Amendments to the Immigration Law state that Russian citizens must pass a Latvian language exam to receive a permanent residence permit. When submitting documents for obtaining a new residence permit, Russian citizens must complete a questionnaire. It also contains questions about Russia's policies.
Not only those who successfully passed the Latvian language tests are evaluated. Also those who have been exempted due to age or health problems are checked.
The VDD has received more than 13 thousand applications from the Office for Citizenship and Migration Affairs (PMLP) for assessment. The VDD has finished checking around seven thousand, mostly identifying no significant risks for issuing a permanent residence permit.
On the other hand, in more than 80 cases, VDD has informed the PMLP of risks and therefore a decision has been taken to refuse the issue of a permanent residence permit. In other cases, the checks will continue.
