There Is No Permit For Living On Your Own Money. There Is A Visa For Working Remotely, And Only If Your Employer Sits In An OECD State
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Uruguay on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
172 exceptions recorded across 63 countries · none match Uruguay to Latvia · Residency on passive income
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.
At a glance
- Residence permit for private means
- None among the thirty-six grounds in article 27(1) of the Imigrācijas likums
The Act was read in full. Article 27(1) runs from point 1 to point 36 and no point is addressed to a person living on income not earned from work; article 27(2) is a discretionary power of the minister rather than a route.
- What exists instead
- A long-term visa for remote work
Article 17(6) of the Imigrācijas likums.
- Where the employer must be
- In another OECD member state
Article 17(6), which names the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and no wider group.
- How long
- 1 year, renewable once
Article 18(2) of the Imigrācijas likums.
- Then
- 6 months before a new long-term visa on the same ground
Article 18(2), which measures the six months from the expiry of the second visa.
- Russian citizens
- Not entitled to a remote-work visa at all
Article 18(3) of the Imigrācijas likums, which excepts only the seasonal work case in article 18(1).
Requirements
- Remote work for an employer registered in an OECD member state, or self-employment registered in one
- An intended stay longer than a Schengen visa allows
- A valid health insurance policy and the funds set by Cabinet Regulation No. 225
- Not a citizen of the Russian Federation
Country-level policy
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.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Uruguay
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«6) vīzas izsniegšana ir saistīta ar nodarbinātību vai uzturēšanos Latvijas Republikā, veicot attālinātu darbu pie darba devēja, kas reģistrēts citā Ekonomiskās sadarbības un attīstības organizācijas dalībvalstī, vai kā Ekonomiskās sadarbības un attīstības organizācijas dalībvalstī reģistrētai pašnodarbinātai personai;»Our translation - not official
the issue of the visa is connected with employment or with residence in the Republic of Latvia performing remote work 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 a member state of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development;
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
«(2) Ārzemniekam, kura ieceļošanas mērķis ir nodarbinātība, izņemot šā panta pirmajā daļā minēto gadījumu, vai attālināta darba veikšana, ilgtermiņa vīzu var izsniegt uz laiku, kas nepārsniedz vienu gadu. Ārzemnieks, kurš pieprasa ilgtermiņa vīzu attālināta darba veikšanai, ir tiesīgs pieprasīt vēl vienu ilgtermiņa vīzu uz laiku, kas nepārsniedz vienu gadu, un pēc atkārtotās vīzas derīguma termiņa beigām ārzemnieks turpmāko sešu mēnešu laikā nav tiesīgs saņemt jaunu ilgtermiņa vīzu Latvijas Republikā, pamatojoties uz to pašu vīzas pieprasīšanas iemeslu.»Our translation - not official
A foreigner whose purpose of entry is employment, other than the case referred to in the first paragraph of this article, or the performance of remote work, may be issued a long-term visa for a period not exceeding one year. A foreigner who requests a long-term visa for the performance of remote work is entitled to request one more long-term visa for a period not exceeding one year, and after the expiry of the repeat visa the foreigner is not entitled, for the following six months, to receive a new long-term visa in the Republic of Latvia on the same ground for requesting a visa.
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
«(3) Krievijas Federācijas pilsonis nav tiesīgs pieprasīt vīzu ar tiesībām uz nodarbinātību vai vīzu attālināta darba veikšanai, izņemot šā panta pirmajā daļā noteikto gadījumu.»Our translation - not official
A citizen of the Russian Federation is not entitled to request a visa with rights to employment or a visa for the performance of remote work, except in the case laid down in the first paragraph of this article.
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
«(5) Nepārtrauktas uzturēšanās laikā neieskaita laiku, kad ārzemnieks uzturējies Latvijas Republikā ar vīzu vai bez vīzas atbilstoši kārtībai, kāda noteikta Latvijas Republikai saistošos starptautiskajos līgumos vai Eiropas Savienības tiesību aktos, laiku, kad viņš uzturēšanās atļauju saņēmis īslaicīgi (piemēram, kā sezonas darba ņēmējs, darbinieks, kuru amatā iecēlis pakalpojumu sniedzējs, lai nodrošinātu starptautisko pakalpojumu sniegšanu, vai kā starptautisko pakalpojumu sniedzējs), kā arī laiku, kad ārzemnieks atradies brīvības atņemšanas iestādē.»Our translation - not official
Time during which the foreigner stayed in the Republic of Latvia on a visa or without a visa under the procedure laid down in international treaties binding on the Republic of Latvia or in European Union legal acts is not counted in the period of continuous residence, nor is time during which he received a residence permit temporarily (for example, as a seasonal worker, as a worker posted by a service provider to ensure the provision of international services, or as a provider of international services), nor time during which the foreigner was in a place of deprivation of liberty.
Why the remote-work visa is a stay and not a step: two years on it leave a person no nearer permanent residence than on the day they arrived.
Read it at the sourceAbout 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
The negative claim here is bounded by one text read in full: the Imigrācijas likums adopted on 20 August 2026, articles 16 to 31 on visas and residence permits, and in particular the thirty-six points of article 27(1).
The remote-work visa tests where the employer is registered, not where the applicant is from, so an Annex I national working for a company in an OECD state qualifies on this ground while an Annex II national working for a company outside the OECD does not.
Latvia's wording is narrower than Croatia's. Croatia's digital nomad test is negative - not a company registered in Croatia, no services to Croatian employers - and reaches an employer anywhere in the world; Latvia's is positive and reaches only the OECD.
- consolidatesImigrācijas likums (2026)
Likumi.lv - VSIA "Latvijas Vēstnesis" · consolidated to 2026-09-15
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