Latvia’s two investor routes end on 15 September with the 2002 law

Latvia’s new Immigration Law was proclaimed in the official gazette Latvijas Vēstnesis on 1 September 2026, issue 167, and enters into force on 15 September 2026. The consolidated statute register carries that date in the law’s own header and, as at 3 September, records its status as vēl nav spēkā — not yet in force.

The Immigration Law of 31 October 2002 expires on the same day. Two grounds on which a foreigner may request a temporary residence permit expire with it: an immovable property worth at least €250,000, and subordinated liabilities with a Latvian credit institution of at least €280,000. Both were still in force when this was checked on 3 September. What the new statute contains, and the fund it does not name, were set out here on 26 August; the date was the part missing then.

The date the law did not set for itself

The statute contains no general commencement clause, so nothing inside it says when it begins. That silence is not an omission. Article 69 of the Constitution provides that a law enters into force fourteen days after proclamation unless the law sets another term, and the Official Publications and Legal Information Law directs that such periods run from the day after the event that starts them.

Proclamation fell on 1 September. Counting from 2 September, the fourteenth day is 15 September.

Two register headers state that day independently of the arithmetic: the new law’s entry into force, and the 2002 law’s Zaudē spēku: 15.09.2026. The gazette does not state the commencement date at all — it supplies the proclamation date the count runs from. Three records, two roles.

The date of 1 January 2027, which appears in industry summaries of this law, is in none of them.

What the two expiring grounds actually require

Neither clause promises a permit. Both open with the same formula — uz laiku, kas nepārsniedz piecus gadus, for a term not exceeding five years — which is a ceiling on what may be issued, not an entitlement to it.

Section 23(1)(29) runs on property, in two shapes. Inside Rīga, Jūrmala, Ikšķile or Saulkrasti, or a named list of municipalities and parishes, it is one functionally linked property worth at least €250,000. Outside them, up to two properties totalling at least €250,000. Undeveloped land is excluded either way.

Six conditions then attach, and they are cumulative:

• no immovable-property tax arrears;
• the total value paid by cashless settlement;
• the property bought from a legal person registered in Latvia, the EU, the EEA or Switzerland which is a taxpayer in Latvia, or from a natural person who is a Latvian citizen, a Latvian non-citizen, a Union citizen, or a foreigner holding a valid Latvian residence permit;
• a cadastral value at acquisition of at least €80,000 — €40,000 for each of two properties bought outside the named territories — failing which a certified valuer must put the market value at €250,000, or €125,000 for each of two;
• five per cent of the property value paid into the state budget on the first permit;
• no agricultural or forest land in the property.

Section 23(1)(30) is shorter and its arithmetic is fixed rather than proportional: subordinated liabilities with a Latvian credit institution of at least €280,000, a transaction term of not less than five years, and €25,000 into the state budget on the first permit.

Neither survives into the new statute. The word pakārtotās — subordinated — does not appear in it anywhere. The root nekustam appears exactly once, in a provision about where a foreigner will stay pending removal, and carries no investment consequence.

What transitional point 4 says, and what it leaves open

The fourth transitional provision of the new law reads: documents filed to request a visa or a temporary residence permit līdz šā likuma spēkā stāšanās dienai — up to the day this law enters into force — are examined, and the visas and permits issued, under the Immigration Law adopted on 31 October 2002.

The provision keys on the date the documents were filed. It does not key on the date a decision is reached.

What it does not settle is its own edge. Līdz ... dienai fixes the boundary at the day of entry into force without saying whether that day falls inside or outside. On the face of the text, 15 September could be the last day covered or the first day not covered. Nothing located in the statute resolves it.

The fifth transitional provision runs the other way: documents filed for a permanent residence permit before entry into force are examined under the new law. The statute states the difference; it gives no reason for it, and no legislative history was consulted here.

The investment ground the new statute contains

Article 27(1)(36) of the new statute provides a ground for a term of up to five years where a contract has been concluded and at least €150,000 transferred, for not less than five years, to valsts izveidotā alternatīvo ieguldījumu fonda pārvaldniekā — a state-established alternative investment fund manager — and the foreigner has paid €10,000 into the state budget.

The permit issued on that ground stays valid only while that manager confirms, during its validity, that the investment contract has not been terminated and the balance has not fallen below €150,000. The threshold is lower than either expiring figure; the continuing condition has no counterpart in either.

On the vehicle the statute is silent. It names no fund, sets no date for establishing one, and places no duty on any body to establish one. That was this newspaper’s finding on reading the adopted text on 26 August. It is a statement about the statute, not about what exists in the market.

What is dated and what is not

Dated: proclamation on 1 September, entry into force on 15 September, and the expiry of the 2002 law on the same day.

Not dated: how the edge of transitional point 4 will be read, and what the statute leaves unsaid about the manager an Article 27(1)(36) investment must be made with.

The first determines which statute governs a file lodged on 15 September itself. The second determines what an investor would have to contract with in order to use the ground the new law provides.