Latvia Investor Visa

The Immigration Law of 20 August 2026, in force from 15 September 2026, opens three investment tracks to first-time applicants, each accompanied by a payment of EUR 10,000 into the State budget. The minimum investment on each track is in euro:

The contribution under point 10 must be made by increasing the share capital of a company or by founding a new company, and the EUR 10,000 on that track is paid on the first application.

Under point (a), a temporary residence permit is issued to no more than 10 foreigners per company.

The outcome is a temporary residence permit rather than permanent residence, and it carries a cap few jurisdictions impose:

Where several people invest in the equity capital of one company at the EUR 50,000 level, a temporary residence permit is issued to no more than ten foreigners, each of whom must have made the investment themselves and paid EUR 10,000 into the State budget themselves.

The file must also carry proof of the necessary subsistence, set at EUR 500 per month for an adult and EUR 150 per month for an accompanying minor.

The inviter letter must be approved by the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs before the documents are submitted; and the bank details for the EUR 10,000 payment into the State budget are specified only in the decision to issue the permit, meaning the payment follows the decision rather than preceding it.

One caution must travel with these figures: the page itself records its last update as 22 April 2022, while the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs has announced a new immigration law, which the Saeima adopted on 20 August 2026 and which took effect on 15 September 2026.

The new law removes altogether the option of granting temporary residence permits to real estate purchasers and to investors in subordinated liabilities of credit institutions, and widens the route for start-up founders.

It also adds a new form of investment of EUR 150,000 in a manager of a state-established alternative investment fund, though the agency states plainly that such a fund has not yet been established, making the provision inapplicable for the time being

The timing framework has just changed.

The new Immigration Law, adopted by the Saeima on 20 August 2026 and in force from 15 September 2026, changes the validity periods of temporary residence permits, in several cases establishing a two-year term, while simultaneously abolishing the requirement for annual permit registration.

The most labour-intensive part of this route for years.

Processing is tightened on the authority side as well: the maximum time for examining a residence permit application is shortened to no more than four months from the date of submission.

On renewal, a foreigner may request a repeated permit while the previous permit is still valid, or within 90 days after its expiry, allowing for the 30-day examination period plus 10 working days to produce the permit document.

The Immigration Law contains no provision limiting the number of times a new temporary residence permit may be requested. Two further provisions of the new law shape the long-term path.

First, permanent residency rights are reduced to a single type, the status of a permanent resident of the European Union, and are no longer granted to any category of persons on a first application — the mandatory criterion is at least five years of residence in Latvia on a temporary residence permit.

Second, the law establishes an integration obligation covering the state language and a course on Latvian history and culture, but sets a transition period so that the provision enters into force only on 31 December 2027

The real residence condition sits in the list of grounds for annulment in section 36(1) of the Immigration Law in force from 15 September 2026, and that list reaches far wider than a day count.

A temporary residence permit is annulled where the foreigner no longer has the financial resources necessary to reside in Latvia (point 2); where the circumstances or conditions under section 27 on which the permit was granted no longer exist or have changed (point 7); or where the person has left for permanent residence in another country (point 8).

Two grounds deserve closer reading on the share-capital track.

First, under point 17, a permit granted under section 27(1)(10) is annulled if the invested company has a registered tax debt exceeding EUR 150, unless the tax administration has confirmed that the payment terms were extended, deferred or divided and the payments are being made on schedule.

Second, section 27(1)(10) itself makes the permit valid only if the invested company pays taxes totalling at least EUR 40,000 in each reporting year, or at least EUR 100,000 for a company under sub-paragraph (b).

So the validity of the permit depends in part on the tax record of the company, not only on the conduct of the beneficiary.

Further grounds cover false information or forged documents (point 1), a Schengen entry ban (point 3), and conviction of an offence punishable under Latvian law by deprivation of liberty exceeding three years or of an intentional offence (point 4).

They also cover joining a foreign military service (point 5), failure to meet the conditions in the decision granting the permit (point 6), and a real purpose of residence that does not match the documents (point 15).

Where a foreigner's permit is annulled, the permits of their minor children are annulled as well, subject to the exceptions in section 36(2).

Where an investor under paragraph (10) dies, section 36(5) preserves the family members' permits if the investment continued to exist until the date of death and their absence from Latvia does not exceed three months in a calendar year, or arose for reasons beyond their control.

On the route to permanent residence, section 31(3) treats the five years of residence as continuous if absence from Latvia did not exceed six consecutive months or did not total more than 10 months

An accompanying minor child or child under maintenance must file the full set of documents required of the applicant, except the marriage document, together with proof of the relationship and the other parent's consent to the child residing in Latvia, notarised or signed before an officer of the receiving authority.

Each accompanying person raises the subsistence that must be shown, and two pages carry two different sets of figures. The investor route page was last updated on 22 April 2022. The general subsistence page of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs was updated on 16 March 2026 and sets the levels in force from 1 April 2026. Amounts are in EUR:

The general subsistence page does not name the investor route specifically. Applicants should prepare for the higher one.

Where family members apply together with the principal applicant, they file proof of subsistence under the family-member provisions of Cabinet Regulation No. 225.

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.

The Immigration Law of 20 August 2026, in force from 15 September 2026, is the current basis of this category. Section 27(1) of that law imposes no income tax obligation and grants no income tax concession on its beneficiaries; tax appears there only as a condition of grant and of continued validity.

On the share-capital track under section 27(1)(10), the permit is valid only if, throughout its term, the company invested in pays into the State and local government budgets, in each reporting year, taxes totalling at least EUR 40,000 under sub-paragraph (a) and at least EUR 100,000 under sub-paragraph (b). Taxes repaid or repayable from the State budget do not count towards that total.

Section 36(1)(17) adds a ground for annulment: a permit granted under paragraph (10) is annulled if the company concerned has a registered tax debt exceeding EUR 150, unless the tax administration has confirmed that the payment terms were extended, deferred or divided and the payments are being made on its schedule.

The investment tracks under the new law differ in the investment, the payment into the State budget and the duration of the permit. Investment amounts are in EUR:

The new law has no real-estate or subordinated-debt track for first-time applicants. Transitional Provision 10 applies only to persons already granted a permit under section 23(1)(29) or (30) of the former law, and to their family members, who wish to continue residing on the same ground after the registration term or the term of their residence rights ends.

Such persons apply for a repeat permit for up to five years, and the application must be filed while the previous permit is still valid. Applications filed before 15 September 2026 are examined and permits issued under the former law, under Transitional Provision 4.

Because the renewal condition refers back to section 23(1)(29) of the former law, the two tax conditions of that paragraph remain relevant to renewals on the real-estate track. Sub-paragraph (a) requires that the applicant have no immovable property tax debts.

Sub-paragraph (c) requires the property to be bought from a Latvian, EU, EEA or Swiss legal person which is a taxpayer in Latvia within the meaning of Latvian tax law, or from a natural person who is a Latvian citizen, a Latvian non-citizen, an EU citizen or a foreigner residing in Latvia with a valid residence permit issued by Latvia.

A person who has resided under paragraph (10) for at least five years and applies for a repeat permit pays a single EUR 2,000 into the State budget on receiving it, under section 29(3). Where the application is filed more than 90 days after the previous permit expired, or the investment object changes, the first-application conditions apply again.

Under section 30, the payments under paragraphs (10) and (36) and section 29(3) are one-off and are not refunded, except in cases set by the Cabinet. The law only frames the paragraph (36) track; its text does not say whether the fund has been established.

The former law, including Transitional Provision 57 on a reduced personal income tax rate for one year for the remote work category, ceased to have effect when the new law entered into force, under Transitional Provision 1 of the new law. The new law contains no corresponding provision, and that relief attached to a different category, not to the investment route.

The tax-residence line sits in section 14(2) of the law On Taxes and Fees and runs on three tests:

That the declared place of residence of the person is the Republic of Latvia; or that the person is in Latvia for 183 days or more in any twelve-month period beginning or ending in the tax year; or that the person is a Latvian citizen employed abroad by the Latvian government.

Subsection (5) makes a person meeting none of these a non-resident, taxable only on Latvian-source income.

The first test is notable because it does not count days, and here a joining of sources is required, which this cell records as a joining rather than as a quotation.

The residence-declaration procedure page of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs states that where a person has applied for a residence permit and the application contains what is needed for declaration, the application shall be considered the declaration of the place of residence.

The tax law, for its part, treats a declared place of residence in Latvia as a test of tax residence.

Put together, the permit application may itself constitute the residence declaration, and a declared place of residence in Latvia suffices for tax residence even without 183 days of presence.

It must be said plainly: the procedure page does not mention the tax consequence, and the tax law does not mention the permit application; no single source states both halves, so this conclusion is drawn by placing two texts side by side.

Current rates, from the State Revenue Service table updated on 31 December 2025, with personal income tax progressive:

Read this cell within its scope: the Immigration Law governs the investment, the budget payment, the taxes the invested company must pay and the duration of the permit, and creates no income tax regime.

The law On Taxes and Fees states tax-residence tests of general application; and no source grants this category a preferential regime, a lump-sum tax or an exemption for foreign income

Beyond the investment there is EUR 10,000 payable into the State budget, with the account details specified in the decision to issue the temporary residence permit itself. The subsistence to be shown for the applicant and accompanying family is recorded in the dependants cell of this page.

State fees under Cabinet Regulation No. 731 depend on the speed of review, and the fee for the residence permit card comes after approval. Amounts are in EUR:

Where there is an inviter, approval of the invitation costs EUR 17, or EUR 10 if filed online, plus EUR 10 for each person named in it. The invitation must be approved before the application is submitted.

The office treats a fee as paid only once the Treasury has received it. Bank printouts do not count as proof, so a wire transfer should be made several days in advance.