire transfer from your own bank abroad works fine, there's no requirement that the funds originate from a Bulgarian account. Once the company is entered in the Commercial Register, the capital account converts into the company's normal operating account (or you open a separate operating account — see step 6). Many founders deposit a slightly higher symbolic amount than €1 simply so the account doesn't sit at a single-euro balance, but that's a preference, not a legal requirement.

5. Signing the documents without visiting Bulgaria

This is usually the step people worry about most, and it's the most straightforward in practice. You have two routes, and neither requires a flight:

• ✓Notary + apostille (or consular legalisation). You sign the specimen signature and power of attorney before a local notary in your own country. For countries party to the Hague Apostille Convention, the notarised document then gets an apostille — a single-page certificate confirming the notary's authority — after which it's valid for Bulgarian filing purposes. Countries outside the Convention use consular legalisation instead, or you can sign directly at a Bulgarian consulate, which skips the apostille step entirely.
• ✓Qualified Electronic Signature (QES). If you hold a QES recognised under the EU's eIDAS framework, you can sign the incorporation documents and the Commercial Register filing itself electronically — no notary, no apostille, no physical paperwork in transit. Not everyone has a QES already, and getting one specifically for this purpose is rarely worth it for a one-off filing, but if you already use one for other business, it's the fastest path.

Either way, the actual Commercial Register filing (application A4) is submitted electronically by us with our own QES — so what you're producing is a validly signed power of attorney and specimen signature, not a live e-filing yourself.

6. What happens after filing

Once the capital is deposited and the signed documents are in, the application is filed with the Commercial Register. Entry typically follows within 1–2 business days, at which point the company receives its UIC (Unified Identification Code, also called EIK) — the number you'll use on every invoice, bank form and tax filing from that point on. You'll get the certificate of good standing and the full document set to keep on file.

7. Immediate next steps — don't stop at the UIC

Incorporation is the start of the paperwork, not the end of it. Three decisions typically follow within the first days and weeks:

• ✓VAT registration — mandatory once taxable turnover exceeds €51,130 in a calendar year, but often worth doing voluntarily from day one for B2B EU sales. Details: VAT registration.
• ✓Accounting from month one — Bulgarian companies must keep books and file even with zero activity; there's no "dormant, so nothing to do" exemption. See accounting services.
• ✓Operating bank account — separate from the capital account, this is what you'll actually invoice into and pay expenses from.

We cover the full first-quarter compliance calendar and the mistakes non-resident owners most commonly make in the weeks after incorporation in a separate article: what happens after incorporation — the first 90 days →

Frequently asked questions

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