Bulgarian news portal Sega.bg writes that from the beginning of 2015 until July 7, 2021, 8,474 Albanians were approved for their request of Bulgarian origin.

Albanians are in fifth place among foreigners who recognize their Bulgarian roots. Only Macedonia, Ukraine, Moldova and Serbia are ahead of them. This is shown by the data of the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, submitted to “Sega” under the Law on Access to Public Information, the news portal writes.

The certificate of Bulgarian origin is used to obtain Bulgarian citizenship according to a simplified procedure. Against this, there are 650 refusals, of which more than 2/3 – 465 were issued in 2015. In other years, the rejections are a minimal percentage, according to ASR data. The record of approved applications is in 2016-2017. Then there were 73 rejections.

For comparison, the number of Macedonians whose requests for Bulgarian origin were approved by the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad in this period is 41,855. Apart from Albania and Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine and Moldova are also in the top five. The approved requests from their citizens are 8,688, 16,018 and 9,098 respectively, writes Sega.