However, this number does not include immigrants who have already obtained Bulgarian citizenship or illegal immigrants.

An estimated 500 Macedonians receive Bulgarian citizenship every week.

As a result of his flight, he lost his Bulgarian citizenship and became a stateless person.

In 2006 Georgievski applied for and was granted Bulgarian citizenship.

He has also expressed an interest in obtaining Bulgarian citizenship.

Bulgarian citizenship can be acquired in the following ways:

Bulgaria allows its citizens to hold foreign citizenship in addition to their Bulgarian citizenship.

However most of the recent immigrants still have only Bulgarian citizenship.

About 50,000 Macedonian nationals have received Bulgarian citizenship in the past 10 years.

Mrs Mitrova was also given Bulgarian citizenship early this year.