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Program profile · Edition 1 research

Latvia - Investor Residence

The EU's cheapest mainstream entry point: EUR 250,000 plus a 5% state duty, no minimum-stay requirement to keep the permit - but on an announced closing path. Parliament has already voted to remove the route, the President has sent that law back, and three outcomes are still live for the autumn re-vote. Verified against the Immigration Law itself; every claim below carries its source, access date and status.

The threshold

The route requires EUR 250,000 in one functionally linked, built-up property (vacant land excluded) in a statutory list of territories - Riga, Jurmala, Ikskile or Saulkrasti city, or Adazi, Kekava, Marupe, Olaine or Salaspils municipality, or Garkalne, Ropazi, Saulkrasti, Stopini or Tinuzi rural territory. Outside those territories, no more than two properties may make up the total. A cadastral floor applies: total cadastral value at acquisition of at least EUR 80,000 (EUR 40,000 per property where two are used); if cadastral value falls short, a certified-assessor market valuation must confirm not less than EUR 250,000 total, or not less than EUR 125,000 per property when two are used. Agricultural and forest land are expressly excluded, payment must be non-cash, and the seller must be a Latvian, EU, EEA or Swiss entity or eligible natural person with no real estate tax debts. Confirmed - Immigration Law Section 23(1)(29), likumi.lv official English consolidation, accessed 2026-07-17.

A 2026 aggregator claim that residential property outside Riga no longer qualifies is refuted: the in-force statute expressly permits qualifying purchases both in the listed territories and outside them under the two-property variant. No 2026 amendment restricting eligibility to Riga is in force. The PMLP's own English service page, last updated April 2022, still lists pre-2021-reform municipality names (Babite, Baldone, Carnikava as separate entries); these merged into Marupe, Kekava and Adazi respectively in the 2021 administrative reform, so coverage is functionally similar, but the statutory list above is the citable one. Confirmed (statute, accessed 2026-07-17).

What it costs

The state duty on the first permit is 5% of the real estate purchase value - EUR 12,500 (USD 14,284) at the EUR 250,000 threshold, paid into the state budget. Confirmed - PMLP service page, accessed 2026-07-15. An application processing fee of EUR 90-200, depending on speed, is Reported (Lex & Finance); the primary fee schedule was not captured this pass. Subsistence proof of EUR 1,500 per month for the principal applicant, plus EUR 500 per additional adult and EUR 150 per minor, is required as a means test, not a cost. Confirmed (PMLP page). Latvian property transfer and registration duties on the purchase itself were not verified this pass, and no exit tax on sale was identified - the 5% duty is sunk regardless. Unresolved.

Time to permit

Two reported ranges conflict and neither has been reconciled against a primary table: 30 days, up to 60 for Russian citizens (Lex & Finance) versus approximately 2 to 4 months from the initial application date (Get Golden Visa). PMLP publishes tiered processing - faster for a higher fee - but the primary fee-and-timing table was not captured this pass. Unresolved.

Term and the path onward

The permit runs five years, with a temporary residence permit exceeding one year registered annually - Immigration Law Section 23(1)(29) and Section 22. Confirmed - likumi.lv, accessed 2026-07-17. Ownership is understood to be re-verified at each renewal and the property is understood to be locked from sale for the full 60-month term or the permit is revoked, but both points are Reported only (Get Golden Visa, Lex & Finance) and were not found in the statute text directly. Permanent residence becomes available after five years of continuous residence on the temporary permit (Section 24(1)(7)), where continuity tolerates absences of up to six consecutive months or one year in total (Section 24(8)), plus an official-language acquisition requirement (Section 24(5)). Confirmed (likumi.lv, accessed 2026-07-17).

Family

The spouse and minor children (including those under guardianship) of the investor may obtain permits for the same term - Immigration Law Section 23(4). Confirmed - likumi.lv and the PMLP service page, both accessed 2026-07-17. Parents are not part of the statutory family enumeration for this route; Latvia sits at the narrower end of the family-scope range measured by the Index.

Presence

No minimum Latvia-stay requirement appears in the governing clause or its annulment grounds for keeping the temporary permit - but the permit can be annulled where the holder has stayed continuously outside the European Union for 12 months. The effective floor is: do not be absent from the EU for 12 continuous months. Confirmed - Immigration Law, likumi.lv, accessed 2026-07-17. For permanent residence after five years, the operative test is continuous residence with absences not exceeding six consecutive months or one year in total (Section 24(8)), plus the language condition (Section 24(5)) - not the "183 days per year" figure circulated in secondary sources, which is refuted against the statute.

Rule stability: an abolition vote in progress

This is one of Europe's most restricted surviving routes, and it is now on an announced closing path. The Saeima passed a new Immigration Law in its third and final reading on 11 June 2026, by a vote of 65-17, removing the EUR 250,000 real estate route and the EUR 280,000 subordinated-deposit route, and adding a EUR 150,000 state-fund route. Intended effect was 1 January 2027. On 19 June 2026 the President returned the law for a second review; his return message goes beyond a separate corrective amendment on Russian and Belarusian citizens' rights under the new fund route, and asks the Saeima to consider establishing a statutory basis under which citizens of NATO, OECD and EEA member states could still apply for temporary residence permits on the basis of purchasing real estate - floating a nationality-gated retention of the route rather than a clean abolition. The autumn outcome is accordingly not binary: three scenarios are live - abolition as originally passed, retention as before, or a NATO/OECD/EEA-gated real-estate route. The Saeima's spring session closed 18 June 2026; the re-vote is expected in autumn 2026. The law's transitional provision states that applications submitted and accepted for review before the new law enters into force will be processed under the current regime - applications accepted before any new law takes effect remain valid. As of the most recent check, no final vote, promulgation, extraordinary session or reversal had been found. Confirmed - president.lv (2026-06-19) and Cobalt legal briefing (2026-06-16), both accessed 2026-07-17; see the Closed Routes Record for how other European programs in the Index set have closed.

Nationality access

Citizens of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus are statutorily closed out of this route, not merely administratively suspended. Immigration Law Section 23.1 (inserted 22 September 2022, amended 8 June 2023) permits Russian and Belarusian citizens to request a temporary residence permit only under specified exempted grounds, and the investment clauses - Section 23(1), Clauses 28 to 31 - are not among them. Confirmed - likumi.lv, accessed 2026-07-17. The first-time ban took effect 11 April 2022; a September 2022 transitional provision also cut off extensions for permits already issued under the investment clauses to Russian and Belarusian citizens. Russian citizens applying on exempt grounds face reportedly longer processing, up to 60 days. Reported - Lex & Finance. Latvia has also extended general entry and visa restrictions for Russian and Belarusian citizens to end-2026. Reported - schengenvisainfo.com.