EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Legislation, Transport

Last year, the ministry signed an agreement with VF Worldwide Holdings Ltd, also known as VFS Global, on the reception of visa applications and forwarding them to the Latvian embassies in nine countries. The Embassy of Latvia in the United Kingdom will be the first to begin using the services of VFS Global, and the embassies in other locations – China, India, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Lebanon, and South Korea – will be joining later on.

Cooperation with VFS Global enables visa applicants to submit their applications at visa centers having scheduled an appointment in advance at a time convenient for them. The documents received will be forwarded to the Embassy of Latvia in London for processing.

The visa centers will also offer additional services, including consultations on the documents required, filling out electronic versions of visa applications, copying documents, taking photographs, arranging insurance, the delivery of passports to the applicants' place of residence after issuance of visas, thereby facilitating the process of visa processing.

Since 2009, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also been cooperating with Pony Express, a company, which handles the reception of visa applications in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.