At least 1 213 citizens of the Russian Federation will be deported from Latvia for failing to comply with requirements of amendments to the Immigration Law, as LETA was told by the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (PMLP).
The 1 213 people in question failed to submit documents to request any kind of residence permit in Latvia. There is also no information to confirm these people have already left the country.
The final number of people who will have to leave Latvia will be compiled soon.
The 3rd of January 2024 marks the expiration of permanent residence permits of Russian citizens who are subject to the amendments to the Immigration Law and who will have failed to submit an application for provision of status of permanent resident of the European Union by the 31st of December 2023.
It is important to keep in mind that this document issue term applies only to the people who passed the state language exam by the 30th of November, PMLP stresses.
If the person failed the language exam, PMLP recommends signing up for a two-year permit by the 31st of December. This will ensure the person still has access to social and healthcare services and their stay in Latvia does not become illegal.
The office stresses that the permanent residence permit will expire on the 3rd of January 2024 even if a Russian citizens fails to submit an application to receive a different residence permit. In this case a person will be allowed to continue living in Latvia until the final decision is made about his or her residence permit. However, it is important to keep in mind that a residence permit card will no longer be valid, and Russian citizens may have problems receiving social and healthcare services.
The Russian citizens who are allowed not to take Latvian language exam for justified reasons will be allowed to submit a request for a residence permit until the 31st of March 2024.
Permission to stay in Latvia will be issued for a two-year period.
Justifiable reasons include health-related problems or other reasons independent of the person’s will and actions.
The deportation procedure of Russian citizens who failed to submit residence permit requests will be very complicated
and slow, said PMLP Chief Maira Roze at a meeting of the Saeima’s Citizenship, Migration and Social Cohesion Committee on the 6th of December.
The immigration law provides that permanent residence permits issued to Russian citizens expired in September 2023. In order to live in Latvia, they had to apply for the status of a permanent resident of the European Union, but in order to receive it, they had to submit a proof of a minimum level of knowledge of the official language and the existence of financial resources to the PMLP.
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