Interior Minister Kristaps Eklons said that until October 1, 2022 when the Saeima elections are held, 26,661 identification documents would have expired. As the demand for identity document renewal has also increased significantly and the Citizenship and Migration Affairs Office is overbooked, according to the Minister, amendments are needed to ensure people's fundamental rights.
The changes stipulate that if the identity document of a Latvian citizen, non-citizen or stateless person issued in the Republic of Latvia - passport or identity card or eID card - expired on 1 March 2020 or later, it will be possible to use it for the identification of the person until April 30, 2023.
This will apply if the document has not become invalid for other reasons, for example, the information recorded in the document has been corrupted or changed. The use of such a document will only be available onsite and will not be used to verify identity in the electronic environment.
Persons who have passports and eID cards expired since March 1, 2020 will not be penalized.
These documents will also be considered to be valid voter identity documents in the Saeima elections, which will take place on October 1.
