Professionalism, integrity, cooperation - 30th anniversary of the OCMA!

Today, April 19, is the 30th anniversary of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs.

For 30 years, the OCMA has been implementing migration, asylum and naturalization policies, managing state information systems, including the Population Register, and, of course, drawing up and issuing identity and travel documents.
I am convinced that every inhabitant of Latvia has at least once received one of the services we provide.
Integrity, professionalism and cooperation - these three words have characterized the work of the OCMA team for 30 years.
And this work does not stop because the OCMA continues to develop to make our services more accessible and enjoyable for inhabitants.
Many thanks to the excellent team of the OCMA for their work, as well as to our colleagues for their support throughout these 30 years.
We look to the future with determination, energy and confidence!

Vilnis Jēkabsons,
Head of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs

We invite you to watch the anniversary film of the OCMA!

Achievements in 30 years

In our 30th anniversary, we are summarising the results of the work we have done and setting our new long-term goals. We share our progress in the fields of activities of the Office over 30 years.

Issuing of personal identification and travel documents

From 1992 to the end of 2020, the following are issued in Latvia:

• 7,583,436 passports, including:
• 1,221,921 non-citizen passports;
• 590 travel documents for persons having granted alternative status; 1980 travel documents for stateless persons;
• 286 refugee travel documents.
   
• 1,797,958 Latvian identity cards or eID cards, including:
• 15,244 identity cards of a citizen of the European Union;
• 325,621 residence permits;
• 64,464 Latvian non-citizen's identity cards.

Asylum statistics:

From 1998 to today, the following were granted:

• 3,031 statuses of asylum seekers;
• 226 refugee status;
• 580 alternative statuses (granted from 2002).

Naturalisation statistics:

• Since 1995 ‑ 147,893 people have become Latvian citizens via naturalisation;
• Since 1999 ‑ 12,519 non-citizen children, born after 21 August 1999, have become Latvian citizens.
• Currently there are 306,365 residents living in Latvia with a non-citizen's passport. Among these, 209 thousand are non-citizens of Latvia, 97,178 citizens of another country and 160 stateless persons.
• On 1 January 2021 ‑ 3,440 non-citizens aged under 18 lived in Latvia.
• The interest of third-country nationals in Latvia's citizenship increased over the last decade.

Issuing of residence permits and visas:

• In total 1,711 C visas and 4,402 D visas have been issued between 2007 and the end of 2020.
• Between 1992 and the end of 2020, a total of 120,630 temporary residence permits and 87,919 permanent residence permits were issued.

Population register statistics:

Thanks to the Population Register, residents can obtain information about their own or their relatives' personal data, contact the wanted person, check various types of information - personal identification code, personal capacity, information on a person's death, as well as obtain statistical and other general information.

Population register - it is a unified population registration system of national significance!

Looking forward to the next 30 years' achievements and goals!