Tomorrow, 15 September 2026, Latvia's new Immigration Law takes effect. The Saeima adopted it on 20 August, the President proclaimed it on 1 September, and it was published the same day in the official gazette, Latvijas Vēstnesis. With it, the Immigration Law of 31 October 2002 loses force, and with that old law goes Latvia's property-for-residence route.
From tomorrow, buying a flat in Riga no longer gives a foreign investor a basis to request a Latvian residence permit. Neither does parking money in a Latvian bank. What remains is an investment in a Latvian company, now with a shorter permit, and a new route through a state-established investment fund.
The figures come from the two law texts on the official legal portal, likumi.lv.
What Disappears Tomorrow
Under article 23(1) of the 2002 law, in the version valid until 14 September 2026, a foreign national could request a temporary residence permit for up to five years on several investment grounds. Two of them do not reappear in the new law.
Real estate (point 29). The investor had to buy and own real estate worth at least 250,000 euros. In Riga, Jūrmala and a list of surrounding towns and municipalities, that meant one functionally connected property. Outside those areas, it could be up to two properties with a combined value of at least 250,000 euros. Undeveloped land did not qualify and agricultural and forest land were excluded. Payment had to be cashless, and the seller had to be either a company registered in Latvia or elsewhere in the EU, EEA or Switzerland that pays tax in Latvia, or an individual who was a Latvian citizen or non-citizen, an EU citizen or a foreigner holding a Latvian residence permit. The property needed a cadastral value of at least 80,000 euros, or 40,000 euros each where two properties were bought outside the listed areas; below that, a certified valuation had to show a market value of at least 250,000 euros, or 125,000 euros for each of two properties. On the first application, the investor paid 5 percent of the property's value to the state budget.
Bank investment (point 30). The investor had to hold subordinated liabilities with a Latvian credit institution of at least 280,000 euros for at least five years and pay 25,000 euros to the state budget on the first application.
In the new law's list of grounds for a temporary residence permit, article 27(1), neither the real-estate route nor the bank route exists. That is the change in one sentence.
What Stays: The Company Route, Shortened
The capital-company route survives as article 27(1), point 10 of the new law, with the same basic numbers as before:
- an investment in the share capital of a company, either by increasing the capital of an existing company or by founding a new one, of at least 50,000 euros in a company with no more than 50 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet of no more than 10 million euros, with a maximum of ten foreign investors per company;
- or at least 100,000 euros in a company that, alone or with its Latvian subsidiaries, employs more than 50 people and has a turnover or balance sheet above 10 million euros;
- plus a payment of 10,000 euros to the state budget with the first application.
The company must also perform. The permit stays valid only if, in each reporting year, the company pays at least 40,000 euros in taxes to the state and municipal budgets in the smaller case, or at least 100,000 euros in the larger case, not counting taxes refunded or refundable.
The important change is duration. Under the old law, this route gave a permit for up to five years. Under the new law, it gives a permit for up to two years. LV portāls, the explainer service of the official publisher, sums it up the same way: same investment amounts, permit term cut from five years to two. Article 29(3) adds that a company investor who has lived in Latvia for at least five years on this basis pays 2,000 euros to the state budget when receiving a repeat permit.
What Is New: 150,000 Euros in a State Fund
The genuinely new route is article 27(1), point 36. A foreign national may request a temporary residence permit for up to five years if they have signed a contract and transferred at least 150,000 euros, for a period of at least five years, as an investment with the manager of a state-established alternative investment fund, and have paid 10,000 euros to the state budget.
The permit remains valid only while the fund manager confirms that the investment contract has not been terminated and that the investment balance has not fallen below 150,000 euros.
The law sets the entry conditions. It does not say what the investment will return, how the fund will invest, or on what terms money comes back after five years. Those are questions for the fund's own documentation, and anyone considering this route should read that documentation with the same care as any other five-year illiquid investment.
The Clause That Can Switch Both Routes Off
Article 28 deserves attention from anyone planning around either investment route. It provides that the issuing of residence permits under point 10 or point 36 can be suspended for up to five years. After assessing the effect on national security or on economic development, taking into account the number of foreigners in the country and their concentration in particular areas, the Cabinet of Ministers decides for which third-country nationals, and for how long, issuing is suspended.
In other words, both surviving investment routes come with a built-in off switch that the Government can use without a new law.
The new law also excludes some nationalities outright. Under article 27(7) and (8), citizens of Russia and Belarus may not request a temporary residence permit under points 10 or 36, among others.
The President's Objection That Did Not Prevail
The property route did not end without debate. The Saeima first adopted the new law on 11 June 2026. On 19 June, President Edgars Rinkēvičs returned it for reconsideration. His objections included the way the investor provisions had been introduced: 158 proposals were submitted at the third reading, some of them introducing fundamentally new rules. He also invited the Saeima to consider whether citizens of NATO, OECD and EEA countries, and possibly other friendly countries listed by the Cabinet, should still be able to obtain residence permits by buying real estate under strict conditions, noting that the legislature could set both the areas where such purchases would be allowed and the property value.
On 20 August, the Saeima adopted the law again. The text now in force contains no real-estate ground. LV portāls describes the second adoption as made without substantial changes.
If You Already Hold a Property or Bank Permit
The transitional provisions matter most to existing investors, and they are more generous than the headline suggests.
Applications filed before the new law takes effect are decided under the 2002 law (transitional provision 4). An application for a temporary residence permit lodged before tomorrow is examined, and the permit issued, under the old rules.
Existing permits stay valid until the end of their registration period or, where no registration period was set, until their expiry (transitional provision 6).
Existing property and bank investors can renew. Under transitional provision 10, a foreign national who holds a permit under the old real-estate or bank routes, together with family members, can request a repeat temporary residence permit for up to five years for the same purpose, provided that:
- the application is filed while the previous permit is still valid;
- the investment still meets the conditions that applied under the 2002 law in its version of 23 April 2026;
- none of the refusal grounds in article 34 of the new law applies;
- a payment is made to the state budget of 1,000 euros for each year of the previous permit and the new one, reduced by amounts already paid under the old renewal rules.
So the door closes for new buyers, not for people already inside. For anyone holding a Latvian property permit, the priority is to keep the investment compliant and to file any renewal while the current permit is still valid.
The Longer Road: Permanent Residence
For anyone thinking beyond the five-year horizon, the new law also sets the terms for permanent residence. An applicant must have lived in Latvia continuously for five years with a residence permit, have sufficient means to support themselves and their dependants, speak Latvian at at least level A2, and have completed a Latvian culture and history course while living in the country on a residence permit. A residence strategy that relies on an investment permit alone, without learning the language, now has a visible ceiling.
Europe's Real-Estate Door Keeps Closing
Latvia's decision is part of a wider European pattern: residence and citizenship obtained mainly through money are becoming harder to get, shorter, more conditional or simply unavailable. The Brief has followed the same direction on the citizenship side in the EU's campaign against citizenship by investment, and in Portugal's move to a ten-year path to citizenship. Where property-based residence still exists, such as in Greece, the Brief's Greece Golden Visa guide sets out the current terms.
The lesson for investors is not that residence by investment is dead. It is that a residence permit bought with a single asset is only as durable as the political consensus behind it. Latvia's new law replaces an open-ended market route, where any qualifying property would do, with two narrower channels: a company that must pay real taxes every year, and a state fund whose manager must confirm the investment every year. Both can be suspended by Cabinet decision.
For anyone building a genuine Plan B, that argues for treating investment permits as one layer among several rather than as the foundation. The broader options, including the ones that still work, are laid out in Second Passports in 2026.
Work with Sebastian
If you hold a Latvian residence permit and need to plan the renewal, or you are comparing Latvia's new routes with other European options, book a consultation.
