residence permits are distributed very sparingly

Brought 1.6 billion

From July 1, 2010 until the end of last year, the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (OCMA) issued 19.8 thousand under the residence permit program for investments.
similar permissions. In 273 cases, investors were denied residence permits, and 3,387 of them were cancelled. As of December 31, 2023, there were 4,412 investors and members of their families with valid residence permits living in Latvia.

The volume of investments by non-residents for residence permits in the period from July 1, 2010 to December last year amounted to 1.62 billion euros.

Of the total funds (1.35 billion euros), 83% were investments in the Latvian real estate market. Investments in banks amounted to 10% (158.9 million euros), in fixed capital of enterprises – 6% (98.5 million euros), in government non-interest-bearing securities – 1% (16.3 million euros).

“Applicants for residence permits for investments mainly come from regions with an unstable geopolitical situation and high economic and political uncertainty. Investors from the countries of the former USSR account for regarding 85% of all applications for residence permits, and outside the former USSR the greatest interest in residence permits is shown investors from Asia,” reports the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Volumes fell

This program, which is also sometimes called “golden visas,” was opened in Latvia in 2010 not because of a good life, but to attract funds that the country needed so much in the midst of a severe financial crisis.

However, from September 1, 2014, the authorities of the Republic of Latvia introduced a lot of restrictions for investors and raised the amount required to obtain a residence permit. Naturally, following this the number of investors dropped sharply.

“Due to changes in the conditions of the investment program, from September 1, 2014, the number of applications for residence permits and the volume of investments decreased significantly. If in 2014 the number of residence permits issued under the investment program was 53% of the total number, then in subsequent years this figure decreased sharply and in 2023 amounted to 0.6% of the total number of residence permits issued for the first time,” indicates the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Latvia.

We don’t need that kind of money

In 2022, new tightening amendments were made to the immigration law: citizens of Russia and Belarus were generally prohibited from obtaining a residence permit for investing in the Latvian economy. The rise in Euribor base rates and inflation also had a negative impact on the program, especially on real estate transactions.

However, in 2023, 86 applications from investors were received, and the volume of investment amounted to 10.5 million euros – 39.5% of the 2022 level and 31% of the 2021 level. These were mainly investments in real estate in Riga and the capital region with the aim of obtaining a residence permit.

“The investment attraction program, offering non-residents the opportunity to obtain a residence permit, had a positive effect in the first years following its introduction, but as conditions tightened and the geopolitical situation worsened, the volume of foreign capital decreased: since 2014, the average volume of investments for a residence permit has decreased annually by almost 87%,” – the report says.

In the period from 2015 to 2018, the volume of foreign investments attracted through the residence permit program was 3.5 times less than in the first four years of the program. If in 2014 investments by non-residents related to obtaining a residence permit exceeded 11% of the total volume of investments by non-residents in the Latvian economy, then in 2023 they no longer reached 0.1%.

“This indicates that, in general, the investment attraction program has lost its original meaning, and residence permits are not a motivating tool for attracting foreign capital to Latvia,” the report states.

Suspicious comrades

Apparently, some suspicious individuals also entered Latvia under the guise of investors. True, they were quickly identified and driven away from the Republic of Lithuania.

As the Ministry of Internal Affairs said in its report, the State Security Service last year ordered the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs to cancel the temporary residence permits of two Russian citizens issued on the basis of their investments.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs does not say who these people were and why they were dangerous for the Republic of Latvia.