Latvia Residence Permit for Turkish Citizens — From €65,000

Turkish citizens are already the largest group in this programme

Most country pages on immigration websites open with a sales pitch. This one opens with a statistic from the Latvian government.

According to the published statistics of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs of Latvia (OCMA), approximately 201 investor temporary residence permits were issued under Article 23 of the Latvian Immigration Law in 2025 — up about 35% from roughly 149 in 2024. And the top source nationality in 2025 was Turkey, at approximately 20% of issuances — ahead of Vietnam (~11%), the United Kingdom (~9%), and India (~9%). Turkey was also among the top source nationalities in the 2023–2024 statistics, at roughly 23%.

In other words: Turkish business owners and professionals are not discovering Latvia. They discovered it some time ago, quietly, and they now lead the programme. The families we speak to in Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir usually cite the same two reasons — the price, and the mobility.

If you want to understand how the numbers apply to your own family, book a free 30-minute call — we will walk you through it without any commitment.

The mobility benefit — concrete for a Turkish passport

Turkish citizens are visa-required for the Schengen Area. That means every European business trip, trade fair, family holiday, and property viewing currently starts with a visa application: appointment, documents, waiting, and an itinerary fixed weeks in advance. For a business owner who travels to Europe several times a year, the visa process is a recurring tax on time and flexibility.

The Latvian residence permit removes it. As a Latvian residence-permit holder you receive:

• Visa-free travel across all 29 Schengen countries — the 25 EU Schengen members plus Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein — for up to 90 days in any 180-day period, with no per-trip applications, no appointment queues, and no fixed itineraries.
• A Latvian eID residence card for the whole family — presented at the border like any EU resident's card.
• The ability to apply for short-stay visas to the UK and Ireland without home-country embassy queues.
• The right to live, work, and study in Latvia at any time — with no obligation to actually move.

Decide on a Friday, fly on a Saturday. For a visa-required passport, that single change is usually worth more than every other feature of the programme combined. Message us on WhatsApp and we will explain exactly how the travel rights work in practice.

What a Turkish family receives

• A five-year Latvian Temporary Residence Permit in your name and your family's names — spouse and all children under 18 included in one application.
• Full Schengen mobility across 29 countries, 90 days in any 180-day period.
• Right to live anywhere in Latvia — with no minimum-stay requirement beyond a short annual card-renewal visit to Riga.
• Right to work, run a business, and study in Latvia at any level.
• Pathway to permanent EU residence at year five under the EU Long-Term Resident Directive, and to Latvian citizenship at year ten (language and civic requirements apply).
• Latvian banking access, a Latvian eID card, and the right to register Latvian companies.

Whether the five-year permit, the permanent-residence path, or simple renewal is the right strategy depends on your family's plans — that is precisely the conversation of the free first call.

The full cost — every fee disclosed

Every fee is disclosed before you commit to anything. There are no hidden costs and no separate service fee on top of the figures below.

Accelerated 10-business-day processing (€280) and urgent 5-business-day processing (€560) are available instead of the standard fee. Real all-in for most families runs from €65,000 once document translation, apostille, and courier fees (~€200–500) and one trip to Riga for card collection are included. Complex source-of-funds reviews or families above four can run higher. We quote your specific total in writing before you pay anything.

The €50,000 share capital subscription is repurchased by the company for €1 at the end of your engagement — typically at year five. In economic terms the €50,000 is the price of the residence, not a refundable investment. This is disclosed in the shareholder agreement before you pay, and on every page of this website. Separately, the agreement contains a refusal-triggered buyback clause: if OCMA refuses your application, SIA "Las Palmas" repurchases your shares at the original €50,000 price, and the €10,000 state contribution and €3,000 legal fee — payable only after a positive decision — are never due.

Latvia compared to Greece and Portugal — for a Turkish family

For Turkish families, the usual shortlist is Greece and Portugal. Both are legitimate programmes. Both produce the same end result — an EU residence card, Schengen travel, and a pathway to permanent residence at year five. The difference is the price of entry.

The end result is functionally identical: an EU residence card and Schengen freedom. The difference is several hundred thousand euros of capital that stays in your business instead of in a foreign property or fund. For the full head-to-head, see our Latvia vs Portugal comparison — or ask us directly on a call.

Source of funds — kept simple, checked honestly

Latvian anti-money-laundering rules require us to document the legal origin of the funds entering Latvia. For Turkish applicants the accepted sources are the standard ones: business ownership and dividends, salaried employment, sale of property, inheritance, or investment returns — evidenced through bank statements, corporate documents, and tax records. Documents must be apostilled and translated into English or Latvian where required.

We deliberately keep this section short. Which documents your specific file needs — and whether your file will pass — is not something a webpage can tell you honestly. It is something Mārtiņš Grīnbergs, our sworn advocate of the Latvian Bar, assesses personally, before any money changes hands. About one in ten applicants we screen are turned away at this stage — and told so before they have paid us anything.

The fastest way to know where you stand is a free 30-minute call: bring your questions, and we will tell you plainly whether your situation fits.

The application process for Turkish families

From first call to residence cards in hand, most Turkish families should plan for 2.5 to 4 months.

1. Week 1 — first call. A free 30-minute video call with Jānis, in English. No deposit, no contract, no mailing list. We confirm your family's fit, walk through every fee, and answer your questions.
2. Weeks 2–4 — document review. You send passports, family documents, and your source-of-funds file. Mārtiņš reviews everything personally before any payment.
3. Weeks 4–6 — contract, share-capital subscription, and shareholder registration. The €50,000 subscription is wired to SIA "Las Palmas" and within 48 hours you are entered into the Latvian Company Register as a shareholder. The shareholder agreement — signed before any wire — contains the refusal-triggered buyback clause described above. The €10,000 state contribution and €3,000 legal fee are paid only after a positive OCMA decision.
4. Weeks 6–7 — filing. The initial application is always filed on paper, either at a Latvian embassy abroad or in person at OCMA in Riga (a two-to-three-day trip that also completes your biometrics). We confirm the correct filing location for your case during the initial consultation.
5. Processing. OCMA reviews the file: standard 30 calendar days, accelerated 10 business days, urgent 5 business days. We recommend accelerated processing for most families.
6. Card collection in Riga. After the positive decision, your family has three months to collect the residence cards in person at OCMA. One day in Riga is sufficient for the whole family.

Every step above is coordinated for you — your role is essentially documents, one wire, and one trip. Start the conversation on WhatsApp whenever you are ready.

What this is not — honest limitations

• Not citizenship. Latvian citizenship requires ten years of residence and a Latvian language test. This is a residence permit — a different, and for most families sufficient, instrument.
• Not an automatic right to work across the EU. Long-term resident status at year five eases cross-border rights but does not grant automatic employment rights in other member states.
• Not Latvian tax residency. Holding the permit does not by itself make you a Latvian tax resident. If you remain physically based in Turkey, you remain tax-resident there.
• Not an investment with returns. The €50,000 is economically the price of the residence — repurchased for €1 at the end of a successful engagement, as disclosed everywhere on this site.
• Not a guarantee. Residence permits are issued at the sole discretion of OCMA. We screen aggressively so that refusals are rare, but the decision is not ours to make.

If any of these limitations matters to your plans, raise it on the first call — we would rather talk you out of the programme than into the wrong one.

Frequently asked questions — Turkish citizens

Do I have to give up Turkish citizenship?

No. The Latvian residence permit is a residence status, not citizenship. It has no effect on your Turkish passport or your Turkish citizenship. You hold both, indefinitely.

Can I keep my Turkish business and tax residency?

Yes. There is no requirement to wind down Turkish businesses, sell assets, or relocate. Holding the permit does not by itself trigger Latvian tax residency — if you remain physically based in Turkey, you remain tax-resident there. Most of our clients keep their home-country affairs completely unchanged.

How long does the process take for Turkish applicants?

From first call to residence cards in hand, most Turkish families should plan for 2.5 to 4 months. OCMA's own review stage is 30 calendar days standard, or 10 business days accelerated; the document-preparation and filing stages before it account for the rest.

Do I have to live in Latvia to keep the permit?

No. There is no continuous-presence requirement to keep the five-year permit valid. The only mandatory presence is a short annual visit to Riga — approximately 3 to 5 days per year — for the eID residence-card renewal, which includes a biometric appointment at OCMA.

Where do Turkish citizens file the application?

There are two filing routes: at a Latvian embassy abroad, or in person at OCMA in Riga, where the applicant travels to Latvia for two to three days, submits the file, and completes biometrics. The initial application is always filed on paper. We confirm the correct filing location for your case during the initial consultation.

What happens to my money if the application is refused?

The shareholder agreement contains a refusal-triggered buyback clause: if OCMA refuses the application, SIA "Las Palmas" repurchases your shares at the original €50,000 subscription price, fully returning the capital. The €10,000 state contribution and €3,000 legal fee are only ever paid after a positive decision, so in a refusal they are never due. The only sunk cost is the OCMA examination fee paid at filing.

Is my family included in one application?

Yes. Your spouse and all children under 18 are included under the same single €50,000 subscription — there is no separate investment per family member, only small state processing fees per person. Each family member receives their own five-year residence card.

Will I need to learn Latvian?

Not for the initial five-year permit. Basic Latvian (A2 level) becomes relevant only at year five, if you choose to apply for permanent residence. Many families simply renew the five-year permit instead. We explain both paths on the first call.