A total of 62,049 Bulgarian citizenship certificates have been granted to foreign citizens in the past five years, says the written response of Bulgarian Justice Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva to a Member of Parliament, Novinite.com reports.
The applicants received a Bulgarian identity document on grounds of their Bulgarian origin, while the remaining 1,855 became Bulgarian citizens on grounds of naturalization.
Between 6% and 7% of the applicants were not granted Bulgarian citizenship, BGNES news agency informs. About 3,574 of the candidates did not receive Bulgarian passport. The remaining 62,049 were issued with Bulgarian passport by decree of the vice-president.
Most of the candidates that applied for citizenship, came from Macedonia, Moldova and Ukraine.
Last week, Eurostat informed that Bulgaria had granted citizenship to 900 foreigners in 2014. Ukrainians constitute the largest group of foreigners granted Bulgarian citizenship, followed by Russians and Moldovans.