In an attempt to overcome the demographic crisis and the lack of staff in our country, the Cabinet will offer serious relief for companies wishing to hire foreigners from outside the EU. Seasonal workers, who are now employing a 90-day work visa, will now be able to stay in the country for up to nine months. The blue card, which is used by highly qualified third-country professionals, will be valid for 4 years instead of one year and will apply to all professions.

"Reliefs are revolutionary," said Deputy Prime Minister Valeri Simeonov, who is among the initiators of the legislative changes. According to him, there are hunger for specialists in all branches, and he expects a "flood" of foreigners who will come to work in Bulgaria. Legislative changes will be proposed by the parliamentary groups of GERB and United Patriots.

The fee paid by the employer to the Employment Agency will fall four times - to BGN 100. Apart from the Ministry of Interior, the companies pay another BGN 145 fee. Simeonov explained the idea of an accelerated procedure for obtaining a blue card for third-country nationals who have been residing in the last five years in Bulgaria.

In the past mandate of GERB's Cabinet, the ministry of social affairs has made relief for the recruitment of foreigners with a university degree. Then the requirement for the employer to prove with a market test that there is no suitable Bulgarian candidate for the place has not yet expired. At that time, however, a list of professions was introduced that could hire specialists - mostly in the IT sector. Now this restriction is eliminated, the Deputy Prime Minister said.

Companies are required to pay to these cadres at least three times the country's average salary. This means that the minimum wage for a specialist should be around BGN 3,000. The law requires that foreigners be hired only if they are no more than 10% of the total staff in the last 12 months. It is not clear whether this law will also be dropped.

However, the interest in blue cards from foreign workers is currently low - by the end of June the issued cards are 67. About 3200 seasonal workers for 90 days were hired in the summer season - mostly Ukrainians and Moldovans. This summer, there is a boom in hired workers, because at the beginning of the cabinet's office the procedure for issuing work visas had been facilitated - now it takes just seven days. In the words of Social Minister Biser Petkov to the Labor Commission, this measure has facilitated the Bulgarian business and has supported many hotel and restaurant workers in providing labor. According to him, this does not endanger in any way the Bulgarian labor market.