Latvia Digital Nomad Visa

The income threshold is a formula rather than a fixed sum: not less than the average monthly gross wage of employees in the previous year, multiplied by a factor of 2.5.

On the issuing authority's page published on 15 June 2026, based on the latest information published by the Central Statistical Bureau, that comes to EUR 4,538.

The figure can be checked against the source data: on 3 March 2026 the Central Statistical Bureau published the 2025 national average monthly gross wage for full-time work as EUR 1,815, and 1,815 multiplied by 2.5 is EUR 4,537.50. Another page of the same authority, updated on 11 February 2026, still shows the earlier figure of EUR 4,213.

What needs correcting is the standard of proof, because for an employee this is not one document but two documents issued by two different bodies, and one without the other is incomplete.

The first is issued by the tax administration or social insurance institution of the OECD member state and certifies the applicant's current employment — that is, a foreign public authority must certify it, not the employer.

The second comes from the employer registered in that country and must confirm three things in the one instrument: that the applicant has worked for that same employer for at least six months previously; that the amount of payment is not less than the stated threshold; and that the applicant can perform their work duties remotely.

A self-employed person needs only one document, but it must be issued by the tax administration of an OECD member state and must certify income obtained in the last six months from self-employed activity at no less than that level — a period already elapsed, not an undertaking about the future.

There is a second money test the programme page never mentions, and it sits at the level of the statute:

Section 6(1)(4) of the new Immigration Law requires the foreigner to have the necessary financial means and leaves it to the Cabinet to determine the amount and how their existence is established, insofar as Regulation (EU) 2016/399 does not.

Section 22(1)(7) allows a long-stay visa to be refused where the foreigner cannot prove the financial means necessary to stay in the Republic of Latvia or another Schengen Agreement country and then depart to another country which he or she has the right to enter.

Two money tests therefore run in parallel: one published by the issuing authority for this route, and a general one living in Cabinet regulations — and the second figure must be looked up there rather than inferred from the first.

The outcome is a long-stay D visa issued under section 17, point 6 and section 18(2) of the Immigration Law adopted by the Saeima on 20 August 2026 and in force from 15 September 2026, which replaced the Immigration Law of 2002. The new law no longer cross-refers to Regulation (EU) No 265/2010, but a long-stay visa holder's right to move within the Schengen area still flows from that EU regulation itself, so this is not merely a permission to be in Latvia.

Duration: under section 18(2), up to one year, with the possibility of receiving another long-stay visa for a period not exceeding one year.

Section 11(5) of the 2002 law entitled a holder of this visa to request a temporary residence permit without leaving the Republic of Latvia, provided the request was made within the term of validity of the long-stay visa. The new law does not keep that entitlement: section 18(2) contains no corresponding sentence, and section 27 on temporary residence permits lists no remote-work ground, so a holder who wishes to stay after the visa expires needs a separate residence ground provided by law. Applications filed before 15 September 2026 are still examined and decided under the 2002 law, by point 4 of the transitional provisions of the new law.

The bar that follows must also be read on its exact words: after expiry of the term of validity of the repeat visa, the foreigner is not entitled, within the subsequent six months, to receive a new long-stay visa in Latvia on the basis of the same reason for requesting a visa.

The bar attaches to the ground, not to the person — a different ground is not caught by it.

Two conditions on the paying side sit inside the definition of the category:

The employer must be registered in another OECD member state, or the applicant must be a self-employed person registered in one of those member states; and on the issuing authority's page, the employment relationship with that same employer must already have run for at least six months.

One nationality exclusion is written into the statute: section 18(3) bars citizens of the Russian Federation from requesting a visa for remote work.

Finally the scope, so a reader knows where the rest of this table has to come from: in the Latvian text of the new Immigration Law the stem «attālināt» (remote) occurs only in sections 17 and 18.

The category therefore has no chapter of its own — every other condition attaching to it comes from the general visa provisions of the law, or from Cabinet regulations. The visa regulation in force is Cabinet Regulation No. 676 of 30 August 2011, which the new law keeps in application, insofar as it does not contradict the law, until a replacement enters into force and no later than 1 December 2027.

The long-stay visa is granted for one year. The time condition looks backwards rather than forwards: an employee must produce a certificate from the employer registered in that OECD country confirming previous employment with that same employer for at least six months; a self-employed person must evidence income over the last six months.

A person who has just changed jobs or just gone independent therefore does not qualify, however high the income. The photograph submitted must be no older than six months. The published page is dated 26 July 2022 and was last updated on 11 February 2026

The category is for third-country nationals employed by an employer registered in a member state of the OECD, or self-employed persons registered in one of those countries, who can perform their duties remotely while staying in the Republic of Latvia.

The file must include documents confirming the expected place of residence in Latvia. And the issuing authority states one point with no hedging: a holder of the remote work visa has no right to employment in the Republic of Latvia.

What this record did not previously carry is the layer of general conditions, which applies to this route exactly as to any other because the law gives it no chapter of its own. Section 6(1) of the new Immigration Law requires the foreigner to satisfy five groups concurrently.

First, a valid travel document, where section 7(1) defines validity by seven tests: it is recognised in the Republic of Latvia. It conforms to a specified sample; it contains all identity data and photographs of the persons using it.

Its remaining validity exceeds the planned period of residence in Latvia or in another Schengen Agreement country by at least three months. It was issued within the last ten years, where the foreigner uses it to enter under Regulation (EU) 2016/399.

It contains no unstipulated corrections by the issuer, no mechanical damage or smears preventing identification of the holder, reading of the information or detection of forgeries; and it has space for at least two notes on border-crossing in the pages provided for visas.

Second, a valid visa or a residence permit. Third, a valid health insurance policy, with the Cabinet determining the cases in which a foreigner may enter and stay without one.

Fourth, no other obstacle laid down in the law or in other laws and regulations regarding entry. Fifth, the necessary financial means, in the amount the Cabinet determines.

All five must hold at the same time, so a file that clears the income threshold can still fail on a passport close to expiry or with no pages left.

Two further procedural obligations apply to Vietnamese applicants. Under section 19(3)(1), long-stay visa documents are filed with the Latvian mission whose competence covers the applicant's place of permanent residence, and Annex 2 to Cabinet Regulation No. 725 assigns Viet Nam to the Embassy of Latvia in China; a foreigner lawfully staying in Latvia files with the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs under point 25 of Regulation No. 676.

Under section 12(1), a citizen of a country outside the exempt groups, Viet Nam among them, who holds no visa or residence permit issued by Latvia must submit the purpose of the trip, the planned period and place of stay, the route and certain other information 48 hours before entering Latvia.

The visa framework for this category has no place for dependants, and that is an absence from the text rather than a prohibition. The issuing authority's page mentions family members only in the navigation bar addressed to citizens of the European Union, never in the body.

The chapter on visas in the Immigration Law likewise does not mention a spouse, child, family member or relative.

What the framework does say: the legal basis is section 17, point 6 and section 18(2) and (3) of the Immigration Law in force from 15 September 2026.

It covers a person working remotely for an employer registered in a member country of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or self-employed and registered in such a country, with citizens of the Russian Federation excluded.

The term is at most one year, may be granted once more for at most a further year, and after the second grant a further six months must pass before a fresh application on the same ground; medical insurance must cover at least 42,600 euros.

There is no additional financial threshold for dependants, because there are no dependants in the framework.

One limit: the full text of the Cabinet visa regulation has not been checked at source, so the statement that stands is that this framework has no place for dependants and that relatives need an independent ground of their own, not that Latvia forbids bringing family.

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the Latvia passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a Latvia passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Latvia passport reaches 198 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

This is one of very few programmes carrying a real tax concession tied to the very provision under which the visa is issued.

Its trail begins at Transitional Provision 57 of the Immigration Law of 2002, amended on 2 June 2022 and 22 September 2022, which required the Cabinet to submit to Parliament amendments to the personal income tax law.

Those amendments were to provide a reduced rate of personal income tax for one year for a foreigner who has received a long-stay visa on the basis of section 11, paragraph five of the Immigration Law and has moved their tax residence to Latvia.

That provision has been implemented: section 15, paragraph 19.2 of the law On Personal Income Tax gives a foreigner holding a long-stay visa under that same section 11(5) the right to elect a 15% rate.

The income covered: income from remote work for an employer registered in another member state of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or income from economic activity registered in such a member state.

The duration: it applies for 365 days from the day the person became a resident of Latvia under the law On Taxes and Fees.

Commencement: Transitional Provision 195 of the tax law itself provides that paragraph 19.2 enters into force on 1 January 2023 and applies to income derived from 1 January 2023, in the wording of the amending law of 15 June 2023 in force from 12 July 2023.

And the rate survives in the version in force from 1 January 2026, even though the general scale has since been raised. That provision, however, still refers to section 11(5) of the Immigration Law of 2002, which lost force on 15 September 2026; the remote-work visa is now issued under section 17, point 6 and section 18(2) of the new law, and the tax law as consolidated on 16 October 2026 has not been amended to refer to those provisions. No official text therefore yet confirms that a holder of a visa issued under the new law may elect the 15% rate.

But the 15% is not free, and this is the part sellers of the programme leave out. Electing it costs three things. First, under section 12(9), income taxed at that rate does not benefit from the non-taxable minimum.

Second, under section 13(3), it does not carry the allowances for dependants in subsection (1)(1) and (1)(4). Third, under section 10(5.1), the eligible expenses in subsection (1)(2), (3), (5), (6) and (8) may not be deducted.

For a sense of what is being traded away, the general scale runs at 25.5% below the compulsory social insurance contribution ceiling and 33% above it.

One point about how this reaches a reader deserves stating: the programme page of the issuing authority itself never mentions the 15% rate, and refers to tax only in the phrase tax administration.

A person who reads only the programme page will not learn that the election exists.

Read this cell within its scope: it covers the elective rate and the reliefs forfeited by electing it, while the duration of the visa, the income threshold, the insurance limit and the right to work belong to other cells of this same table.

And all four sources of the record say nothing about compulsory social insurance contributions, nothing about registration with the Latvian tax authority, and nothing about how the 365 days are computed for a taxpayer arriving mid-year. On double taxation treaties, the State Revenue Service's 2025 guidance does speak: the 15% regime does not apply to a foreigner who, under a treaty concluded by Latvia and in force, is treated as a resident of the other contracting state, and the treaty between Latvia and Viet Nam has been in force since 6 August 2018.

The only item in the file carrying a figure is health insurance:

The application must include a copy of the document certifying health insurance valid in the Republic of Latvia and in the Schengen member states, with a minimum liability limit of the insurer stated in the policy of no less than EUR 42,600, and that limit must hold for the whole insurance period rather than at the moment of filing.

To see how heavy it is, set it against the income test: EUR 42,600 is more than nine times the monthly income of EUR 4,538 this route requires.

The second item is the state fee, and its amount sits in a Cabinet regulation rather than on the programme page.

Section 13 of the new Immigration Law requires a foreigner to pay a state fee for the examination of the documents necessary for requesting a long-stay visa and the related services, and leaves it to the Cabinet to set the amount, the payment procedure and the categories of persons who are exempt.

The amount is in Cabinet Regulation No. 731 of 26 November 2024, in force from 1 January 2025 and kept in application by the new law until a replacement enters into force, but no later than 1 December 2027: EUR 90 for examining the documents for a long-stay visa, and EUR 180 where the application is filed less than three working days before the lawful stay in Latvia ends.

The issuing authority's programme page requires a document confirming payment of that fee but states no amount, so the figure must be taken from that regulation.

The remaining items are procedure rather than money, but their absence returns the file: a valid travel document, together with a copy of the passport where documents are submitted to the Administration by mail; the completed and signed visa form, filed through the authority's e-form; and one photograph no older than six months.