Bulgarian Minister of Justice Miglena Tacheva said at a working seminar which took place in the Krapets village near Shabla on August 2 and 3, that the ministry was considering the implementation of a system mimicking the American ‘green card lottery’ for foreigners wishing to live and work in Bulgaria, Focus news agency reported.

Permanent residence could be granted in two ways, Tacheva has said, one is the lottery-like selection. The other possibility is receiving a green card, after legally living in the country for a certain amount of time, most likely up to five years.

This, however, is only an idea and has not been thoroughly discussed, the minister has said.

Introduction of a green card system has earlier this year been discussed as a way to allow skilled foreign workers on the Bulgarian labour market.

Data gathered between July 2007 and June 2008 indicated that there were 9268 applications for Bulgarian citizenship, out of which 4816 were submitted from Macedonians who stated Bulgarian origin. The second-highest number of applications came from Moldova, 1136, followed by Serbia with 513, Russia with 478, Israel and Ukraine with 410 each.