How Latvian Law Treats Work From Abroad

You will find no Europe-wide work visa, as each country writes its own rules, and those rules also vary with your line of work. On the official EU Immigration Portal, each EU state has a short guide of its own, and you will find this one there too. Here, the main rules come from the Immigration Law and from Cabinet Regulation 55, which sets out how firms may hire from abroad.

The country is in the EU and in Schengen, but a Schengen visa for travel, or a permit to stay in one of the other EU states, still does not mean that you may take a job here. Only the PMLP can grant that right, and only for the firm and the job named in your file.

Our overview of work visas in Europe sets this country next to the other places you might weigh up. Our pages on jobs and permits in Estonia and the Lithuanian work permit show how the states next door hire from abroad.

Who Must Get a Right to Employment in Latvia

Your passport and the status you hold now decide which route you take, and the table shows how the rules here treat each of the main groups.

Conditions Behind an NVA Opinion and PMLP Approval

Before the PMLP adds a right to employment, both the job and the firm must pass a set of checks, and these are the main ones you should know.

• The firm must list the job with the NVA and leave it open to local people for at least 10 working days.
• The NVA must give a yes, once the firm has looked at each person that the agency put forward.
• Your gross pay must be at least last year's average wage in your sector, or the floor set by a general deal for that sector.
• For a regulated job, your skills must be recognised by the state, and for other jobs you need a legalised degree or three years of work in the field.
• The firm must answer for your work, your housing and your health care, and pay for your trip home if it comes to that.
• Each of your papers from abroad needs a certified translation into Latvian, in the form the PMLP wants.

The pay rule has a cap. If your sector pays more than the national average, the firm only has to match the national figure, which the PMLP puts at €1,815 a month.

Visas, Residence Permits and Blue Cards in Latvia

The country has a small set of routes for paid work, and the length of the job and your skills point you to the right one.

A new Immigration Law, passed by the Saeima, will take the place of the one in force now. It cuts permits for most local hires to one year, adds an integration programme with rules on the local language and brings tighter checks on firms that supply staff, but its main rules do not apply yet.

From the NVA Vacancy to Your Latvian ID Card

For a longer contract, the route to a work visa for Latvia runs through these steps, and you need to take them in this order.

1. Post the job with the NVA: the firm puts the job on the NVA site for jobs and CVs and says why it needs that number of posts, so local job seekers get the first chance.
2. Look at the NVA picks: the firm looks at the people the agency puts forward by the eighth working day, and it must give a reason for each one it turns down.
3. Get the NVA view: the NVA gives its view within 10 working days of the day the job went up, and a yes means no local worker who fits the job came forward.
4. File the summons with the PMLP: within one month of that view, the firm files its request online with your contract and your skills papers, and the fee has €85 in it to cover the right to employment.
5. Apply for your residence permit: once the PMLP says yes, you apply at a mission abroad, or at the PMLP if you are already here legally, for example as someone who needs no visa.
6. Do the checks on arrival: when you arrive, you have an X-ray done here, show health cover of at least €42,600 and declare where you live.
7. Register with the tax office: you sign up as a taxpayer with the State Revenue Service and pick up your card, which you must then register again each year.

For shorter jobs, the firm files an invitation in place of a summons, and you then ask for a visa with a right to work at one of the state's missions. The PMLP rules on these within five working days, and once it says yes, the invitation stays valid for six months.

Papers for the PMLP File

The firm files its part online, with a secure e-signature on each paper, and you then add your own papers at the mission or at the PMLP.

What You Bring as the Worker

• A valid passport and the form to apply for a permit, filled in and signed by you.
• A recent photo of you that meets the PMLP's rules on size and look.
• A police record check from the country of your passport, or where you have lived for a long time, if one is asked for.
• Your degree or proof of your years of work, legalised and translated into Latvian.
• Health cover of at least €42,600, which must also pay to fly you home if needed.
• A report from a doctor who reads X-rays, based on an X-ray check done in the country.
• Proof of family ties if your spouse or children apply with you at the same time.

Documents the Latvian Company Prepares

• The NVA opinion, which the PMLP can see online in its own system.
• The invitation or summons form, which confirms that the firm has no tax debts and agrees to answer for you in full.
• A signed work contract, or a draft of it, which sets out the job and the pay.
• A copy of any licence that the job needs, for work where the law asks for one.
• Proof that the state fee is paid and, if someone acts for the firm, a power of attorney.

PMLP State Fees and Other Costs

The PMLP charges state fees set by Cabinet rules, and the sums can change, but these are the rates it lists for work cases now.

The PMLP keeps the fee even when it says no, so ask EU Helpers to list the likely costs of your own case before you sign.

How Many Working Days Each Stage Takes

The NVA gives its view within 10 working days of the day the job goes up, and the firm then has one month to file with the PMLP. The PMLP rules on a job invitation within five working days, or within 10 when it needs to make more checks.

A residence permit review takes up to 30 days at the standard fee, or 10 or five working days if you pay more, and an EU Blue Card is reviewed within 10 working days. Slots at the mission add time, so we plan each step around the dates you have.

Where Latvian Employers Need Staff

The need for skilled staff shows in the EU Blue Card figures, since the latest Eurostat count puts the country at 484 Blue Cards, more than the Dutch gave out. The rules for seasonal work also cover jobs on farms, in forests and in fishing.

Latvia Articles From the EU Helpers Team

Read on with these guides from EU Helpers, which look at how long things take, which jobs are open, what you gain and how to make the move.

• Latvian work visa timelines, step by step from the NVA advert to the day you get your ID card.
• Jobs that firms here most want to fill, with the skills and the pay that stand out the most.
• Reasons to work in Latvia, from the job market in Riga to life on the Baltic coast.
• Settling in Latvia, with tips on housing, how to declare where you live and day to day life.

What Holds Up a Latvian Application

• Filing with the PMLP before the NVA has given its yes to the job you are hired for.
• Missing the window of one month that opens once the NVA gives its view on the job.
• Turning down a person the NVA put forward but not giving the reason in writing.
• Offering pay that is below last year's average wage for the sector, even by a small sum.
• Sending papers with no secure e-signature, or with no certified translation into Latvian.
• Starting a job, or work for a firm, that is not the one named in your file.
• Forgetting that you must sign up your card once more each year, a step that is easy to miss.

Why Employers and Workers Use Us for Latvia

• We check your pay against the sector average before the NVA advert goes live on the site.
• We help the firm write down why each person the NVA put forward did or did not fit.
• We see that each of your papers is translated and legalised in the form that the PMLP will take.
• We plan your trip to the mission, your X-ray and the form that declares where you live, in the right order.
• We remind you in good time before your card must be registered again for the year.

We cannot speed up or replace a PMLP decision, but we can make sure your file is complete when it goes in. Look at the visas our clients have been granted, read what clients say of us or find out who we are at EU Helpers.

Get Started With EU Helpers

Pick the path that suits you best, and we will walk you through each step here, or you can arrange a call with one of our team first.

Register as a Worker (Find Jobs in Latvia)

Sign up as a worker, and we will put you in touch with local firms that we have vetted, then help with each PMLP stage.

1. Jobs from local firms that have passed our own checks before they reach you.
2. A check of your pay against the sector average for the role you are offered.
3. A list of what you need to send for your visa or your permit to live here.
4. Help to get your papers translated and legalised, and to book your slot at the mission, so you go in ready.
5. Reminders for the X-ray, for declaring where you live and for the time each year when your card must be registered again.

Register as a Worker

Register as a Recruiter / Agency

Partners who hire for others can place people with firms here through a team that follows the NVA and PMLP steps closely.

1. Open roles in the country, with the pay and the route set before you start to look.
2. Advice on which skills papers the PMLP will accept for each kind of job.
3. A careful look at the file for each worker before the firm puts in its request.
4. News from the day the NVA advert goes live to the worker's first shift.
5. Plans for season staff that stay inside the six-month visa limit, set out well before the work starts.

Register as a Recruitment Partner

Register as an Employer (Hire Foreign Workers in Latvia)

Firms here that cannot fill roles at home can hire from abroad with us, and do it all by the book.

1. Screened workers for jobs on farms, in forests, in transport, on building sites and in tech.
2. Help to write an NVA job post that sets out why you need the number of posts.
3. Support as you write down your view of each person the NVA puts forward.
4. Invitation or summons forms prepared side by side with your staff, so no part is left out.
5. Help when staff arrive, from the X-ray to signing up with the tax office.

Register as an Employer

Why Registration Is Important

Signing up lets us confirm who we work with before any request goes to the PMLP. With your details in one place, we can act fast once the NVA's 10 working days or the one-month window to file begin.

Author

EU Helpers Team. We help firms here and in other EU states hire staff from abroad, and we update this page when the PMLP sets new pay sums or when the new law comes into force.

Official Sources

Latvian figures are reviewed often, so check the latest versions with these sources:

• Latvia, visas, residence permits and the right to employment, Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs: pmlp.gov.lv
• Latvia, vacancy registration and NVA opinions, State Employment Agency: nva.gov.lv
• Latvia, rules for employers of foreign workers, Ministry of Welfare: lm.gov.lv
• Latvia, Immigration Law and Cabinet Regulation 55, official legal acts portal: likumi.lv
• Latvia, taxpayer registration, State Revenue Service: vid.gov.lv
• EU Immigration Portal, country pages for EU member states, European Commission: home-affairs.ec.europa.eu