Latvia

The ninety days come from Regulation (EU) 2018/1806 and not from Latvian law. What the Imigrācijas likums of 20 August 2026 adds is a duty no other country in this corpus imposes on tourists. Article 12(1) requires a national of any state except the European Union, NATO, the OECD, the European Economic Area, Switzerland, Andorra, Brazil, Monaco, San Marino and the Holy See, holding no Latvian visa or residence permit, to file information for the prevention of a threat to the State 48 hours before entering: the purpose of the trip, the planned length and place of stay, the route, contact details, elected offices held by the traveller or their relatives, candidacies, present or past status as a State or municipal official, and service in armed forces, a special service, a border guard, customs, or a justice, internal affairs or diplomatic service. Failing to file, or filing incomplete or untrue information, carries a fine of up to four hundred fine units under article 120. The ordinary entry conditions sit in article 6(1) and are cumulative: a valid travel document, a visa or residence permit where one is needed, a valid health insurance policy, and the necessary funds. Cabinet Regulation No. 225 puts the funds at 14 EUR for each day of a stay of up to 30 days and at the minimum monthly wage for anything longer.

Article 27(1) of the Imigrācijas likums lists thirty-six grounds on which a foreigner may ask for a temporary residence permit, and not one of them is private means, rent, investment income or savings. Latvia's answer to the question is a long-term visa rather than a residence permit. Article 17(6) makes remote work a ground for issuing one, and it is written narrowly: the work must be for an employer registered in another member state of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or as a self-employed person registered in an OECD member state. Article 18(2) caps it at one year, allows exactly one further year, and then shuts the door for six months against a new long-term visa asked for on the same ground. Article 18(3) excludes citizens of the Russian Federation from a visa for employment or for remote work altogether, outside seasonal work. The visa is not a residence permit: it does not count towards permanent residence, because article 31(5) excludes from continuous residence any time spent in Latvia on a visa.

Point 34 of article 27(1) of the Imigrācijas likums is a route for retired people and it is the twelfth word of the point that decides who may use it. The permit runs for up to two years and asks three things at once: that the foreigner may enter and stay in Latvia under the procedure laid down in international treaties binding on the Republic of Latvia on the abolition of the visa requirement, that he has sufficient means of subsistence, and that he has reached the pension age set in Latvia. The first condition is not the Union visa exemption: Regulation (EU) 2018/1806 is a Union instrument and not an international treaty binding on Latvia, and article 6(3)(1) of the same Act names the two separately in one sentence. So the route is open to nationals of the states Latvia has a bilateral visa-waiver agreement with, and the Act does not list them. The pension age itself is not in the Imigrācijas likums either: the only age set in Latvian law for an old-age pension is the 65 years in article 11(1) of the law Par valsts pensijām, stated there together with an insurance record of at least 20 years that a newly arriving foreigner could not have. Citizens of Russia and Belarus are excluded from point 34 by name.

A work permit in Latvia is a residence permit with an employment endorsement written into it. Article 27(1)(12) gives a permit of up to one year for employment, and expressly not where the employer is a micro-enterprise taxpayer; the EU Blue Card under point 13 runs for two. Article 42(2) puts the employment right inside the residence decision rather than in a separate document, and article 42(1) grades it: restricted to a named employer and occupation, or for company office, or unrestricted. The hard part of the process is not the applicant's. Article 21(1)(5) refuses to confirm the employer's invitation if the vacancy was not registered with the State Employment Agency, or if the Agency has not given an opinion that recruiting the foreigner is necessary, or if the applicant's qualification does not match the registered vacancy, or if the requirements written into the vacancy materially exceed the competences in the occupational standard. Article 21(1)(7) refuses it where the inviting party owes more than 150 EUR in tax, and points 8 and 9 refuse it where a labour-supply company is an inactive taxpayer, was founded in the last six months, or has a State Revenue Service rating showing breaches.

Latvia's famous residence-by-property route is not restricted in the Imigrācijas likums of 20 August 2026. It is absent. The 2002 Act carried it at article 23(1)(29) - 250 000 EUR of real property in Riga, Jūrmala and a named ring of towns and parishes, or two properties of that value together elsewhere - and carried a bank route beside it at article 23(1)(30), subordinated liabilities of at least 280 000 EUR with a Latvian credit institution and a 25 000 EUR payment to the budget. Transitional provision 1 of the new Act repeals the 2002 Act outright, and article 27(1) of the new Act contains no property ground and no bank ground. What survives is capital in a company and money in a fund. Point 10 asks for an investment in the share capital of a company of at least 50 000 EUR where the company has no more than 50 staff and turnover or balance sheet no higher than 10 million EUR, or 100 000 EUR where it is larger, plus 10 000 EUR to the State budget, plus a running condition that the company pay at least 40 000 EUR, or 100 000 EUR for the larger case, in taxes each reporting year. Point 36 asks for a contract and a transfer of at least 150 000 EUR for at least five years into a State-established alternative investment fund manager, plus the same 10 000 EUR. Both can be switched off: article 28 lets the Cabinet suspend issuing under point 10 or point 36 for up to five years for nationals of a named third country.

Full-time study at an accredited Latvian higher education institution or college is point 21 of article 27(1), and the permit runs for up to two years. Schooling below that level is point 22, for up to one year, and is written for a person who began before turning 18, for a pupil or student exchange, or for another task assessed objectively. After the course there is point 24: nine months after finishing a research project or a full-time second or third cycle programme with a State-recognised diploma, provided the application is filed no later than three months after the study permit expired. The family rule is the sharp one. Article 27(3) lets a family member ask for a permit for the same period in every case in article 27(1) - except where a foreigner who is not a national of a NATO member state holds the permit as a student on a first or second cycle programme. A bachelor's or master's student from outside NATO therefore comes alone. Study time also counts only half towards permanent residence under article 31(4)(1).

Latvia has two answers to descent and the second one skips the first. The residence answer is point 6 of article 27(1) of the Imigrācijas likums: a temporary residence permit for up to six years where one of the applicant's ascendants in the direct line is a Latvian or a Liv, and article 44(4) attaches unrestricted employment rights to it, so the holder is not tied to an employer. Point 5 is the other half, for up to two years, for a person who was a Latvian citizen on 17 June 1940 or whose parent is a Latvian citizen permanently resident in Latvia. The citizenship answer is article 2(1)(3) of the Pilsonības likums, and it is not naturalisation. A Latvian or a Liv is a Latvian citizen on registration if he shows three things: that his ancestor lived permanently in the territory of Latvia as it was before 17 June 1940 in 1881 or later, that he knows Latvian under article 20, and that he or a parent or grandparent belongs to the state nation or to the autochthonous people - or explains why he cannot show that and offers other proof instead, including a confirmation of belonging to the Latvian community where he lives abroad. Article 9(3) allows dual citizenship on that route, and article 21(3) excuses him from the written essay the language test otherwise requires.

The spouse of a Latvian citizen, of a Latvian non-citizen, or of a foreigner holding a permanent residence permit may ask for a temporary residence permit of up to two years under point 2 of article 27(1), and the point writes the condition into the grant: the permit is issued on condition that the spouses will live together and have a common household. Article 44(2) gives that spouse unrestricted employment rights, and the spouse of a citizen or non-citizen who holds only a temporary permit is still entitled under article 9(2) of the Veselības aprūpes finansēšanas likums to State-paid childbirth assistance even though the rest of the State-paid minimum is closed to temporary permit holders. The Act also plans for the marriage ending. Point 8 of article 27(1) gives a permit until the divorce judgment takes effect or the sworn notary issues the divorce certificate and the child's residence is determined, but no longer than a year, where the marriage is being dissolved and there is a child who is a Latvian citizen or non-citizen. Point 35(a) carries it further: where the marriage has been dissolved and the minor child of the foreigner and the former spouse - a Latvian citizen or non-citizen - has had their residence set with the foreigner, a two-year permit follows.

Article 2 of the Imigrācijas likums of 2026 states its own scope and it is narrower than its predecessor's: the Act sets the procedure for the entry, stay, early integration, transit, departure and detention of third-country nationals, whom it then calls ārzemnieki. A Union citizen is outside it. What reaches a Union citizen is Cabinet Regulation No. 675 of 30 August 2011. Point 16 gives the citizen and the family member three months from the first day of entry on a valid travel document, provided they are not an actual, present and serious threat to State security, public order or public health. Point 25 makes registration with the Office the step after three months, and point 27 lists the seven states of being that entitle a citizen to the registration certificate - employed, self-employed, a service provider or a service provider's worker, a student with means and cover, a person with means and cover, the spouse of a Latvian citizen, a Latvian non-citizen or a permanent permit holder with means and cover, or a person under guardianship here. Point 6 says in terms that no employment right need be obtained. Point 30.1 gives permanent residence after five continuous years of lawful stay. Two things date the Regulation. It is issued under article 2.1(2) of the Immigration Law, an article the 2026 Act does not contain, and point 18 still measures a non-Union family member's visa requirement by Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001, which article 14 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1806 repealed.

Article 12(1) of the Pilsonības likums sets eight conditions for naturalisation and the first of them is the one most summaries get wrong. Five years of permanent residence in Latvia are required, a break of up to a year in total is allowed and not in the last year, and then the parenthesis: for a citizen of another state or a stateless person the five years run from the day the permanent residence permit or the permanent residence certificate was received, not from arrival. Since permanent residence under article 31 of the Imigrācijas likums itself takes five continuous years, that is ten years of residence for a newly arriving foreigner. The other conditions are knowledge of Latvian, of the basic provisions of the Satversme, of the text of the anthem and of the basics of Latvian history and culture, a legal source of subsistence, the oath, and the absence of the eleven bars in article 11. The sixth condition is renunciation: the applicant must have filed notice of renouncing their previous citizenship and obtained an expatriation permit or a document confirming loss of it. Article 12(2) lifts that for citizens of EU, EFTA and NATO member states and of Australia, Brazil and New Zealand, and for states Latvia has a dual citizenship treaty with; article 9(4) forbids dual citizenship to everyone else naturalised. A non-citizen or a stateless person files instead a confirmation that they hold no other state's citizenship.

Latvia settles residence in article 14 of the law Par nodokļiem un nodevām, and the first of its three limbs is unusual. Most countries ask whether a person has a permanent home; Latvia asks whether their deklarētā dzīvesvieta - their declared place of residence, the address entered in the population register - is in Latvia. The second limb is 183 days or more in any 12-month period that begins or ends in the tax year. The third is Latvian citizenship with employment abroad by the Latvian government. Any one of the three is enough, and article 14(5) makes everyone else a non-resident taxed only on Latvian-source income. Article 14(3) says what the day count does at the edges: a person not a resident in the pre-taxation year becomes a resident in the taxation year from the date they first arrived in Latvia, and a person who will not be a resident in the post-taxation year is not treated as one after the date they left, if they then have closer ties to a foreign state - property, family or social insurance payments there. The rate is in article 15(2) of the law Par iedzīvotāju ienākuma nodokli: 25.5 per cent up to the maximum amount of the object of mandatory social insurance contributions, and 33 per cent above it. Capital income, including capital gains, is 25.5 per cent.

Latvia divides public healthcare into two layers and puts the permanent residence permit on the boundary. Article 8 defines the State-paid minimum: emergency medical assistance, childbirth assistance, family doctor services with the diagnostics and prescriptions that go with them, and treatment of diseases with a significant effect on public health including mental illness and tuberculosis. Article 9(1) lists who gets it: a Latvian citizen, a Latvian non-citizen, a foreigner with a permanent residence permit in Latvia, a stateless person recognised here, a refugee or a person with alternative status, a detainee, an asylum seeker, and the persons in article 11. A foreigner with a temporary residence permit is not on that list, and article 9(2) gives their only exception - the spouse of a Latvian citizen or non-citizen gets State-paid childbirth assistance. Above the minimum sits compulsory State health insurance under article 10, reached by being socially insured for health under the law Par valsts sociālo apdrošināšanu, by belonging to one of the twenty-one groups in article 11(2), or by paying the contribution, which article 12(1) fixes at five per cent of twelve times the national minimum monthly wage. Article 11(3)(4) brings in EU, EEA and Swiss citizens who are here by reason of employment or self-employment, and their family members. Article 7 stands apart: everyone has the right to emergency medical assistance.

Chapter XIII.1 of the Maksājumu pakalpojumu un elektroniskās naudas likums is Latvia's enactment of the Payment Accounts Directive and it is addressed to credit institutions providing payment-account services to European Union residents who are consumers. Article 97.2(1) makes offering a pamatkonts - a basic account - a duty rather than a product decision. Article 97.2(2) says who may open one and adds a class most member states do not write out: a consumer who is a European Union resident, and also a person who has no residence permit but whose removal from Latvia is not possible under Latvian law. The applicant signs a declaration that they hold no other account with those functions at a credit institution providing payment services in Latvia, and the bank has ten working days to open the account or refuse. Refusal is mandatory where opening or servicing the account would breach the law, including anti-money-laundering law, or where the consumer gave untrue information; it is discretionary where the consumer already has such an account or no longer meets article 97.2(2). The fee is capped twice over by article 97.4(3): it may not exceed the institution's own standard fee for natural persons, and it may not exceed by more than 25 per cent the average fee charged in Latvia, which the Finance Latvia Association publishes quarterly. A dormant account can be closed after 24 consecutive months without a transaction.

Article 47(1) of the Ceļu satiksmes likums says what a person may drive on in Latvia: a licence issued by an EU or EFTA member state or the United Kingdom, a licence showing the categories of the 1968 Convention on Road Traffic, or a licence showing no Convention categories - and that last one carries only category B, if the issuing state's licence allows driving a car, and a notarised Latvian translation if the entries are not in Latin letters. Article 47(2) then sets the clock: a driver arriving from abroad who stays longer than one year must exchange the licence, except an EU, EFTA or United Kingdom licence and except persons with diplomatic or consular immunity. What the exchange costs in effort is in Cabinet Regulation No. 103. Point 28 exchanges a Latvian, EU, EFTA or United Kingdom licence, and a licence from a state Latvia has a treaty with, without any examination. Point 29 exchanges anything else only after a category B driving examination, and then says in eight words what no summary mentions: a former USSR pattern licence is not exchanged. Point 28.1 adds a trap of its own: a licence that expired three or more years ago is exchanged only after both a theory and a driving examination for category B, even where it allows driving lorries or buses. Point 31 waives examinations where the person has previously held a Latvian licence for the same categories.

Latvia does not decide this. Personal property imported by someone moving their normal residence from a third country into the customs territory enters free of import duties on conditions a directly applicable Union regulation sets: six months' possession, and use at the former residence for durable goods; a continuous twelve months of normal residence outside the customs territory; and entry for free circulation within twelve months of the move. Alcohol, tobacco, commercial means of transport and trade equipment other than portable instruments of the applied or liberal arts get no relief at all. Latvia has been inside the customs union since 1 May 2004, inside Schengen since 21 December 2007 and inside the euro area since 1 January 2014, so a move from another member state is not an import in the first place.