Latvia Golden Visa: Programme Guide for Gulf, African and South-Asian Investors

The programme grants the main investor and their immediate family a temporary residence permit valid for five years. It covers the right to live, work and study in Latvia. As a Schengen Area and European Union member since 2004, Latvia's permit also allows travel within the Schengen Area for up to 90 days in any 180-day period.

There is no minimum number of days you need to spend in Latvia to keep the permit active. The one practical obligation is one visit per year to renew the physical ID card. The card is issued for one year at a time even though the underlying permit lasts five years.

Latvia joined the Eurozone in 2014. The programme has been open since 2010.

Share capital route. You invest as a registered shareholder in a pre-approved Latvian company. Two size thresholds apply. At any given time, two to four qualifying companies are available for investment. The EUR 10,000 government fee is paid to the Latvian State Budget after a positive application decision; it is non-refundable.

On capital return: a five-year term returns EUR 50,000 in full; a ten-year term returns EUR 50,000 plus a 2% commission. You cannot sell the shares during the term. If you leave the qualifying company before the agreed period ends, you risk losing part of the investment and the permit.

Real estate route. A minimum purchase of EUR 250,000 in qualifying Latvian property. The property is yours as an owner; there is no programme repayment structure.

Bank deposit route. A minimum EUR 280,000 deposit in a Latvian bank for at least five years. The deposit cannot be withdrawn before you switch to permanent residence; early withdrawal causes loss of the permit.

Beyond the investment itself, all applicants must show sufficient liquid funds in their own accounts: EUR 8,880 for the main applicant, EUR 8,880 for a spouse, and EUR 2,664 per child.

The programme is open to nationals of any country. One restriction applies: citizens of Russia or Belarus must hold a valid second non-EU passport to be eligible.

For the share capital route, the company must meet OCMA (Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs) eligibility criteria at the time of investment and throughout the holding period. Companies that grow beyond the defined size thresholds may no longer qualify as investment vehicles.

Family members who can be included in the application:

• Spouse
• Children under 18

Parents, siblings and adult children aged 18 and over are not eligible as dependants under the programme; they would need to make separate applications for Latvian residence.

You do not need a prior connection to Latvia, an existing Latvian bank account, or any EU residence to apply.

1. Valid passports (all family members)
2. Police clearance certificate, apostilled (main applicant and children aged 14 and over)
3. Bank statements demonstrating sufficient liquid funds
4. Source-of-funds documentation: salary slips, tax returns, sale proceeds, commission records or equivalent
5. CV
6. KYC/AML compliance forms
7. Utility bill dated within the past three months, confirming residential address
8. Apostilled birth certificates for children under 14

Document certifications and translations typically cost from EUR 1,000, depending on the number of documents and your country of origin.

The residence permit runs for five years but the ID card must be renewed each year. In practice this means one trip to Latvia per year, typically one or two days.

No minimum number of days per year in Latvia is required to maintain the permit. You are free to remain based wherever you live.

One point to flag: if you spend more than 183 days in Latvia in any 12-month period, or register an official Latvian address as your habitual residence, Latvia's tax authority may treat you as a tax resident. Investors who are not relocating to Latvia stay well below this threshold. See the tax section below for what Latvian tax residence means in practice.

Permanent residence is available after five years of continuous legal residence in Latvia, provided the investment has been maintained throughout.

Citizenship eligibility opens five years after obtaining permanent residence, meaning ten years in total. Naturalisation has two conditions: the Latvian language test at A2 level, and the continuous legal residence required to qualify for permanent residence in the first place.

These two requirements matter differently depending on your plans. The residence permit itself has no minimum-stay condition — by design, for investors holding Latvia as a Plan B base. The residency standard for permanent residence and subsequent citizenship is a different bar. Investors who do not plan to relocate to Latvia should take legal advice on whether their expected pattern of stays satisfies the continuous-residence requirement before treating citizenship as a realistic goal on this route. Those who do eventually plan to live in Latvia should begin Latvian language study several years before the naturalisation window opens.

Latvia's main advantage is the entry price. The equity route costs EUR 60,000 all-in before professional advisory fees, which are quoted individually based on your application's complexity and number of family members. That is the lowest qualifying investment for EU residency among current programmes.

For context: Greece's residence by investment programme requires a minimum EUR 250,000 property purchase in standard zones; Portugal's fund route starts at EUR 500,000; Hungary's fund-based programme requires EUR 250,000. For investors whose primary goal is a secured EU foothold at minimum capital deployment, Latvia is the practical answer.

The trade-off: a smaller economy, a less settled legislative framework than some longer-established programmes, an annual physical renewal visit, and a Latvian language requirement if citizenship is the eventual objective.

Investors who prioritise regulatory stability, a clearer citizenship path, or a programme with a longer track record can compare options in our European Golden Visa guide and our overview of the cheapest residence by investment programmes.

Four questions come up on almost every Latvia consultation call. Each has a factual answer grounded in the programme's legal structure.

Company solvency. Your equity investment is at commercial risk. My Golden Visa works only with companies that meet OCMA eligibility criteria and are screened for financial stability; the roster is actively maintained and updated as companies grow beyond qualifying thresholds or new ones become available. Share capital investment in a private company is illiquid for the duration of the term. No programme eliminates that risk entirely.

Rule changes. Latvia's programme operates under its Immigration Law, which has been amended before. The EUR 50,000 threshold has been stable for several years. In practice, amendments have tended to apply to new applicants rather than existing permit holders, but this protection is not codified by statute in the same way as in some other jurisdictions. Investors with a ten-year horizon and a priority on regulatory certainty should weigh this against the cost advantage Latvia offers.

Capital return. For the equity route: five-year term returns EUR 50,000; ten-year term returns EUR 50,000 plus a 2% commission. Both outcomes are governed by your investment agreement with the qualifying company. The EUR 10,000 government fee is a sunk cost. Exiting the company early risks partial loss of both capital and the permit.

Language requirement. The A2 Latvian test is a naturalisation requirement, not a residency condition. Investors applying for the permit, renewing it annually, or switching to permanent residence at year five face no language test. The language question becomes relevant only to investors who plan to apply for Latvian citizenship.

A Latvian residence permit does not, on its own, make you a tax resident of Latvia. Tax residency is triggered by spending more than 183 days in Latvia in any 12-month period, or by registering an official Latvian address as your declared habitual residence.

Most investors in the equity route visit Latvia once a year for the annual card renewal and remain tax-resident in their home country throughout.

For investors who do become Latvian tax residents, personal income tax applies at rates published by the State Revenue Service (VID). For investors who hold shares in a qualifying Latvian company, the corporate income tax structure is relevant: distributed profits (dividends) are subject to corporate income tax at 20% at the company level; undistributed or reinvested profits do not attract corporate income tax in the year they are earned.

Latvia has an extensive double tax treaty network. Tax outcomes depend on your individual income structure and treaty position; qualified advice before committing to any structure is essential.

Latvia's residence by investment programme is the most cost-accessible EU residency option for investors from the Gulf, Africa and South Asia who want a secured European base without relocating. The equity route returns your capital at the end of the term, the process takes four to six months, and no minimum stay is required.

If you want to understand whether you qualify for the Latvia residence by investment programme, which route fits your profile, and what the process looks like for your specific country of origin, My Golden Visa's team can give you a clear assessment. Contact us to arrange a consultation.