About the author: Darya Melnik
My path
I have spent twelve years helping families relocate, and I have been at BRIDGES since 2018. I was born in Minsk into a family of doctors and studied at the faculty of international relations there from 2007 to 2012, specialising in migration law. An internship at a consulate showed me how easily people get lost in simple steps.
From 2012 to 2018 I worked at a relocation agency in Vilnius: residence permits in Lithuania and Poland, schools, doctors, rentals and bank accounts. I led families from the first call to their children's first school day. I joined BRIDGES as a senior consultant in 2018, and in 2022 I moved to the head office in Budapest. When the rules for Russian and Belarusian passport holders changed, I looked for the legal routes that stayed open.
I speak Russian, English, Polish and Lithuanian. I live in Budapest with my husband and two daughters, and I have moved countries with children twice myself.
What I work on
- Residence in Europe for families with Russian or Belarusian passports
- A second passport as a route to EU residence
- Documents for children and parents
- The move itself (school, doctor, bank, rental), support after the status is granted and renewals
How I work
One person stays in touch with the family from start to finish. In the first week you get a plan with dates. I answer the same day, even when there is no news yet. I am honest about timelines: if there is no fast route, I say so straight away. The passport a family holds decides the route, and spouses, children and parents go into one plan from the start.
My full profile is on the BRIDGES website: Darya Melnik, BRIDGES expert.
Connection with BRIDGES
I work at BRIDGES, a firm that advises families on residence and citizenship, including Bulgarian citizenship by origin. I write this guide openly as a BRIDGES consultant. If you ask for help through the consultation page, your request goes to BRIDGES.
How I write
Each article is dated, every rule is checked against the Bulgarian Citizenship Act, an official Bulgarian or EU source, or BRIDGES published data, and sources are listed at the end. How this works is described in sources and methodology.