The temporary residence permits of around 4,000 Russian citizens currently living in Latvia are set to expire at the end of this year.
Those who want to remain within Latvia’s territory will have to apply for a re-formatting for a permanent residence permit. However, they will need to meet a crucial requirement before being granted the document, Schengen.News reports.
Under the requirements of the Immigration Law that Latvia has in place, the 4,000 Russian citizens who will have their temporary residence permits expired will need to take the Latvian language test.
Following the successful completion of this requirement, affected Russian citizens will be able to obtain a permanent residence permit, LSM explains.
The group of 4,000 Russian citizens were granted the current temporary residence permits that they hold in 2023, and they were tasked with taking the Latvian language exam.
To complete this requirement, they were given a two-year period. Now that the two-year deadline is approaching, the Latvian authorities expect to see a busy year.
Permit Application Process Currently Slow, Head of Migration Division Says
Commenting on the expected workload, the Head of the Migration Division at the Office for Citizenship and Migration Affairs, Ilze Briede, said that at the moment, the application for permit re-formatting is slow, calling the application process sluggish.
The first permits will expire in November, December. And at the moment, the process of applying for a permit is rather sluggish.
The same explained that of the total group of 4,000 Russian citizens, 336 of them have already submitted their applications for re-formatting.
Data show that around 2,000 Russian citizens were required to leave Latvia after failing the language test and not applying for a permanent residence permit.
Large Number of Ukrainian Citizens Also Need to Renew Their Latvian Residence Permits
In addition to Russian citizens, a large number of Ukrainians also need to renew their residence permits in order to be able to legally remain within Latvia’s territory.
According to the data provided by Latvian authorities, out of 15,000 permits issued to Ukrainians in 2022, only around 3,500 of them have been renewed.
This has pushed the Office for Citizenship and Migration Affairs to issue a statement urging all Ukrainian citizens to renew their documents.
On March 4, residence permits with the right to work that were issued to Ukrainians in 2022 expired.
