Sanctions database

The new regulation envisages a number of exceptions, including not refusing entry to politically persecuted persons or in other humanitarian situations. The following categories of persons will be permitted to enter: (1) the holders of residence permits of a member state of the European Union or the European Economic Area, or of the Swiss Confederation, or long-stay visas of a Schengen Agreement member state; (2) family members (spouses, grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren, and dependent persons) of the nationals of the Republic of Latvia; (3) family members of the nationals of the European Union, the European Economic Area, or the Swiss Confederation; (4) employees, crew members of freight and passenger transport service providers, crews of freight or technical voyages arriving in or departing from the Republic Latvia while performing their job duties;
seafarers and members of the merchant marine on their way to or returning from their workplace aboard ship; (5) persons whose entry is related to humanitarian considerations; (6) the staff of the diplomatic and consular missions of the Russian Federation accredited in or sent to the Republic of Latvia, and their family members, diplomatic couriers or ad hoc diplomatic couriers of the Russian Federation, persons travelling to the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Latvia on a short-term business trip for the provision of technical support, staff of the diplomatic missions and consular posts of the Russian Federation crossing the territory of the Republic of Latvia in transit for the performance of their official functions and their family members, as well as persons crossing the territory of the Republic of Latvia in transit while on a short-term business trip to the Embassy of the Russian Federation for the provision of technical support in the receiving country; (7) holders of a Facilitated Transit Document (FTD) or a Facilitated Rail Transit Document (FRTD) who are travelling from the Russian Federation to the Kaliningrad Oblast in the Russian Federation and back.

There are exceptions to the possibility of issuing temporary residence permits. Exceptions are planned cases based on family reunification, international protection, employment, the need for study or study practice, as well as national interests or humanitarian considerations.
The restrictions will also not apply to specialists or managers in an enterprise in which at least 51 % of the capital is held by legal persons or nationals of a Member State of the OECD or which is directly or indirectly controlled by a national of a Member State of the OECD as the beneficial owner and which transfers activities to the Republic of Latvia from the Russian Federation or the Republic of Belarus.
The restrictions will also not apply to participants in a scientific co-operation project implemented jointly with a scientific institution included in the Register of Scientific Institutions or an accredited study program at a higher education institution or college accredited in the Republic of Latvia. and where such a right of residence is provided for by EU law.