Ways to emigrate to Latvia from Russia and other countries in 2021. How can you move and get permanent residence in this country if you have relatives living there? Today, immigration to Latvia attracts many foreigners. Latvia is able to provide foreign citizens not only with decent wages, but also with life in a country with a developed and stable economic system.
View of the Daugava River and the bridge across it in Riga
Registration of permanent residence in Latvia
- Gives you the opportunity to live, work, and study in any EU country.
- Registration 2.5 months.
- For citizens of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other CIS countries.
- Permanent residence permit is indefinite, the card is valid for 2 years, it can be extended at any consulate of Latvia.
- There are no residency requirements.
- Children check in with a parent for free.
Having permanent residence in Latvia, Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians can travel to Europe during the period of closed borders in 2021. This is explained in more detail in the video.
Required documents
- scan of the passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation,
- scan of international passport,
- education document,
- for children, a scan of the birth certificate.
Receiving stages
- Preparation of documents 45 days. We receive a document confirming your status.
- At the Latvian consulate we receive a category D visa, this is a confirmation of status, which makes it possible to enter the country within a year to obtain a card from the ministry in Riga.
- In Riga we receive a permanent residence card.
- Registration in Riga for 3 months (no need to reside).
- Then you can fly to any country in Europe
What else do you need to know before applying?
When filling out the form, it would be more correct for the repatriate to enter “Latvian” in the “nationality” field, even if it is written differently on your birth certificate. There is no information to say that this point somehow influences the decision of the OCMA, but it is logical to assume that if you realize that you belong to the Latvian people, then you are a Latvian and no one else. Moreover, no one will check.
Receiving documents is not interviewing. Knowledge of the Latvian language is not required. The same applies to correspondence with officials from the OCMA: you can ask questions in Russian, but they will answer you in Latvian. All that the consular officer will be interested in at the reception is the presence of the necessary package of documents, which must be translated into Latvian or English.
For sending documents to the OCMA, the consulate charges a fee, the amount of which varies from country to country in which it is located. For example, the consular fee in Russia is 45 euros per person, in Ukraine – 70 euros. In this case, payment is made only using a bank card.
At the reception at the consulate, documents are submitted by all family members at the same time, and not separately.
Emigration methods
Immigration to Latvia implies the movement of foreigners to the territory of the Republic of Latvia for the purpose of living and subsequently acquiring the status of a citizen of the state. Emigration to Latvia is possible in several ways, such as:
- Purchase of real estate.
- Relocation for the purpose of family reunification.
- Investing in the development of the economic system.
- Training in educational institutions of the state.
- Employment on the territory of the Republic of Latvia.
- Moving under the repatriation program.
Purchasing real estate and investing
Purchasing real estate in Latvia provides an opportunity to obtain a residence permit in this country.
But for this you need to buy real estate worth at least 250,000 euros. A prerequisite for this method of emigration is payment in cash for the purchase of real estate.
Investment is an investment in the development of one’s own business in Latvia for an amount of at least thirty-five thousand euros. In this case, the expected profit should be less than ten million per year.
If the company has a larger annual turnover, then in order to obtain a residence permit it is necessary to invest at least one hundred and fifty thousand euros in opening or development. This method of migration is often called business emigration. Moving to Latvia in order to obtain a residence permit in this way implies mandatory tax payments to the state budget of the country in the amount of at least twenty-eight thousand euros per year.
This is what a new type of residence permit card looks like
Types of residence permits and their brief characteristics
A residence permit in Latvia can be temporary or permanent. The latter can be characterized by a term that is more understandable to many - permanent residence. A temporary residence permit is the first immigration status that a foreigner will receive when moving to Latvia. If a citizen of another state, who came to Latvia with a visa, intends to live in this Baltic republic for longer than three months, then he must proceed to obtain a temporary residence permit.
After a certain period, the holder of a temporary residence permit will be able to go to the immigration service and obtain the status of a permanent resident of the country. And after a few years with permanent residence, he will have the right to request Latvian citizenship.
Latvia has a problem with personnel: many leave for Western Europe. On the other hand, many from Western European countries come here. As a rule, these are employees of large international companies. Although their salaries are not much higher than those of other residents of the country.
Adel Khasanova
https://www.the-village.ru/village/business/go/239419-latviya
Training and employment
Studying at Latvian universities and finding a job are not the best methods for emigrating to Latvia for permanent residence. The fact is that a residence permit under such circumstances can only be obtained for five years.
After this period, the residence permit is reviewed by migration service employees and if there are no valid reasons for staying in Latvia, the person will need to leave the country.
This method is not very acceptable for people who want to subsequently obtain citizenship, because work or study is not a direct indication for obtaining this status. Such types of activities only allow you to stay in the country for a certain time.
Obtaining a residence permit
Having a residence permit in a given state provides more than one advantage. The main thing among them is that immigration to Latvia means living in an economically developed country. In addition, anyone living in a given state is given the right to move freely across different European states.
There are several ways to get permanent residence in Latvia from Russia through a residence permit. Among them are reunification with relatives, work in the country, education, treatment, assistance in religious activities, purchase of real estate, citizenship of the country before 1940, investments.
If the conditions of any of these methods are met, the process of immigration to Latvia from Russia begins. A residence permit gives the right to permanently move to the country in the future and then become its citizen. The most popular way to go to Latvia for permanent residence is through investment, as well as the purchase of real estate in this state. The latter method was introduced into legislation in 2010. Thus, the government has increased the number of people puzzled by the question of how to move to Latvia. After the introduction of such a norm, the volume of investment in the economy increased. This helped Latvia recover from the crisis.
Family reunification and repatriation programs
A person whose descendants had Latvian citizenship can be considered a repatriate.
Sample of an old pre-war Latvian passport
To obtain a residence permit in this way, you must contact the repatriation department at the Office of Migration and Citizenship. If a person is located outside the Latvian state, he can apply to the Latvian consular department in the country of actual residence or stay with a similar request.
All identification documents confirming Latvian roots must be provided to the authorized bodies. But only a person whose grandparents were Latvians can be considered a repatriate, that is, the countdown goes back only three generations.
Together with the repatriate, his children and spouse can apply for a residence permit. Obtaining citizenship directly depends on the degree of relationship. If a person’s parents had a similar status, then he has the right to apply for citizenship after one year of residence in Latvia with a residence permit.
An example of a new sample passport for a Latvian citizen
If a grandfather or grandmother had a similar status, then the person must live in Latvia for at least 5 years to obtain citizenship. Family reunification is one of the most common methods of emigration to the territory of Latvia. If a person has close relatives living in this country, he can count on obtaining permanent residence in Latvia and citizenship of this country.
In this case, as in the case of repatriation programs, it is necessary to provide documents confirming the presence of family ties with Latvian citizens or persons who already have a residence permit.
About the receiving process
Describing how to move to Latvia for permanent residence, Russians note in their reviews that they need to submit the necessary documents to the migration policy department. In cases where a person is not in Latvia, he can delegate this task to the country's diplomatic mission.
Usually documents are reviewed within 5 days, and sometimes it takes about 10 days. As soon as you receive a residence permit, you will need to take care of obtaining insurance. You also need to obtain a certificate of absence of tuberculosis.
The residence permit must be renewed every year. It is issued in the form of a plastic card. But, in essence, it is an analogue of a passport, which contains personal information about a person along with his photograph.
It is important to carry out the extension one month before the expiration of the residence permit. To do this, you need to immediately prepare the relevant documentation - a passport, health insurance, pay taxes for the previous year.
Receiving stages
Initially, a person who emigrated to Latvia is granted a temporary residence permit, which allows him to stay in the country for twelve months.
This is what a temporary Latvian residence permit looks like
It must be confirmed annually by the Office for Migration Policy. But if a person plans to stay in Latvia forever and obtain citizenship, he can apply for a residence permit for a period of four years. To obtain a permanent residence permit, you must live in the country for at least five years. Having lived this period, he can apply for citizenship of this country.
It is important to remember that if a citizen of a country belonging to the European Union moves, he can apply for citizenship after five years of living in Latvia. If the move is carried out by citizens of third countries, then they must live at least ten years in the state, after which they have the right to apply for the status of a citizen of Latvia.
Who can apply for a temporary residence permit
Foreign citizens who:
- have no problems with the law in their homeland,
- sufficiently financially secure,
- have a satisfactory state of health and are not carriers of diseases that may pose a social danger,
- are not on the list of persons wanted by Interpol,
- do not pose a danger to the Latvian state and have not been convicted of anti-Latvian activities,
- arrived in Latvia legally.
It is not difficult for a Russian citizen to obtain a temporary residence permit. He will be able to begin the procedure on a general basis. There are no separate agreements between these countries designed to significantly facilitate the immigration process for citizens of the Russian Federation when moving to the Republic of Latvia. At the same time, there is absolutely no discrimination against Russian migrants on the part of the Latvian authorities.
