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@OrientalPlovdiv, thank you!

My understanding is that the UK company needs to be registered with Companies House for at least two years and show two years worth of tax returns before Bulgaria will grant the trade representative visa. Also though currently the business has no earnings requirements I believe there are moves afoot to alter the law and require the parent company to show a turnover of at least 500,000 GBN per year. Unfortunately, even if the law regarding required turnover doesn't change, this route won't get us there much faster than waiting till I reach OAP age and can apply for a retirement visa.

I do wonder whether setting up a Bulgarian working company to run my small book publishing business and then employing my husband as a freelance publishing assistant would work. He has a way better chance than I do of passing the language proficiency test required to apply for a freelancer visa.  My little business isn't a registered company in the UK and isn't earning bucketloads, but can show a ten year income history of quite a bit more than twice the Bulgarian minium wage. It's basically what I would be supporting us on when we are able to move. So I would need the company set up in Bg, business plans for hubby, document how his activity will benefit Bulgaria, etc. But I haven't been able to get legal advice whether that would be a viable option if the employing company is new, owned by a non-EU citizen, has never submitted tax returns, etc., as none of the immigration lawyers I've contacted have replied to emails.

It would appear they have either been warned to be very cautious due to Schengen, or have easier ways to make money than assisting with something perhaps slightly unusual though I believe likely to be completely legal.

@janemulberry

It's very common for people, and companies, not to bother replying to emails here - which makes one wonder why they bother to have websites with contact email  addresses in the first place.  You'll pretty much always get a response if you message them via Viber, though....

It's an issue with businesses in the UK as well. People think they need a website and pay for the whole package, including an email address no one ever checks!

The one immigration assistant I did contact via Viber replied very quickly, suggesting I phone them. Unfortunately I have a degree of auditory processing disorder which makes phone calls difficult, so I messaged again via Viber instead. I didn't get another reply.

@janemulberry

Those of us in the know recognise "a degree of auditory processing disorder" as an ailment brought about in ladies by an official chanting the words "I now pronounce you...."

I blame mine mainly on my Tinnitus - there's nothing like a 24/7 performance of the Cicada Massed Bands to mess with the old lug-holes...

    @janemulberry
It's very common for people, and companies, not to bother replying to emails here - which makes one wonder why they bother to have websites with contact email  addresses in the first place.  You'll pretty much always get a response if you message them via Viber, though.... -@JimJ

Lots of countries are like that, Malta and Austria. Austria still uses Fax machines  although they have an email address.

    @janemulberryThose of us in the know recognise "a degree of auditory processing disorder" as an ailment brought about in ladies by an official chanting the words "I now pronounce you...." I blame mine mainly on my Tinnitus - there's nothing like a 24/7 performance of the Cicada Massed Bands to mess with the old lug-holes... -@JimJ

Oh yes! My cicada chorus is busy full-time.  Still, I'd rather the cicadas than the weirder forms of tinnitus my brain tried to interpret as a brass band playing under the bedroom window all night, morse code, or very distorted radio signal when I first developed a very strange type of migraine. Thankfully after a few years of those far more annoying noises in my head, I now just have happy cicadas.

And a very chatty husband... but unfortunately the sounds he makes aren't imaginary and are even harder to ignore.