As of September 1, permanent residents of Sofia centre, whose residence address is a street in the paid parking "blue zone", can apply for an annual parking permit costing 70 leva with municipal company Parking i Garazhi. The annual parking vignette is a sticker that is glued on the vehicle’s front window, Alyosha Zamfirov, the head of the short-term paid parking department at the company told The Sofia Echo on September 1. The vignette has an antenna and an electronic chip, which would enable the authorities to read them.

All residents have to do is file an application form with Parkingi i Garazhi and attach to it the receipt that they have paid thei car tax and third party liability insurance, and to bring with them the small registration document of the vehicle and personal identification. After filing the application, the company would contact the applicants to ensure that they are eligible for the parking vignette. After that, residents from "blue zone" streets should pay the annual fee of 70 leva to the bank account of Sofia municipality, Zamfirov said.

The residents have to have the same address registration on their ID and on the registration document of their vehicle to receive the parking vignette. Such permits will not be issued for people who work in the relevant area, which is meant to stimulate people from the other neighborhoods to use the public transport to go to work, Zamfirov said. “Sofia can only handle 800 000 parked cars,” he said.

Only one parking vignette will be issue per one address. The cars with parking vignettes will be allowed to park only on this part of the street in front of their house, which is between the two nearest perpendicular streets. The only exception is made for Vitosha Boulevard and Rakovski Street, where parking is banned, so the residents of those areas will be allowed to park in the nearest smaller streets.