Baltic States – CIS, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Legal Counsel, Legislation

Pursuant to the amended law, if a person who was a Latvian citizen on 17 June 1940, or a descendant of such person submits a certification on the fact that, from 17 June 1940 until 4 May 1990, he or she has left Latvia escaping from the U.S.S.R. or German occupation regime or has been deported, and due to the referred to reasons he or she has not returned to Latvia for permanent residence, such person and their descendants shall retain the right to register as a Latvian citizen.

It shall be noted that similar provisions were earlier in effect. However, many men and women who had the right to apply for citizenship on said grounds have long settled in other countries and, therefore, were not willing to renounce their citizenship to the favor of the Latvia’s passport (previous regulation of the law obliged the persons to renounce their existing citizenship). Now the law clearly states that dual citizenship may form for the person being admitted to Latvian citizenship on the foregoing grounds.

Said differently, the persons who were citizens on 17 June 1940 or their descendants have the right to be admitted to the citizenship of Latvia with the right to keep their previous citizenship. This opportunity is available to all descendants born by 1 October 2014.

The opportunity of dual citizenship applies to some other cases, when a person is being admitted to Latvian citizenship through naturalization. However, some specific conditions apply: upon being admitted to the citizenship of Latvia through naturalization a dual citizenship may only be formed for a person, who is a citizen of a Member State of the European Union, a Member State of the European Free Trade Association, a Member State of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Federative Republic of Brazil, New Zealand or a citizen of the country with which the Republic of Latvia has entered into agreement regarding recognition of dual citizenship.

The procedure of applying for a dual citizenship may be related to certain legal issues. Law office INLAT PLUS experts will help you to get understanding of the process and successfully finalize the required documents. INLAT PLUS specializes on the matters related to immigration and citizenship for a second decade and will be glad to assist you throughout the whole process, as well as find and retrieve documents evidencing the Latvian citizenship of your ancestors.

Please address Law office INLAT PLUS for additional inquiries: (+371) 67 505 970, (+371) 26 403 577, [email protected]