Latvia employment residence permit: the employer steps from vacancy to permit

An employer hiring a third country national in Latvia works through three steps in a fixed order: ten working days of a registered vacancy at the State Employment Agency (NVA) and its opinion, approval of the invitation by the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (PMLP), and only then the residence permit for the worker. Since 15 September 2026 that permit runs for up to one year, not five.

What each step decides, and who decides it

The PMLP page on employing foreigners (pmlp.gov.lv, updated 19 February 2026) describes the procedure as a chain in which each stage is a precondition for the next. Where the employment rests on an employment contract, the employer registers the vacancy on the NVA CV and vacancy portal and a third country national may be hired into it only once it has stood free for at least 10 working days. The NVA opinion on the need to recruit a foreigner closes that stage. It is not a parallel errand: an invitation filed without a registered vacancy, or without the opinion, is refused outright.

The second step is the invitation, the izsaukums. Section 25 of the Immigration Law provides that a residence permit application requires an approved invitation and that PMLP approves it. The invitation names one foreigner, one post, the pay, and the employer's undertaking to cover the cost of the stay. PMLP decides an employment invitation within five working days of receiving the documents, or within 10 working days where it needs to check something further.

The third step is the permit itself. Section 27, paragraph one, point 12 allows a temporary residence permit for employment for up to one year, with an exception where the employer is a micro enterprise tax payer. Under Section 29 the worker may then request a repeat permit for the same period, and the request counts as a repeat if it reaches PMLP within 90 days of the previous permit expiring. The worker files with PMLP or at a Latvian mission abroad, depending on where he is when he applies.

What changed on 15 September 2026

The Immigration Law adopted on 20 August 2026 replaced the law of 31 October 2002 and entered into force on 15 September 2026 (likumi.lv, document 370622). Two figures moved and one did not.

The employment permit ceiling fell from five years to one. The EU Blue Card stayed at two years. The article numbers moved as well: the inviter's duties are now in Section 15, the invitation in Sections 25 and 26, the permit periods in Section 27. An internal checklist citing section 9.1, 22 or 23 is quoting a law that has lapsed.

Transitional provision 4 keeps the old rules for files already lodged: a visa or permit application submitted before 15 September 2026 is decided under the 2002 law. Transitional provision 6 keeps permits already issued valid until the end of their registration or validity period. So an employer can hold a five year permit issued in June and a one year permit issued in October for two workers on the same production line.

Timelines and costs the employer has to budget

The fees sit in the PMLP price list (updated 18 March 2026) and are the same whichever law the file runs under.

An employment invitation therefore costs 102.00 euro on paper or 95.00 euro filed electronically, and the permit review on top of it costs between 160.00 and 560.00 euro per worker. Once the decision is taken, PMLP produces the card within 10 working days, or within two working days on request.

The clock starts on the day the file is complete, not on the day the first paper is lodged. The 560.00 euro track buys five working days at the end of the chain and returns none of the ten working days the vacancy had to stand at NVA, so a realistic start date is counted forward from vacancy registration rather than backwards from the permit.

Where the chain breaks in practice

The most common failure is a mismatch in the description of the post across the three documents. Section 26, paragraph one, point 11 makes it a refusal ground in its own terms: the vacancy was never registered, the opinion was never issued, or the invited worker's qualification and employment conditions do not match the registered vacancy notice. The vacancy at NVA names one occupation and one wage, the invitation carries a second wording of the job title, and the contract shows a third figure.

Two grounds catch the employer rather than the worker. A tax debt above 150 euro is enough to refuse the invitation under point 15, and a labour supply company that is an inactive taxpayer, or was founded within the previous six months, is refused under point 16. The second trap is the undertaking itself: the employer covers the costs of the stay, including accommodation and health care. An undertaking signed without real housing behind it is a liability that is examined later.

The invitation stage and its refusal grounds are set out in invitation approval at PMLP, and the first step, the vacancy itself, in NVA vacancy registration and the labour market test. If you are weighing Latvia against other EU corridors, the corridor comparison by processing time is the quickest view.

Latvia is a predictable jurisdiction once the procedure is read as a sequence of three separate decisions, each with its own authority and its own clock. Employers who plan from the permit backwards to the vacancy tend to give the worker a start date the chain cannot carry.