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The Immigration Law states that the aim of such residence permits is to facilitate Latvia's economic growth – the recipients have to be involved in business activity in Latvia and pay a certain amount of tax money in the budget.

However, auditors have established several cases when the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs extended residence permits for several persons even if they did not meet these requirements. For example, an unnamed third-country citizen had to pay no less than EUR 28,460 in taxes in a period of 12 months, while the actual payment was under EUR 3,000. Furthermore, the said person had his residence permit extended also for 2016, despite the fact that the necessary payment had not been made. The Audit Office has informed the Corruption Prevention Bureau about such cases.

Auditors also found that cancellation of residence permits is often delayed. 20 percent of expired temporary residence permits and 75 percent of permanent residence permits were cancelled with a delay.