Lack of access to the statelessness determination procedure 14. Access to the statelessness determination procedure is very difficult in practice, even in cases of lawfully residing stateless persons. The Migration Directorate often does not accept applications presented to them, citing different arguments including alleged lack of prospects of success of the application and requirements to present applications at specific times of day (e.g. “reception time is only on Wednesday from 10:30 to 11:30 am”). Irregularly staying stateless persons run a real risk of being detained during the negotiation process of having their applications admitted for review. An additional deterrent to stateless people in an irregular situation seeking statelessness determination is that there have been cases of the competent authorities issuing return orders to irregularly residing stateless persons when they present to apply for stateless status. Lack of protection during the procedure for applicants for statelessness status 15. Applicants for stateless status currently do not have any rights in Bulgaria, such as a right to stay on the territory of the country or access to means of subsistence during the statelessness determination procedure. Irregularly staying stateless persons in Bulgaria do not have any access to minimum social rights such as the right to work and the right to social assistance and access to social services. These persons usually do not have any permanent income and live in stressful insecurity every day in order to provide food and accommodation for themselves and their families. Burden of proof and remedies in the statelessness determination procedure 16. The first-instance decision-making authority in Bulgaria for statelessness determination, the Migration Directorate, has developed the practice of discontinuing the procedure if the applicant is unable to present any document requested by the authorities within a short timeframe (usually three days).5 Discontinuation of the SDP instead of rejecting the stateless status application on its substance weakens the effectiveness of remedies for applicants, because, even if they win the case in court, the court can only oblige the Migration Directorate to continue the procedure. The court is not competent to pronounce on the substance of the application. Thus, applicants might face numerous subsequent discontinuations which in practice serve to excessively prolong the decision on the application. No access to the labour market and the health care system by holders of statelessness status 17. Recently, the Bulgarian law provided the possibility to obtain a ‘continuous’ residence permit after a person is granted statelessness status. Positively, this gives recognised 5 According to the official statistics of the Migration Directorate as of 26 August 2019 (Ministry of the Interior, Decision No.812104/26.08.2019 to grant access to public information), in 2019 so far the Migration Directorate has issued only 1 decision to refuse the status of a stateless person and 9 decisions to discontinue the statelessness determination procedure. 4