Latvia Golden Visa 2026: What the New Immigration Law Actually Changes

The Short Version

• The real estate route (from €250,000) and the subordinated bank deposit route (from €280,000) both closed to new applicants on 15 September 2026.
• Applications filed with the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (OCMA) on or before 14 September 2026 are still processed under the old rules, including the 5 year permit.
• The company investment route survives at €50,000 for a small Latvian business or €100,000 for a larger one, plus a €10,000 state payment. The permit it produces now runs 2 years at a time instead of 5.
• A new route requires a €150,000 investment held for at least 5 years through a state established alternative investment fund manager, plus the same €10,000 payment. It carries a 5 year permit, but the fund vehicle itself has not been created yet.
• Russian and Belarusian citizens are excluded from both remaining investment routes.

You can read the law as promulgated on Latvia's official gazette, Latvijas Vēstnesis.

How We Got Here

The Saeima first passed the amendments on 11 June 2026 by a vote of 65 to 17. President Edgars Rinkēvičs sent the law back for a second reading on 19 June, and Parliament repassed it on 20 August with additional security vetting requirements for investor applicants. The President then promulgated the law, setting it in motion for entry into force.

That last step is where most of the confusion started, including for our own clients.

The Detail Most Coverage Is Getting Wrong

When the government first adopted these amendments, the new law was scheduled to enter into force on 1 January 2027. During the final reading, that date was moved forward to 15 September 2026.

This change was not separately announced. It only became public when the law itself was officially promulgated, which meant applicants and advisors who were planning around a January 2027 deadline suddenly had a matter of days, not months, to file under the old rules.

What Closed on 15 September 2026

Two routes are gone for new applicants:

Real estate purchase. Foreigners could previously obtain a temporary residence permit by buying property worth at least €250,000. This is the route most people mean when they say "Latvia Golden Visa." It no longer exists for new filings.

Subordinated bank deposit. A deposit of at least €280,000 placed in a Latvian credit institution also produced a residence permit under the old law. This route closes alongside the property route.

What Survives, and What Is New

Company investment. This route is unchanged in structure. Invest at least €50,000 in the share capital of a small Latvian company, or €100,000 in a company with more than 50 employees and over €10 million in turnover, and pay a €10,000 state fee. The meaningful change is duration: the resulting permit is now valid for 2 years at a time and must be renewed on the same terms, rather than the 5 year permit it produced before.

Alternative investment fund route. This is the headline addition. A foreign national can qualify by investing at least €150,000 for a minimum of 5 years through a state established alternative investment fund manager, alongside the same €10,000 state payment. Done correctly, it produces a 5 year permit from the outset, matching the old real estate and deposit routes for duration.

The catch: the fund manager structure this route depends on has not been created yet, and the government has time until 1 December 2027 to finalize the secondary regulations that will make it operational. For now, this route exists in the statute but not yet in practice.

Processing time. Under the new law, OCMA can extend its review period to a maximum of 4 months from submission, with no further extension permitted. Previously, review could run considerably longer in some cases, so this is a rare instance of the new law tightening the timeline in an applicant's favor.

Nationality restriction. Russian and Belarusian citizens are barred from both the company and fund investment routes, closing a gap that had briefly left the fund option open to them when the law was first passed.

Latvia Golden Visa vs the Rest of Europe in 2026

Latvia was never the largest European program by volume, but it held a specific niche: the lowest entry point into Schengen with minimal presence requirements. With the property and deposit routes gone, that positioning has shifted. Here is where Latvia now sits against the other EU programs most frequently compared to it.

Programme	Lowest entry investment	Residence type	Time to permanent residence	Time to citizenship	Minimum stay
Greece	€250,000, conversion real estate	Permanent residency, renews every 5 years	Immediate, granted from day one	After 7 years of physical residency*	Zero days per year
Portugal	€500,000 in funds, €325,000 hospitality	2 year renewable residency	After 5 years	After 10 years (7 for EU/CPLP nationals)*	14 days every 2 years
Malta	€99,000 donation + €14,000/yr lease, or €375,000 purchase	Permanent residency from approval	Immediate, granted from day one	Separate 5 year naturalisation track*	Zero days per year
Italy	€250,000 startup investment	Initial 2 years, then renewable every 3	After 5 years	After 10 years of legal residence	Zero days per year
France	€300,000 business investment, Talent Passport	4 year renewable permit	After 5 years	After 5 years, language and civic exam	Continuous residence required
Hungary	€250,000 real estate fund	10 year renewable permit	Not applicable, permit runs 10 years	Uncertain, programme under review*	Zero days per year
Latvia Updated Sept 2026	€50,000–100,000 company + €10,000 fee (€150,000 fund route pending)	2 year renewable (5 years under pending fund route)	Follows general immigration timeline	Requires PR status, language and civic exam*	No fixed count, presence builds toward citizenship

*Figures marked with an asterisk reflect standard naturalization timelines under each country's general citizenship law rather than terms guaranteed by the investment program itself, and remain subject to individual case assessment and future legislative change.

The pattern that stands out: Greece and Malta remain the only two programs on this list that grant permanent residency status immediately rather than building up to it. Hungary offers the longest single permit duration if the program survives its current political review. Latvia, once the cheapest entry point into Schengen by a wide margin, now sits closer to the middle of the pack on cost while its permit duration moved in the opposite direction of most peers, from 5 years down to 2.

What This Means If You Were Considering Latvia

If your file was submitted and accepted by OCMA before 15 September 2026, you keep the terms you applied under, including the 5 year permit.

If you were planning to apply and missed the window, the company investment route is still open, but it now comes with a shorter renewal cycle and a higher administrative burden over time. The fund route may eventually restore a 5 year, higher investment alternative, but it is not something you can act on yet, and the government has given itself until the end of 2027 to finish the regulations behind it.

For clients weighing Latvia against the alternatives in the table above, the honest comparison today is less about entry cost and more about what kind of permit you actually end up holding, and how often you will need to renew it, prove the investment again, and refile.

Our team is tracking the fund route's rollout closely, since that is the detail that will determine whether Latvia's 5 year permit option genuinely returns. In the meantime, our updated Latvia program guide reflects the rules in force as of 15 September 2026.

This article reflects Latvia's Immigration Law as promulgated and in force from 15 September 2026. For the official text, consult the state gazette at lv.lv. This is general information, not legal advice, and individual circumstances should be reviewed directly with our advisory team before acting on any deadline referenced above.