A foreign national shall apply for a visa at the consulate of the Schengen Member State in whose jurisdiction the applicant legally resides on a permanent basis.
If a foreign national wants to lodge an application in the state in which the applicant is legally present but not residing in its jurisdiction, and can provide justification for lodging the application at that particular diplomatic or consular mission, the mission, as an exception and upon a prior agreement, may examine and decide on the application.
To apply for a visa, foreign nationals should contact the following:
1. Latvian Embassy, Consulate or Consulate-General, if there is one in the state where foreign national legally resides. If the diplomatic/consular mission in the respective country cooperates with an external service provider for the collection of applications, documents for a visa application can be lodged at the offices of service provider. Latvian diplomatic/consular missions cooperate with external service providers „Pony Express” and „VFS Global”. Further information on the offices of the external service providers is available at the diplomatic/consular missions of Latvia.
- If there is neither a Latvian diplomatic/consular mission, nor a mission of a state that represents Latvia for visa purposes in the country of the foreign national’s legal residence, or if the foreign national intends to apply for a long-stay visa (the permitted duration of stay exceeding 90 days in any 180-day period) the applicant shall lodge the visa application at the Latvian diplomatic/consular mission in whose jurisdiction the applicant legally resides.
- The territorial competence of the Latvian diplomatic and consular missions is set out in the Cabinet Regulation of August 3, 2010, No. 725 „Regulations Regarding the Territorial Competence of Diplomatic and Consular Representations of the Republic of Latvia for Requesting Visas”:
- for short-stay visas (the permitted duration of stay does not exceed 90 days in any 180-day period), see Annex 1 to the Regulation,
- for long-stay visas (the permitted duration of stay does exceeds 90 days in any 180-day period), see Annex 2 to the Regulation.
2. Diplomatic or Consular Mission of another Schengen Member State if the foreign national legally resides in a state where there is no Latvian diplomatic/consular mission, but there is other Schengen Member State representing Latvia for visa purposes. Diplomatic/consular missions of other Schengen Member States represent Latvia only in the issuance of short-stay visas with the permitted duration of stay in the Schengen Member States not exceeding 90 days in any 180-day period.