Half a million professionals from  third-countries will arrive in Bulgaria over the next few years. We are talking about graduates working in different fields. The forecast is from the business, said Podkrepa Labor Union. The reason for the imminent import of so many qualified workers was the amendments to the Migration and Labor Mobility Act adopted in early March.

The change allowed the proportion of third-country employees to grow from 10 to 35% for small and medium-sized enterprises, which in practice means that every third employee may be a foreigner. Besides, the mandatory blue card market test was dropped and employers are no longer required to prove that they have not been able to find the required personnel in Bulgaria for the period of 6 months, writes Monitor.

Deputy Prime Minister Valeriy Simeonov said the concerns over possible problems are unfounded and added that it is expected that the number of workers who will arrive in Bulgaria will be about 300 000 people. In the past year, 117 foreigners from third countries received a blue card. The most common are IT specialists and engineers from Ukraine, Russia, India. Another 4,000 foreigners have taken permission for seasonal work. They are mostly from Ukraine and Moldova and have worked as waiters, receptionists and chefs for which there is a shortage. It turns out that the business is also looking for masseurs from Thailand.