Most Russian citizens older than 75 years who require permanent residence permits in Latvia but are not required to pass a state language exam have decided to stay in the country, as LTV programme Rīta panorāma was told by the head of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (PMLP) Maira Roze.
The official reported that 92% of Russian citizens living in Latvia have applied for permanent residence permits.
Data from PMLP shows that at the beginning of last week, of the 25 000 Russian citizens living in Latvia and who are subject to new requirements of the law, 13 000 had applied for permanent residence permits. Another 6 000 of them or so had passed state language exams. Around 800 of them had applied for residence permits.
When asked about the people who are doing nothing in regards to the residence permit topic, Roze said those are people who have decided to leave Latvia. PMLP does not have information about the number of such people.
Roze said the final numbers will become apparent 90 days of PMLP sending notifications to people who have done nothing to sort out their status in Latvia. Then it will become clear if they truly have no plans to do anything. The final warning is intended to motivate them to do something.
When asked what will happen to those who fail to respond within those 90 days, including fail to leave the country, Roze explained the state will rely on them to be out and will look for them specifically to make sure they’ve actually left the country. Action will be taken when these people make themselves known (by attempting to travel, electronically register for some service, etc.). PMLP will react to information like that and will request those people to come to the office to be issued an order to leave the country.
Chairman of Saeima’s Defence, Internal Affairs and Corruption Prevention Committee Raimonds Bergmanis told Latvijas Radio there is no clarity about the Russian citizens to be potentially expelled, because many have taken other actions instead of applying for permanent residence permit – leave the country, naturalise, pass exams to receive residence permits, etc.
As for the upcoming amendments to the Immigration Law that are intended to extend the period of time in which Russian citizens are able to take the state language exam, Bergmanis said the committee will start working on amendments this week. Deputies will request urgency for these amendments.
Bergmanis said he is confused why the government did not propose such amendments earlier. The Ministry of the Interior, which proposed these legislative amendments, is led by representative of Bergmanis’ political party Māris Kučinskis.
As previously reported, the Ministry of the Interior submitted amendments to the Immigration Law to the Saeima for approval. These amendments provide for extending the period of time within which Russian citizens living in Latvia are able to apply and undertake state language exam, passing which is necessary for them to receive a permanent residence permit. At the same time, the ministry stresses – if these people do nothing, they will have to leave the country.
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