Bulgarian work record before 1997: how to find and prove it
The НОИ online statement hides service from before 1997. See the one free check that exists, which certificates prove it and when the case goes to court.
You open the online statement of the National Social Security Institute (НОИ) before retiring and you see a gap. Your first ten or fifteen years are simply missing.
This is normal and does not mean your length of service is lost. It only means that those years never entered an electronic register. Here is where they are kept and how to get them out on paper.
❓Can your employment service from before 1997 be checked online?
Source: НОИ, Insurance archive
Why old service cannot be seen online anywhere
Personal electronic record-keeping for social insurance starts in the late 1990s. Before that, nobody recorded against your personal identification number (ЕГН) how many days you worked in a given month. That information existed only on paper, in the enterprise’s accounts department.
That is why the online statement shows you a working life that starts somewhere around 2000. If you want to see exactly what it shows and from when the data is reliable, see the НОИ online statement of employment service. This article starts where the online statement stops.
What matters is that the law itself never relied on the register alone. Paper documents are an equally valid way of proving service today.
Ordinance on Pensions and Insurance Service (НПОС)
Art. 40(1)
The register is only one of several recognised ways of proving service. Record books and certificates in the approved form stand on an equal footing with it.
Official Bulgarian text
„Осигурителният стаж се установява с данните по чл. 5, ал. 4, т. 1 КСО... с трудови, служебни, осигурителни книжки и с документ по утвърден образец.“
The only online check that works
When a company ceases to operate and has no successor, its documents do not disappear. The law sends them to the territorial office of the НОИ.
Social Security Code (КСО)
Art. 5(10)
Official Bulgarian text
„При прекратяване на дейността на осигурителите, които нямат правоприемник, документите по ал. 7, т. 1, както и неполучените от осигурените лица трудови книжки, издадени удостоверения за трудов/осигурителен стаж и осигурителен доход и други съхранени от осигурителите документи, въз основа на които може да се установи осигурителен стаж и/или осигурителен доход, и/или категория труд, се предават в съответното териториално поделение на Националния осигурителен институт“
The НОИ keeps a public list of these companies. Access is free, and it asks for no ЕГН, no personal identification code (ПИК) and no registration. This is the check you should do first, because its answer determines the whole route from there.
Checking whether your company’s archive is with the НОИ
A public НОИ register of companies without a successor whose payroll records have been accepted into the archive.
Search by the name the company had at the time
Enterprises of the 1980s and 1990s often changed their names when they were reorganised. Try both the old and the new name, and the town.
Read the result
If the company is on the list, the payroll records are with the НОИ and your length of service is issued with a certificate. If it is not, what remains is the employer, its successor or the court.
What this look-up does not show
Ask Pravko and get an answer with citations from the law.
Where old service is kept: the four addresses
The search goes in order. You move to the next step only when the previous one has given a refusal or an empty result.
The order of the search
Your employment record book (трудова книжка)
If the length of service is entered and certified with the signatures of the chief accountant and the head of the enterprise and stamped, a separate certificate is usually not needed. Books issued under the old rules remain an official document for what is entered in them.
The employer or its successor
If the company still exists or someone has taken it over, it issues a certificate of insurance service in the approved form, based on its payroll records.
For terminated companies without a successor. This is where payroll records, uncollected employment record books and already issued certificates go.
The organisation that keeps the payroll records
Sometimes the documents have stayed with a government department, an enterprise or a municipality. They can also issue a document on service and income, but only after prior permission from the territorial office of the НОИ.
Which certificate you need
Which form you get depends on two things: what you need to prove and who issues the document. If the company still exists, the employer issues the certificate itself. If the payroll records are in the НОИ archive, the forms are different.
| Form | What it proves | Who issues it and when |
|---|---|---|
| УП-3 | Insurance service | The employer or its successor, while the company exists. Free, within 14 days |
| УП-13 | Insurance service, and at your express request employment service is entered in it too | The НОИ insurance archive. The standard case when retiring from a closed company. The same form is also used at the Labour Office (Бюро по труда) |
| УП-15 | Insurable income | The НОИ insurance archive, when you also need to prove the salary on which contributions were paid |
| УП-17 | That the archive holds no written data for the period | The НОИ insurance archive, only when you are going to court. Without it the case does not start |
For farmers who were cooperative members, the archive issues a separate form, УП-14
Free, up to 30 days
Time limit and price of certificates from the НОИ insurance archive
Source: НОИ, Issuing certificates of employment/insurance service and income
How to file the application with the НОИ
You do not need to travel to the town where the company worked. The application is accepted at any territorial office or archive centre, regardless of where you live and where the documents are kept.
Steps for applying
The forms for the insurance archive are published on the НОИ website. You can also get one on the spot.
Describe the period and the position
Enter the names of the insurer, the years for which you want the certificate and the positions you held. For women, the period of maternity leave is stated; for men, the period of compulsory military service.
On the spot at a НОИ office, by post, or electronically through the Unified Portal for Electronic Services with a qualified electronic signature (КЕП) or a ПИК.
Wait up to 30 days
Up to 30 daysThe certificate is collected in person, sent by post with a return receipt or delivered electronically.
What to attach to the application
If you have a НОИ ПИК, the application is submitted entirely electronically
A copy of your employment record book
If you have it
Certificate of identity of names (удостоверение за идентичност на имена)
If you changed your name, for example on marriage. It is issued by the municipality
Power of attorney
If someone else applies on your behalf. Notarial certification is not required when the attorney is a parent, spouse or child, but the family relationship is stated expressly
Certificate of heirs
When the application is submitted by heirs
If you do not yet have an electronic access code, see how to get a НОИ ПИК.
When the archive has nothing: the court case
Sometimes the company went bankrupt without handing over its payroll records at all. In that case the length of service is established by the district court under a separate law written for exactly this situation.
Act on Establishing Employment and Insurance Service by Court Procedure (ЗУТОССР)
Art. 3(1)
The case is brought at your address, not at the address of the vanished company. The defendant is the territorial office of the НОИ.
Official Bulgarian text
„Искът за установяване на трудов и осигурителен стаж се предявява пред районния съд по постоянния адрес на ищеца.“
The first step, however, is not in court but again at the НОИ. You need certificate УП-17, in which the НОИ confirms that its archive holds no data about you for that period.
Act on Establishing Employment and Insurance Service by Court Procedure (ЗУТОССР)
Art. 5(2)
The provision applies both when the insurer has ceased operating without a successor and when it has not ceased, but its payroll records and papers have been seized under an instruction of the НОИ governor.
Official Bulgarian text
„се представя удостоверение от съответното териториално поделение на Националния осигурителен институт, че в архивното стопанство липсват писмени данни за претендирания стаж.“
Without this document the statement of claim is left without progress (оставя се без движение). You are given a seven-day period to produce it, and if you do not, the claim is returned. That is why УП-17 is requested before anything else, not while the case is under way.
The good news is that the state does not charge fees for these cases.
Act on Establishing Employment and Insurance Service by Court Procedure (ЗУТОССР)
Art. 9(1)
In cases on employment service the claimant does not pay costs either. In cases on insurance service the costs stay at the claimant’s expense.
Official Bulgarian text
„По делата за установяване на трудов и осигурителен стаж по този закон не се събират държавни такси.“
The mistake that sinks most cases
People go to court with two former colleagues and expect them to tell the court that they worked together. But witness testimony is not the ticket in. It is the supplement.
Act on Establishing Employment and Insurance Service by Court Procedure (ЗУТОССР)
Art. 6(1)
Official Bulgarian text
„По исковете за установяване на трудов и осигурителен стаж не се допускат свидетелски показания, ако не са представени писмени доказателства, които установяват вероятността на трудовия/осигурителния стаж и които са издадени от работодателя/осигурителя, при който е придобит стажът, и по време на полагане на стажа.“
Paper first, then witnesses
There is a second condition that surprises even more people. The witnesses themselves must also carry documents for themselves.
Act on Establishing Employment and Insurance Service by Court Procedure (ЗУТОССР)
Art. 6(4)
A colleague without their own employment record book or contract for the same period will not be allowed to testify.
Official Bulgarian text
„За свидетели се допускат само лица, притежаващи писмени доказателства относно това, че са работили или изпълнявали длъжност при същия работодател/осигурител през периода, през който е положен претендираният стаж.“
The trap: the court recognises the service but not the salary
This is the part that is explained almost nowhere, yet it decides how much money you will receive every month for the rest of your life.
Act on Establishing Employment and Insurance Service by Court Procedure (ЗУТОССР)
Art. 1(3)
Official Bulgarian text
„По реда на този закон не може да се установява размер на трудово възнаграждение и на осигурителен доход.“
The court can recognise that you worked. It cannot recognise how much you received. And the pension is calculated from both.
Ordinance on Pensions and Insurance Service (НПОС)
Art. 40(6)
Where there is no salary data, the document starts from the minimum wage for those years, not from your real pay. Under paragraph 7 of the same article, the amount of the pension is also determined on the minimum wage when there is no income data.
Official Bulgarian text
„Когато няма данни за трудовото възнаграждение, в издаваните документи за пенсиониране се посочва минималната работна заплата за страната за съответния период“
Look for the payroll records, not only the service
Frequently asked questions
How much does a certificate from the НОИ archive cost?
Nothing. Certificates of insurance service and income are issued free of charge within 30 days. You pay only for a duplicate of a certificate that has already been issued, at the НОИ tariff.
The company went bankrupt thirty years ago. Is there any point in looking?
Yes. The obligation to hand over documents to the НОИ has existed for a long time, and the archive holds the payroll records of thousands of closed enterprises, including labour cooperative farms (ТКЗС) and labour-productive cooperatives. Checking the public list takes minutes and is free.
I lost my employment record book. Is that the end?
No. The employment record book is one way of proving service, but not the only one. If the payroll records are in the НОИ archive, the certificate is issued without it. A copy of the book is attached only if you have one.
How long does the court case take?
It depends on the court and on how quickly you gather the written evidence. Plan for months, not weeks, and start before you apply for a pension, not after you have been refused.
Can I check my service with just my ЕГН, without a ПИК?
Not for personal data. The look-up of terminated insurers is open because it contains only company names. For your own data at the НОИ you always need a means of electronic identification, a ПИК or a qualified electronic signature. Also check the retirement requirements, so you know how much service you are missing.
Ask Pravko and get an answer with citations from the law.
⚠️ Important
Pravko provides legal information, but it does not replace advice from a lawyer. For important legal matters, consult a licensed lawyer.
