The investors’ residence scheme in Latvia was introduced by amending the Immigration Law in 2010. This step was taken as a reaction to the financial crisis that hit Latvia in 2008. The main idea behind this scheme was to attract foreign investors in order to facilitate Latvia’s economic recovery and growth by activating the real estate market and creating new jobs.
Under the Latvian investors’ residence scheme, the conditions of which are set out in the Immigration Law, third-country nationals investing in Latvia may request temporary residence permits. This document gives foreigners the right to reside in Latvia for a definite period of time. For most types of investment, the law allows granting a residence permit for up to five years; the stay of investors contributing to start-ups is limited to three years.
In 2014, the Immigration Law was made stricter by considerably raising the minimum investmentlevels and introducing one-time payments to the State budget. These changes aimed to limit the growing number of successful applications seen by many as a threat to public security and policy. In particular, concerns were raised over money laundering, threat to local jobs due to the investors’ unlimited access
to labour market, concentration of foreigners in certain locations (specifically, Riga, the capital of Latvia, and the coastal resort of Jurmala), and the fact that foreign investors do not need to integrate or learn the Latvian language.