Recruitment intermediary registration in Bulgaria: the certificate and the fees
Bulgaria's Employment Agency: the intermediation certificate is issued by the Minister of Labour, the fee is 447.38 euro, payable in 14 days of notification.
Employment intermediation in Bulgaria is a registration regime under the Employment Promotion Act, in force since 1 January 2002. According to the Employment Agency, the certificate authorising intermediation is issued by the Minister of Labour and Social Policy or by an official authorised by him. The fee for a certificate covering other countries or seafarers is 447.38 euro, payable within 14 days of notification that it is due. Intermediary contracts with foreign employers are registered separately.
What is actually registered
The regime has two distinct entries, and they are regularly confused. The first is the intermediation certificate itself, which entitles the company to act as an intermediary and is issued by type of activity: work in the Republic of Bulgaria, work in another EU member state, work in other countries, or seafarers. The second is the registration of the specific intermediary contract concluded with the foreign employer or shipowner. The certificate does not stand in for the contract registration, and the contract registration does not stand in for the certificate.
The consequence is direct. A company holding a valid certificate that signs a contract with an employer abroad and starts recruiting under it before the contract is registered is operating outside the scope of its own registration. For candidates it means the protection the regime gives them, the check on the counterparty and on the contract terms, has never been triggered. For the employer paying for the service it means a contract the labour administration holds no record of.
The Ordinance on the conditions and procedure for employment intermediation, adopted by Council of Ministers Decree No 107 of 17 May 2003, sets out a third regime that sits apart: temporary work agencies go through a separate registration and hold a separate certificate. A company that wants both to intermediate and to supply workers to a user undertaking registers under both routes, not one.
Deadlines and fees
The fee falls due not on filing but once the administration notifies the applicant that it is payable, and the Employment Agency's 14 day payment period runs from that notification. Missing it halts the file rather than merely delaying the payment, so the notification is tracked as a deadline, not as an invoice.
| Entry | Authority | Fee | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intermediation certificate, other countries or seafarers | Minister of Labour and Social Policy | 447.38 euro | Payment within 14 days of notification |
| Registration of an intermediary contract with a foreign employer | Employment Agency | Per the Ordinance | Before activity under the contract begins |
| Temporary work agency certificate | Minister of Labour and Social Policy | Separate fee | Separate proceeding |
The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy maintains the wider labour migration framework in which intermediation is one of the supervised channels. Checking a partner's registration therefore belongs to the preparation of the file, not to the formalities after the service contract is signed.
How this is checked in practice
A Bulgarian employer hiring through an intermediary can ask for three records before signing: the certificate number and the type of activity it covers, the registration number of the intermediary contract where the hire runs through a contract with a foreign employer, and confirmation that the planned activity falls within the scope of the certificate. Three lines in one email that prevent a dispute later.
The usual problem is not fraud but a scope mismatch. An intermediary certified for work in Bulgaria organises placement into another member state, an activity the certificate does not cover. In a labour migration inspection the mismatch is visible immediately, and liability reaches the user of the service as well, as it does in the other enforcement proceedings described in labour inspectorate checks.
The intermediary's registration does not replace the permit procedure for the worker. Labour market access is decided under the single permit route, and the number of third country workers an undertaking may employ is bounded by the 20 and 35 percent thresholds. The intermediary finds the people; the employer proves the conditions under which they may work.
A contract with an intermediary whose registration has not been verified is an expense with no matching right. Check the certificate and the contract registration before the first payment, not at the first refused file. What remains on the employer's side is set out on the employers page.
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