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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Thursday, 28.03.2024, 11:58

The possibilities of obtaining Latvian citizenship

BC, Riga, 02.12.2015.Print version
Since the amendments to the Law on Citizenship of Latvia were adopted on October 1, 2013, which allow certain categories of people to obtain Latvian citizenship as a second (dual citizenship), the flow of willing to take this opportunity is not decreasing. It is not surprising!

As the citizenship of Latvia as EU member states gives these people a lot of advantages: the right to work, to live, to move freely throughout the European Union, which is a very significant advantage, especially for citizens of third countries. Despite the widespread opinion that dual citizenship in Latvia is possible only with the EU member states and NATO members, in fact, citizens of any state may receive Latvian citizenship as a second, if they meet the following criteria:

 

1) they are "Latvian exiles" or their descendants;

2) they are Latvians or Livs.

 

What are the "Latin exiles" within the meaning of the Citizenship of Latvia – these are people who were citizens of Latvia on June 17, 1940, but in the period from June 17, 1940 to May 4, 1990 they left the country to escape from the German and Soviet occupation, or they were expelled, and for this reason until May 4, 1990 did not return to Latvia for permanent residence.

 

Who is a Latvian or a Liv in the interpretation of the Latvian Law on Citizenship? This is a person who has the relevant nationality, whose ancestor in 1881 or later was permanent resident of Latvia (the territory that was part of the Latvian state until June 17, 1940), which can prove the belonging to the state nation (Latvians) or autochthons (Livs), providing a document that confirms that one of his or her parents or grandparents (grandmother or grandfather) belongs to the state nation or autochthons.

 

For these two above-mentioned categories of people, regardless of their nationality, our law office helps to prepare and submit documents to begin the procedure for obtaining Latvian citizenship as a second.

 

Of course, for successful completion of the above-mentioned procedure for obtaining Latvian citizenship the documents that prove compliance with all of the applicant statutory criteria should be collected and properly executed. Quite often, we are faced with the fact that the documents are not enough, for example, they are lost. In this case, our employees have to contact different archival institutions: historical and national archives of Latvia, archives of registry offices, zonal archives, faith-based archives, as well as the organizations abroad.

 

It also happens that the archives have only documents relating to circumstantial evidence. For example, we could not find in any Latvian or foreign archives a certificate or birth certificate of the ancestor of the client (a direct evidence) in order to trace the chain of kinship. However, the copies of house registers, confirming that the person really existed and constantly lived with his or her family in Latvia (an indirect evidence), were in the archives in plenty. It should be mentioned that the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs do not accept indirect evidence. Our court department had to appeal to court with a claim for recognition of the kinship, and the court took our side.

 

Sometimes difficulties arise because of the different spelling of names and surnames, such as Janis Berzins, when people leave Latvia, they can transform into John Berzin, and so on. One of our clients during the procedure of naturalization in a foreign country, has decided to add a second name, and evidence for that were not preserved. It was a very difficult problem. Although we eventually managed to solve this problem successfully, the process of registration of citizenship in this case delayed.

 

Based on the foregoing, it can be concluded that the collection of documents is a very important preliminary step, sometimes it takes even longer than, actually, the procedure of registration of citizenship. We would recommend it to carry out even to those customers who have full confidence in the validity of their rights to Latvian citizenship, despite the additional costs.

 

We have faced with a situation where the customer has provided all evidence of kinship with a Latvian citizen, fled the country after 1940, so the customer was convinced that there is no need to verify the situation in the archives. We started the procedure, and suddenly it turned out that his ancestors in 1939 filed a request for citizenship in Poland! Our foreign department had to obtain a confirmation of the fact that Polish citizenship has not been received, and the situation was resolved safely.

 

Each situation is unique. We try to help at all stages of the search for documents in the archives until a decision or appeal of the decision if necessary.






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