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Every Article Number Published About Latvian Immigration Before September 2026 Is Now Wrong, And So Are The Cabinet Regulations' Own Citations

On 15 September 2026 a wholly new Imigrācijas likums, adopted by the Saeima on 20 August 2026 and published in Latvijas Vēstnesis 167 of 1 September 2026, replaced the Act of 31 October 2002. Transitional provision 1 repeals the old Act outright, and transitional provision 2 repeals the separate law on EU long-term resident status, folding that status into article 24(1)(2) as the pastāvīgās uzturēšanās atļauja. The renumbering is total: the catalogue of temporary residence grounds moved from article 23 to article 27, permanent residence from a separate Act to article 31, employment from article 9 to articles 42 to 47. Three things the new Act brings are new in substance rather than in numbering. Article 12 creates a duty to declare a trip 48 hours before entry for nationals of every state outside ten named groups. Articles 48 and 49 create a compulsory early integration programme - a Latvian culture and history course and Latvian at A1 - for anyone whose temporary permits total 18 months or more, paid for by the foreigner; transitional provision 20 postpones article 48 to 31 December 2027. And article 27 simply does not contain the property and bank investor routes the old Act carried. The subordinate legislation has not caught up. Transitional provision 3 keeps thirty-six Cabinet regulations applicable until 1 December 2027 in so far as they do not conflict with the new Act, and those regulations still cite the repealed Act's article numbers on their face: Regulation No. 675 is issued under article 2.1(2) and Regulation No. 225 under article 4(1)(5) and 4.2(3), and the Act in force has neither article.

Verified with official sourceActively changing right nowlast checked 2026-10-11

Topics it changes

What it requires

  • An application filed before 15 September 2026 is decided under the 2002 Act
  • A permit issued before that date stays valid to the end of its registration or validity period
  • A renewal is decided under the new Act, and where the new Act has no ground for it, under the transitional provisions

At a glance

New Act adopted
20 August 2026

Published in Latvijas Vēstnesis 167 of 1 September 2026, OP number 2026/167.1, in force from 15 September 2026.

Old Act
Repealed in full

Transitional provision 1 of the Imigrācijas likums of 2026, which repeals the Act adopted on 31 October 2002.

Applications filed before the changeover
Decided under the 2002 Act

Transitional provision 4 of the Imigrācijas likums of 2026.

Cabinet regulations still in force on the old Act's authority
Until 1 December 2027

Transitional provision 3, which lists thirty-six of them and applies them only in so far as they do not conflict with the new Act.

Compulsory integration programme
From 31 December 2027

Transitional provision 20 postpones article 48; article 49, which makes the foreigner pay for it, carries no such postponement.

Integration threshold
18 months of temporary permits

Article 48(1) of the Imigrācijas likums, counting consecutive permits together.

Permanent residence renamed
EU long-term resident status

Article 24(1)(2) of the Imigrācijas likums, which defines the pastāvīgās uzturēšanās atļauja as that status.

Why the stale citations matter to a reader rather than only to a lawyer

Likumi.lv renders a reference to the Imigrācijas likums as a hyperlink, and when the Act behind that name was replaced the hyperlink followed the name. So Cabinet Regulation No. 675 reads "Issued under article 2.1(2) of the Immigration Law" with the words Immigration Law linking to the Act of 2026, which has no article 2.1; Cabinet Regulation No. 225 does the same for articles 4(1)(5) and 4.2(3). Nothing on either page says the reference has moved. The rules themselves are not in doubt - transitional provision 3 keeps both regulations applicable until 1 December 2027 in so far as they do not conflict with the new Act - but anyone following the citation to check the delegation will arrive at an article that does not exist.

What the changeover does not touch

The Pilsonības likums, the 1995 law on non-citizens, the Bezvalstnieku likums, the two tax Acts, the health financing Act, the payments Act and the road traffic Act are all separate instruments and none of them was repealed. The only place the changeover reaches them is through cross-references: transitional provisions 13 and 14 keep social assistance and healthcare open, until amendments are made and no later than 1 August 2027, to holders of permits under article 27(1) points 3, 6 and 26 and sub-point 35(d).

What the law says

Text layer - verbatim verifiedImigrācijas likums · Pārejas noteikumu 1. punkts · consolidated to 2026-09-15
«Ar šā likuma spēkā stāšanos spēku zaudē Imigrācijas likums»

Our translation - not official

On the coming into force of this Act, the Imigrācijas likums loses force

The rest of the point is the list of gazette references for the 2002 Act and its twenty-six sets of amendments.

Read it at the source
About this source

The systematisation service of Latvia's official publisher. The state joint-stock company Latvijas Vēstnesis issues the official gazette at vestnesis.lv and separately runs likumi.lv, where every instrument is kept as a series of point-in-time versions. An instrument is addressed by a numeric document id, as /ta/id/370622-imigracijas-likums or simply /ta/id/370622, and the slug is decorative: the bare id answers. Each page carries a version selector showing the redaction in force and the date range it covers - Attēlotā redakcija, 15.09.2026.-30.12.2027. Spēkā esošā - and, where an amendment has been adopted but has not yet taken effect, a future redaction with its own date. The page footer carries the act's identity card: issuing body, date adopted, date in force, and the Latvijas Vēstnesis issue and OP number of the official publication. A repealed instrument keeps its address and gains a banner naming its successor, which is how the replacement of the Imigrācijas likums on 15 September 2026 is discoverable at all. Firecrawl reads the site without a proxy or a warm-up.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **Nothing here is the official text.** Every page carries, in its own words, "Sistematizēti tiesību akti ir informatīvi. Pretrunu gadījumā vadās pēc oficiālās publikācijas" - systematised legal acts are informative, and in case of contradiction the official publication governs. The official publication is the gazette at vestnesis.lv, identified by issue number and OP number, and a point that turns on an exact wording should be checked there. **The hyperlinks in a consolidated text follow a name rather than an instrument, and they move silently.** Cabinet regulations issued under the Imigrācijas likums still cite the repealed 2002 Act's article numbers on their face, and likumi.lv now renders those references as links to the 2026 Act: Regulation No. 675 reads "Izdoti saskaņā ar Imigrācijas likuma 2.1 panta otro daļu" linking to an Act that has no article 2.1, and Regulation No. 225 does the same for articles 4(1)(5) and 4.2(3). Nothing on either page says the reference has moved. **A statute's body is served inside an HTML table and extracts with literal `<br>` between every paragraph and every numbered point.** A quotation that crosses one carries the tag, so quotations must be taken within a single point. **The version date is the date the redaction took effect, not a sweep date**, so the cut-off recorded from it says what has been incorporated and not when the editors last looked. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the sector average wages that Cabinet Regulation No. 225 point 5.3 measures a work visa against, which the Central Statistical Bureau publishes; the needy-person income level that Cabinet Regulation No. 675 measures a Union citizen's means against; the average payment-account fee that caps the basic account, which the Finance Latvia Association publishes quarterly; the list of states Latvia has a bilateral visa-waiver treaty or a driving-licence treaty with, which appears in no instrument read here; and the practice of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, which publishes at pmlp.gov.lv and is a different publisher.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedImigrācijas likums · Pārejas noteikumu 3. punkts · consolidated to 2026-09-15
«Līdz attiecīgo Ministru kabineta noteikumu spēkā stāšanās dienai, bet ne ilgāk kā līdz 2027. gada 1. decembrim ir piemērojami šādi Ministru kabineta noteikumi, ciktāl tie nav pretrunā ar šo likumu:»

Our translation - not official

Until the day the corresponding Cabinet regulations come into force, but no longer than until 1 December 2027, the following Cabinet regulations are applicable in so far as they do not conflict with this Act:

Thirty-six regulations follow, among them No. 675 on Union citizens, No. 225 on financial means, No. 564 on residence permits and No. 55 on the employment of foreigners.

Read it at the source
About this source

The systematisation service of Latvia's official publisher. The state joint-stock company Latvijas Vēstnesis issues the official gazette at vestnesis.lv and separately runs likumi.lv, where every instrument is kept as a series of point-in-time versions. An instrument is addressed by a numeric document id, as /ta/id/370622-imigracijas-likums or simply /ta/id/370622, and the slug is decorative: the bare id answers. Each page carries a version selector showing the redaction in force and the date range it covers - Attēlotā redakcija, 15.09.2026.-30.12.2027. Spēkā esošā - and, where an amendment has been adopted but has not yet taken effect, a future redaction with its own date. The page footer carries the act's identity card: issuing body, date adopted, date in force, and the Latvijas Vēstnesis issue and OP number of the official publication. A repealed instrument keeps its address and gains a banner naming its successor, which is how the replacement of the Imigrācijas likums on 15 September 2026 is discoverable at all. Firecrawl reads the site without a proxy or a warm-up.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **Nothing here is the official text.** Every page carries, in its own words, "Sistematizēti tiesību akti ir informatīvi. Pretrunu gadījumā vadās pēc oficiālās publikācijas" - systematised legal acts are informative, and in case of contradiction the official publication governs. The official publication is the gazette at vestnesis.lv, identified by issue number and OP number, and a point that turns on an exact wording should be checked there. **The hyperlinks in a consolidated text follow a name rather than an instrument, and they move silently.** Cabinet regulations issued under the Imigrācijas likums still cite the repealed 2002 Act's article numbers on their face, and likumi.lv now renders those references as links to the 2026 Act: Regulation No. 675 reads "Izdoti saskaņā ar Imigrācijas likuma 2.1 panta otro daļu" linking to an Act that has no article 2.1, and Regulation No. 225 does the same for articles 4(1)(5) and 4.2(3). Nothing on either page says the reference has moved. **A statute's body is served inside an HTML table and extracts with literal `<br>` between every paragraph and every numbered point.** A quotation that crosses one carries the tag, so quotations must be taken within a single point. **The version date is the date the redaction took effect, not a sweep date**, so the cut-off recorded from it says what has been incorporated and not when the editors last looked. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the sector average wages that Cabinet Regulation No. 225 point 5.3 measures a work visa against, which the Central Statistical Bureau publishes; the needy-person income level that Cabinet Regulation No. 675 measures a Union citizen's means against; the average payment-account fee that caps the basic account, which the Finance Latvia Association publishes quarterly; the list of states Latvia has a bilateral visa-waiver treaty or a driving-licence treaty with, which appears in no instrument read here; and the practice of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, which publishes at pmlp.gov.lv and is a different publisher.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedImigrācijas likums · Pārejas noteikumu 4. punkts · consolidated to 2026-09-15
«Dokumentus vīzas vai termiņuzturēšanās atļaujas pieprasīšanai, kas iesniegti līdz šā likuma spēkā stāšanās dienai, izskata un vīzas un termiņuzturēšanās atļaujas izsniedz saskaņā ar Imigrācijas likumu (pieņemts 2002. gada 31. oktobrī).»

Our translation - not official

Documents for requesting a visa or a temporary residence permit submitted before the day this Act comes into force are examined, and the visas and temporary residence permits issued, in accordance with the Imigrācijas likums (adopted on 31 October 2002).

Transitional provision 5 does the opposite for permanent residence: an application filed before the changeover is decided under the new Act.

Read it at the source
About this source

The systematisation service of Latvia's official publisher. The state joint-stock company Latvijas Vēstnesis issues the official gazette at vestnesis.lv and separately runs likumi.lv, where every instrument is kept as a series of point-in-time versions. An instrument is addressed by a numeric document id, as /ta/id/370622-imigracijas-likums or simply /ta/id/370622, and the slug is decorative: the bare id answers. Each page carries a version selector showing the redaction in force and the date range it covers - Attēlotā redakcija, 15.09.2026.-30.12.2027. Spēkā esošā - and, where an amendment has been adopted but has not yet taken effect, a future redaction with its own date. The page footer carries the act's identity card: issuing body, date adopted, date in force, and the Latvijas Vēstnesis issue and OP number of the official publication. A repealed instrument keeps its address and gains a banner naming its successor, which is how the replacement of the Imigrācijas likums on 15 September 2026 is discoverable at all. Firecrawl reads the site without a proxy or a warm-up.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **Nothing here is the official text.** Every page carries, in its own words, "Sistematizēti tiesību akti ir informatīvi. Pretrunu gadījumā vadās pēc oficiālās publikācijas" - systematised legal acts are informative, and in case of contradiction the official publication governs. The official publication is the gazette at vestnesis.lv, identified by issue number and OP number, and a point that turns on an exact wording should be checked there. **The hyperlinks in a consolidated text follow a name rather than an instrument, and they move silently.** Cabinet regulations issued under the Imigrācijas likums still cite the repealed 2002 Act's article numbers on their face, and likumi.lv now renders those references as links to the 2026 Act: Regulation No. 675 reads "Izdoti saskaņā ar Imigrācijas likuma 2.1 panta otro daļu" linking to an Act that has no article 2.1, and Regulation No. 225 does the same for articles 4(1)(5) and 4.2(3). Nothing on either page says the reference has moved. **A statute's body is served inside an HTML table and extracts with literal `<br>` between every paragraph and every numbered point.** A quotation that crosses one carries the tag, so quotations must be taken within a single point. **The version date is the date the redaction took effect, not a sweep date**, so the cut-off recorded from it says what has been incorporated and not when the editors last looked. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the sector average wages that Cabinet Regulation No. 225 point 5.3 measures a work visa against, which the Central Statistical Bureau publishes; the needy-person income level that Cabinet Regulation No. 675 measures a Union citizen's means against; the average payment-account fee that caps the basic account, which the Finance Latvia Association publishes quarterly; the list of states Latvia has a bilateral visa-waiver treaty or a driving-licence treaty with, which appears in no instrument read here; and the practice of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, which publishes at pmlp.gov.lv and is a different publisher.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedImigrācijas likums · 24. panta pirmās daļas 2. punkts · consolidated to 2026-09-15
«2) pastāvīgi — piešķirot Eiropas Savienības pastāvīgā iedzīvotāja statusu Latvijas Republikā (turpmāk — pastāvīgās uzturēšanās atļauja).»

Our translation - not official

permanently - by granting the status of a long-term resident of the European Union in the Republic of Latvia (hereinafter - the permanent residence permit).

Latvia no longer has a national permanent residence distinct from the Union status. Croatia, by contrast, keeps two settled statuses side by side.

Read it at the source
About this source

The systematisation service of Latvia's official publisher. The state joint-stock company Latvijas Vēstnesis issues the official gazette at vestnesis.lv and separately runs likumi.lv, where every instrument is kept as a series of point-in-time versions. An instrument is addressed by a numeric document id, as /ta/id/370622-imigracijas-likums or simply /ta/id/370622, and the slug is decorative: the bare id answers. Each page carries a version selector showing the redaction in force and the date range it covers - Attēlotā redakcija, 15.09.2026.-30.12.2027. Spēkā esošā - and, where an amendment has been adopted but has not yet taken effect, a future redaction with its own date. The page footer carries the act's identity card: issuing body, date adopted, date in force, and the Latvijas Vēstnesis issue and OP number of the official publication. A repealed instrument keeps its address and gains a banner naming its successor, which is how the replacement of the Imigrācijas likums on 15 September 2026 is discoverable at all. Firecrawl reads the site without a proxy or a warm-up.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **Nothing here is the official text.** Every page carries, in its own words, "Sistematizēti tiesību akti ir informatīvi. Pretrunu gadījumā vadās pēc oficiālās publikācijas" - systematised legal acts are informative, and in case of contradiction the official publication governs. The official publication is the gazette at vestnesis.lv, identified by issue number and OP number, and a point that turns on an exact wording should be checked there. **The hyperlinks in a consolidated text follow a name rather than an instrument, and they move silently.** Cabinet regulations issued under the Imigrācijas likums still cite the repealed 2002 Act's article numbers on their face, and likumi.lv now renders those references as links to the 2026 Act: Regulation No. 675 reads "Izdoti saskaņā ar Imigrācijas likuma 2.1 panta otro daļu" linking to an Act that has no article 2.1, and Regulation No. 225 does the same for articles 4(1)(5) and 4.2(3). Nothing on either page says the reference has moved. **A statute's body is served inside an HTML table and extracts with literal `<br>` between every paragraph and every numbered point.** A quotation that crosses one carries the tag, so quotations must be taken within a single point. **The version date is the date the redaction took effect, not a sweep date**, so the cut-off recorded from it says what has been incorporated and not when the editors last looked. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the sector average wages that Cabinet Regulation No. 225 point 5.3 measures a work visa against, which the Central Statistical Bureau publishes; the needy-person income level that Cabinet Regulation No. 675 measures a Union citizen's means against; the average payment-account fee that caps the basic account, which the Finance Latvia Association publishes quarterly; the list of states Latvia has a bilateral visa-waiver treaty or a driving-licence treaty with, which appears in no instrument read here; and the practice of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, which publishes at pmlp.gov.lv and is a different publisher.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedImigrācijas likums · 48. panta pirmā daļa · consolidated to 2026-09-15
«(1) Ārzemniekam, kuram izsniegtās termiņuzturēšanās atļaujas vai vairāku secīgi izsniegtu termiņuzturēšanās atļauju kopējais termiņš ir vismaz 18 mēneši, ir pienākums apgūt šā panta otrajā daļā noteikto agrīnās integrācijas programmu.»

Our translation - not official

A foreigner whose temporary residence permit, or the combined term of several consecutively issued temporary residence permits, is at least 18 months has a duty to complete the early integration programme laid down in the second paragraph of this article.

Read it at the source
About this source

The systematisation service of Latvia's official publisher. The state joint-stock company Latvijas Vēstnesis issues the official gazette at vestnesis.lv and separately runs likumi.lv, where every instrument is kept as a series of point-in-time versions. An instrument is addressed by a numeric document id, as /ta/id/370622-imigracijas-likums or simply /ta/id/370622, and the slug is decorative: the bare id answers. Each page carries a version selector showing the redaction in force and the date range it covers - Attēlotā redakcija, 15.09.2026.-30.12.2027. Spēkā esošā - and, where an amendment has been adopted but has not yet taken effect, a future redaction with its own date. The page footer carries the act's identity card: issuing body, date adopted, date in force, and the Latvijas Vēstnesis issue and OP number of the official publication. A repealed instrument keeps its address and gains a banner naming its successor, which is how the replacement of the Imigrācijas likums on 15 September 2026 is discoverable at all. Firecrawl reads the site without a proxy or a warm-up.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **Nothing here is the official text.** Every page carries, in its own words, "Sistematizēti tiesību akti ir informatīvi. Pretrunu gadījumā vadās pēc oficiālās publikācijas" - systematised legal acts are informative, and in case of contradiction the official publication governs. The official publication is the gazette at vestnesis.lv, identified by issue number and OP number, and a point that turns on an exact wording should be checked there. **The hyperlinks in a consolidated text follow a name rather than an instrument, and they move silently.** Cabinet regulations issued under the Imigrācijas likums still cite the repealed 2002 Act's article numbers on their face, and likumi.lv now renders those references as links to the 2026 Act: Regulation No. 675 reads "Izdoti saskaņā ar Imigrācijas likuma 2.1 panta otro daļu" linking to an Act that has no article 2.1, and Regulation No. 225 does the same for articles 4(1)(5) and 4.2(3). Nothing on either page says the reference has moved. **A statute's body is served inside an HTML table and extracts with literal `<br>` between every paragraph and every numbered point.** A quotation that crosses one carries the tag, so quotations must be taken within a single point. **The version date is the date the redaction took effect, not a sweep date**, so the cut-off recorded from it says what has been incorporated and not when the editors last looked. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the sector average wages that Cabinet Regulation No. 225 point 5.3 measures a work visa against, which the Central Statistical Bureau publishes; the needy-person income level that Cabinet Regulation No. 675 measures a Union citizen's means against; the average payment-account fee that caps the basic account, which the Finance Latvia Association publishes quarterly; the list of states Latvia has a bilateral visa-waiver treaty or a driving-licence treaty with, which appears in no instrument read here; and the practice of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, which publishes at pmlp.gov.lv and is a different publisher.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedImigrācijas likums · 48. panta otrās daļas 2. punkts · consolidated to 2026-09-15
«2) latviešu valodas apguvi vismaz pamata līmeņa pirmajā pakāpē (A1).»

Our translation - not official

the acquisition of the Latvian language at least at the first degree of the basic level (A1).

Point 1 of the same paragraph is a course on Latvian culture and history.

Read it at the source
About this source

The systematisation service of Latvia's official publisher. The state joint-stock company Latvijas Vēstnesis issues the official gazette at vestnesis.lv and separately runs likumi.lv, where every instrument is kept as a series of point-in-time versions. An instrument is addressed by a numeric document id, as /ta/id/370622-imigracijas-likums or simply /ta/id/370622, and the slug is decorative: the bare id answers. Each page carries a version selector showing the redaction in force and the date range it covers - Attēlotā redakcija, 15.09.2026.-30.12.2027. Spēkā esošā - and, where an amendment has been adopted but has not yet taken effect, a future redaction with its own date. The page footer carries the act's identity card: issuing body, date adopted, date in force, and the Latvijas Vēstnesis issue and OP number of the official publication. A repealed instrument keeps its address and gains a banner naming its successor, which is how the replacement of the Imigrācijas likums on 15 September 2026 is discoverable at all. Firecrawl reads the site without a proxy or a warm-up.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **Nothing here is the official text.** Every page carries, in its own words, "Sistematizēti tiesību akti ir informatīvi. Pretrunu gadījumā vadās pēc oficiālās publikācijas" - systematised legal acts are informative, and in case of contradiction the official publication governs. The official publication is the gazette at vestnesis.lv, identified by issue number and OP number, and a point that turns on an exact wording should be checked there. **The hyperlinks in a consolidated text follow a name rather than an instrument, and they move silently.** Cabinet regulations issued under the Imigrācijas likums still cite the repealed 2002 Act's article numbers on their face, and likumi.lv now renders those references as links to the 2026 Act: Regulation No. 675 reads "Izdoti saskaņā ar Imigrācijas likuma 2.1 panta otro daļu" linking to an Act that has no article 2.1, and Regulation No. 225 does the same for articles 4(1)(5) and 4.2(3). Nothing on either page says the reference has moved. **A statute's body is served inside an HTML table and extracts with literal `<br>` between every paragraph and every numbered point.** A quotation that crosses one carries the tag, so quotations must be taken within a single point. **The version date is the date the redaction took effect, not a sweep date**, so the cut-off recorded from it says what has been incorporated and not when the editors last looked. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the sector average wages that Cabinet Regulation No. 225 point 5.3 measures a work visa against, which the Central Statistical Bureau publishes; the needy-person income level that Cabinet Regulation No. 675 measures a Union citizen's means against; the average payment-account fee that caps the basic account, which the Finance Latvia Association publishes quarterly; the list of states Latvia has a bilateral visa-waiver treaty or a driving-licence treaty with, which appears in no instrument read here; and the practice of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, which publishes at pmlp.gov.lv and is a different publisher.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedImigrācijas likums · 49. panta pirmā daļa · consolidated to 2026-09-15
«(1) Agrīnās integrācijas pasākumus apmaksā ārzemnieks.»

Our translation - not official

The early integration measures are paid for by the foreigner.

Read it at the source
About this source

The systematisation service of Latvia's official publisher. The state joint-stock company Latvijas Vēstnesis issues the official gazette at vestnesis.lv and separately runs likumi.lv, where every instrument is kept as a series of point-in-time versions. An instrument is addressed by a numeric document id, as /ta/id/370622-imigracijas-likums or simply /ta/id/370622, and the slug is decorative: the bare id answers. Each page carries a version selector showing the redaction in force and the date range it covers - Attēlotā redakcija, 15.09.2026.-30.12.2027. Spēkā esošā - and, where an amendment has been adopted but has not yet taken effect, a future redaction with its own date. The page footer carries the act's identity card: issuing body, date adopted, date in force, and the Latvijas Vēstnesis issue and OP number of the official publication. A repealed instrument keeps its address and gains a banner naming its successor, which is how the replacement of the Imigrācijas likums on 15 September 2026 is discoverable at all. Firecrawl reads the site without a proxy or a warm-up.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **Nothing here is the official text.** Every page carries, in its own words, "Sistematizēti tiesību akti ir informatīvi. Pretrunu gadījumā vadās pēc oficiālās publikācijas" - systematised legal acts are informative, and in case of contradiction the official publication governs. The official publication is the gazette at vestnesis.lv, identified by issue number and OP number, and a point that turns on an exact wording should be checked there. **The hyperlinks in a consolidated text follow a name rather than an instrument, and they move silently.** Cabinet regulations issued under the Imigrācijas likums still cite the repealed 2002 Act's article numbers on their face, and likumi.lv now renders those references as links to the 2026 Act: Regulation No. 675 reads "Izdoti saskaņā ar Imigrācijas likuma 2.1 panta otro daļu" linking to an Act that has no article 2.1, and Regulation No. 225 does the same for articles 4(1)(5) and 4.2(3). Nothing on either page says the reference has moved. **A statute's body is served inside an HTML table and extracts with literal `<br>` between every paragraph and every numbered point.** A quotation that crosses one carries the tag, so quotations must be taken within a single point. **The version date is the date the redaction took effect, not a sweep date**, so the cut-off recorded from it says what has been incorporated and not when the editors last looked. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the sector average wages that Cabinet Regulation No. 225 point 5.3 measures a work visa against, which the Central Statistical Bureau publishes; the needy-person income level that Cabinet Regulation No. 675 measures a Union citizen's means against; the average payment-account fee that caps the basic account, which the Finance Latvia Association publishes quarterly; the list of states Latvia has a bilateral visa-waiver treaty or a driving-licence treaty with, which appears in no instrument read here; and the practice of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, which publishes at pmlp.gov.lv and is a different publisher.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedImigrācijas likums · Pārejas noteikumu 20. punkts · consolidated to 2026-09-15
«Šā likuma 48. pants stājas spēkā 2027. gada 31. decembrī.»

Our translation - not official

Article 48 of this Act comes into force on 31 December 2027.

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About this source

The systematisation service of Latvia's official publisher. The state joint-stock company Latvijas Vēstnesis issues the official gazette at vestnesis.lv and separately runs likumi.lv, where every instrument is kept as a series of point-in-time versions. An instrument is addressed by a numeric document id, as /ta/id/370622-imigracijas-likums or simply /ta/id/370622, and the slug is decorative: the bare id answers. Each page carries a version selector showing the redaction in force and the date range it covers - Attēlotā redakcija, 15.09.2026.-30.12.2027. Spēkā esošā - and, where an amendment has been adopted but has not yet taken effect, a future redaction with its own date. The page footer carries the act's identity card: issuing body, date adopted, date in force, and the Latvijas Vēstnesis issue and OP number of the official publication. A repealed instrument keeps its address and gains a banner naming its successor, which is how the replacement of the Imigrācijas likums on 15 September 2026 is discoverable at all. Firecrawl reads the site without a proxy or a warm-up.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **Nothing here is the official text.** Every page carries, in its own words, "Sistematizēti tiesību akti ir informatīvi. Pretrunu gadījumā vadās pēc oficiālās publikācijas" - systematised legal acts are informative, and in case of contradiction the official publication governs. The official publication is the gazette at vestnesis.lv, identified by issue number and OP number, and a point that turns on an exact wording should be checked there. **The hyperlinks in a consolidated text follow a name rather than an instrument, and they move silently.** Cabinet regulations issued under the Imigrācijas likums still cite the repealed 2002 Act's article numbers on their face, and likumi.lv now renders those references as links to the 2026 Act: Regulation No. 675 reads "Izdoti saskaņā ar Imigrācijas likuma 2.1 panta otro daļu" linking to an Act that has no article 2.1, and Regulation No. 225 does the same for articles 4(1)(5) and 4.2(3). Nothing on either page says the reference has moved. **A statute's body is served inside an HTML table and extracts with literal `<br>` between every paragraph and every numbered point.** A quotation that crosses one carries the tag, so quotations must be taken within a single point. **The version date is the date the redaction took effect, not a sweep date**, so the cut-off recorded from it says what has been incorporated and not when the editors last looked. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the sector average wages that Cabinet Regulation No. 225 point 5.3 measures a work visa against, which the Central Statistical Bureau publishes; the needy-person income level that Cabinet Regulation No. 675 measures a Union citizen's means against; the average payment-account fee that caps the basic account, which the Finance Latvia Association publishes quarterly; the list of states Latvia has a bilateral visa-waiver treaty or a driving-licence treaty with, which appears in no instrument read here; and the practice of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, which publishes at pmlp.gov.lv and is a different publisher.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedImigrācijas likums (pieņemts 2002. gada 31. oktobrī), as it stood on 20 May 2026 · 1. panta pirmās daļas 1. punkts · consolidated to 2026-05-20
«1) ārzemnieks — persona, kura nav Latvijas pilsonis vai Latvijas nepilsonis;»

Our translation - not official

foreigner - a person who is not a Latvian citizen or a Latvian non-citizen;

Known to be out of date. The repealed Act as it stood on 20 May 2026, which is the last version it had before losing force on 15 September 2026.

The definition the new Act dropped. The 2026 Act defines the word in article 2 as a third-country national instead.

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About this source

The systematisation service of Latvia's official publisher. The state joint-stock company Latvijas Vēstnesis issues the official gazette at vestnesis.lv and separately runs likumi.lv, where every instrument is kept as a series of point-in-time versions. An instrument is addressed by a numeric document id, as /ta/id/370622-imigracijas-likums or simply /ta/id/370622, and the slug is decorative: the bare id answers. Each page carries a version selector showing the redaction in force and the date range it covers - Attēlotā redakcija, 15.09.2026.-30.12.2027. Spēkā esošā - and, where an amendment has been adopted but has not yet taken effect, a future redaction with its own date. The page footer carries the act's identity card: issuing body, date adopted, date in force, and the Latvijas Vēstnesis issue and OP number of the official publication. A repealed instrument keeps its address and gains a banner naming its successor, which is how the replacement of the Imigrācijas likums on 15 September 2026 is discoverable at all. Firecrawl reads the site without a proxy or a warm-up.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **Nothing here is the official text.** Every page carries, in its own words, "Sistematizēti tiesību akti ir informatīvi. Pretrunu gadījumā vadās pēc oficiālās publikācijas" - systematised legal acts are informative, and in case of contradiction the official publication governs. The official publication is the gazette at vestnesis.lv, identified by issue number and OP number, and a point that turns on an exact wording should be checked there. **The hyperlinks in a consolidated text follow a name rather than an instrument, and they move silently.** Cabinet regulations issued under the Imigrācijas likums still cite the repealed 2002 Act's article numbers on their face, and likumi.lv now renders those references as links to the 2026 Act: Regulation No. 675 reads "Izdoti saskaņā ar Imigrācijas likuma 2.1 panta otro daļu" linking to an Act that has no article 2.1, and Regulation No. 225 does the same for articles 4(1)(5) and 4.2(3). Nothing on either page says the reference has moved. **A statute's body is served inside an HTML table and extracts with literal `<br>` between every paragraph and every numbered point.** A quotation that crosses one carries the tag, so quotations must be taken within a single point. **The version date is the date the redaction took effect, not a sweep date**, so the cut-off recorded from it says what has been incorporated and not when the editors last looked. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the sector average wages that Cabinet Regulation No. 225 point 5.3 measures a work visa against, which the Central Statistical Bureau publishes; the needy-person income level that Cabinet Regulation No. 675 measures a Union citizen's means against; the average payment-account fee that caps the basic account, which the Finance Latvia Association publishes quarterly; the list of states Latvia has a bilateral visa-waiver treaty or a driving-licence treaty with, which appears in no instrument read here; and the practice of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, which publishes at pmlp.gov.lv and is a different publisher.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedMinistru kabineta 2011. gada 30. augusta noteikumi Nr. 675 · Izdošanas pamats · consolidated to 2022-08-12
«Izdoti saskaņā ar Imigrācijas likuma 2.1 panta otro daļu»

Our translation - not official

Issued under the second paragraph of article 2.1 of the Immigration Law

The Immigration Law in force has no article 2.1. The publisher's own hyperlink on that line now points at the 2026 Act.

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About this source

The systematisation service of Latvia's official publisher. The state joint-stock company Latvijas Vēstnesis issues the official gazette at vestnesis.lv and separately runs likumi.lv, where every instrument is kept as a series of point-in-time versions. An instrument is addressed by a numeric document id, as /ta/id/370622-imigracijas-likums or simply /ta/id/370622, and the slug is decorative: the bare id answers. Each page carries a version selector showing the redaction in force and the date range it covers - Attēlotā redakcija, 15.09.2026.-30.12.2027. Spēkā esošā - and, where an amendment has been adopted but has not yet taken effect, a future redaction with its own date. The page footer carries the act's identity card: issuing body, date adopted, date in force, and the Latvijas Vēstnesis issue and OP number of the official publication. A repealed instrument keeps its address and gains a banner naming its successor, which is how the replacement of the Imigrācijas likums on 15 September 2026 is discoverable at all. Firecrawl reads the site without a proxy or a warm-up.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **Nothing here is the official text.** Every page carries, in its own words, "Sistematizēti tiesību akti ir informatīvi. Pretrunu gadījumā vadās pēc oficiālās publikācijas" - systematised legal acts are informative, and in case of contradiction the official publication governs. The official publication is the gazette at vestnesis.lv, identified by issue number and OP number, and a point that turns on an exact wording should be checked there. **The hyperlinks in a consolidated text follow a name rather than an instrument, and they move silently.** Cabinet regulations issued under the Imigrācijas likums still cite the repealed 2002 Act's article numbers on their face, and likumi.lv now renders those references as links to the 2026 Act: Regulation No. 675 reads "Izdoti saskaņā ar Imigrācijas likuma 2.1 panta otro daļu" linking to an Act that has no article 2.1, and Regulation No. 225 does the same for articles 4(1)(5) and 4.2(3). Nothing on either page says the reference has moved. **A statute's body is served inside an HTML table and extracts with literal `<br>` between every paragraph and every numbered point.** A quotation that crosses one carries the tag, so quotations must be taken within a single point. **The version date is the date the redaction took effect, not a sweep date**, so the cut-off recorded from it says what has been incorporated and not when the editors last looked. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the sector average wages that Cabinet Regulation No. 225 point 5.3 measures a work visa against, which the Central Statistical Bureau publishes; the needy-person income level that Cabinet Regulation No. 675 measures a Union citizen's means against; the average payment-account fee that caps the basic account, which the Finance Latvia Association publishes quarterly; the list of states Latvia has a bilateral visa-waiver treaty or a driving-licence treaty with, which appears in no instrument read here; and the practice of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, which publishes at pmlp.gov.lv and is a different publisher.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedMinistru kabineta 2017. gada 25. aprīļa noteikumi Nr. 225 · Izdošanas pamats · consolidated to 2024-02-08
«4. panta pirmās daļas 5. punktu un 4.2 panta trešo daļu»

Our translation - not official

point 5 of the first paragraph of article 4 and the third paragraph of article 4.2

The enabling articles of the repealed Act. In the Act in force, the power to set the financial means is article 6(1)(4).

Read it at the source
About this source

The systematisation service of Latvia's official publisher. The state joint-stock company Latvijas Vēstnesis issues the official gazette at vestnesis.lv and separately runs likumi.lv, where every instrument is kept as a series of point-in-time versions. An instrument is addressed by a numeric document id, as /ta/id/370622-imigracijas-likums or simply /ta/id/370622, and the slug is decorative: the bare id answers. Each page carries a version selector showing the redaction in force and the date range it covers - Attēlotā redakcija, 15.09.2026.-30.12.2027. Spēkā esošā - and, where an amendment has been adopted but has not yet taken effect, a future redaction with its own date. The page footer carries the act's identity card: issuing body, date adopted, date in force, and the Latvijas Vēstnesis issue and OP number of the official publication. A repealed instrument keeps its address and gains a banner naming its successor, which is how the replacement of the Imigrācijas likums on 15 September 2026 is discoverable at all. Firecrawl reads the site without a proxy or a warm-up.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: **Nothing here is the official text.** Every page carries, in its own words, "Sistematizēti tiesību akti ir informatīvi. Pretrunu gadījumā vadās pēc oficiālās publikācijas" - systematised legal acts are informative, and in case of contradiction the official publication governs. The official publication is the gazette at vestnesis.lv, identified by issue number and OP number, and a point that turns on an exact wording should be checked there. **The hyperlinks in a consolidated text follow a name rather than an instrument, and they move silently.** Cabinet regulations issued under the Imigrācijas likums still cite the repealed 2002 Act's article numbers on their face, and likumi.lv now renders those references as links to the 2026 Act: Regulation No. 675 reads "Izdoti saskaņā ar Imigrācijas likuma 2.1 panta otro daļu" linking to an Act that has no article 2.1, and Regulation No. 225 does the same for articles 4(1)(5) and 4.2(3). Nothing on either page says the reference has moved. **A statute's body is served inside an HTML table and extracts with literal `<br>` between every paragraph and every numbered point.** A quotation that crosses one carries the tag, so quotations must be taken within a single point. **The version date is the date the redaction took effect, not a sweep date**, so the cut-off recorded from it says what has been incorporated and not when the editors last looked. It cannot be cited for anything the Collection does not carry: the sector average wages that Cabinet Regulation No. 225 point 5.3 measures a work visa against, which the Central Statistical Bureau publishes; the needy-person income level that Cabinet Regulation No. 675 measures a Union citizen's means against; the average payment-account fee that caps the basic account, which the Finance Latvia Association publishes quarterly; the list of states Latvia has a bilateral visa-waiver treaty or a driving-licence treaty with, which appears in no instrument read here; and the practice of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, which publishes at pmlp.gov.lv and is a different publisher.

We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source

Practical notes

Any guide, agency page or article about Latvian residence permits written before September 2026 that cites article 23 of the Imigrācijas likums is citing a repealed Act. The equivalent in the Act in force is article 27, and the points are not in the same order.

The Act already has a future version on the publisher's page, dated 31 December 2027, which is when article 48 enters into force. The displayed version is labelled as applying from 15 September 2026 to 30 December 2027.

This record is based on the two Acts and on the two Cabinet regulations named in it. The other thirty-four regulations in transitional provision 3 were not read, so no claim is made about whether their enabling citations are in the same state.