The requirements
- Programme status
- Open, accepting applications
- Minimum monthly income
- $4,992 a month
- Required savings
- None
- Annual total
- $59,904
- Initial duration
- 1 year, renewable once
- Family allowed
- No
- Apply online
- No, in person or by post
€4,538/month (2.5x avg gross salary, 2026).
How this figure is set: A formula in law, so the amount moves when its base moves. The wording on the source is: 4538
. Formula: 2.5 x previous-year average monthly gross salary of employees (CSB); currently 4,538 EUR (PMLP Latvian page); the English PMLP page still shows the stale 3,192.50 EUR.
Income confidence: high · checked 2026-09-07
Legal basis: Immigration Law s.11(5) (eligibility); Cabinet Regulation on visa documents sets the 2.5 coefficient (stated on PMLP page).
Does this lead to permanent residence?
Indirect pathway. Visa time excluded; can switch to a residence permit in-country; PR after 5 yrs.
Immigration Law (Imigrācijas likums) Art. 11(5): the remote-work long-stay D visa runs up to 1+1 years, and the holder may apply in-country for a temporary residence permit before the visa expires, matching the site's claim. Two parallel 5-year PR routes exist: Art. 24(1)(7)+(3), national permanent residence after 5 years on a temporary residence permit (excluding only study and trafficking-victim permits), and the EU long-term-resident law Art. 3(1)+(3) (5 years, excluding visa time and grounds like au pair/seasonal/posted work) — digital nomad/remote-work permits are named in neither exclusion list. Which specific residence-permit ground nomads actually use (likely Art. 23(1)(4), self-employed person) is inference, not officially confirmed.
Pathway confidence: medium · checked 2026-09-07
Where it is
Riga sits at 56.95° N, 24.11° E.
Open in Google Maps ↗A map of Riga. This is the only link here that leaves the site.
Your position is worked out on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Time zone
- UTC+3 Riga (Europe/Riga)
The country
- Region
- Europe · Baltic
- Capital
- Riga
- Currency
- EUR
- Schengen area
- Yes
Next door
2 of the 4 countries Latvia shares a land border with are covered here.
All of them are in the Schengen area, as Latvia is. For a visitor that is one clock, not several: the 90 days in any 180 are spent across all of it.
What it costs to live there
$1,263 per person, per month. That is what one resident of Latvia spends in an average month with housing included — not what a newcomer renting at market rates will spend, which is higher, and furthest above it in the cheapest countries.
- Riga
- $1,252 / month incl. rent
of which rent $473 - Jurmala
- $1,037 / month incl. rent
of which rent $346
City figures are crowdsourced from livingcost.net, not official: one person's monthly spending plus the rent of a one-bedroom flat outside the centre. They are here because a national average cannot show the spread between a capital and the places people actually move to. Checked 2026-09-20.
Cost of living confidence: high · checked 2026-09-20World Bank national accounts, reference year 2025: households and NPISHs final consumption expenditure (NE.CON.PRVT.CD, current US$) divided by population (SP.POP.TOTL) and by twelve. This is what one resident spends in an average month with housing included, since national accounts count the imputed rent of owner-occupiers. It is an average over the whole population, not a visitor's budget, so a newly arrived remote worker renting at market rates will spend more - see the city figures for what that looks like.
Languages
- Latvian official
- English widely spoken
- Russian widely spoken
- Latgalian common in cities
Shares of the population from Unicode CLDR: official, then anything spoken by a quarter of the country, an eighth, or a fiftieth. It answers "will I be understood", not "how good is their English".
Who can apply
- Kinds of work covered
- employee, freelancer
The employer, or the self-employment, must be registered in an OECD member state - a restriction on where the work comes from rather than on the applicant's nationality.
Eligibility confidence: high · checked 2026-09-08
pmlp.gov.lv long-term visa for remote work: separate document sets 'for employees' and 'for self-employed persons', both tied to a Member State of the OECD.
How to apply
- Check you clear the requirements above — $4,992 a month is the figure this row records.
- Gather what the official page asks for:
- Valid travel document (a copy of the passport must be submitted to the Office by post)
- Completed and signed visa questionnaire
- Photo (not older than 6 months)
- A copy of the document certifying that the foreigner has a health insurance policy (minimum coverage EUR 42,600)
- Documents certifying the intended place of residence in Latvia
- For employees: Document certifying the current employment of the foreigner issued by the tax administration or social insurance institution of a Member State, plus a statement from an employer registered in that country regarding the prior employment
- For self-employed persons: Document issued by the tax administration of the Member State of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development certifying the income generated in the last six months
- Document certifying payment of the State fee
Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (pmlp.gov.lv), 'Getting a long-term visa for remote work'. Wording is the page's own. - Apply in person or by post — this programme has no online route.
- Sort out where you will stay for the first stretch. Airlines check this at the desk and will not board you without it, whatever your visa says —what counts as proof of accommodation.
- Verify every figure on the official page before you spend money. Thresholds are set in local currency and move every year.
Only for workers registered in OECD countries; threshold adjusts yearly. Official English page still shows the old €3,192.50 figure.
A starting point, not advice. Figures are converted to US dollars at open-market rates; official thresholds are set in local currency. Sources: official source ↗. Data checked . Compiled by Junaid Qadir.