A person shall be recognised as a stateless person if he or she does not have citizenship of any other state and no state guarantees its citizenship to the said person.
A person may not be recognised as a stateless person in the Republic of Latvia if the provisions of 28 September 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons do not apply to the person.
The compliance of a person with the status of a stateless person is regulated by the Law on Stateless Persons.
a personal identification document;
a birth certificate or an extract from the birth registry;
a document that confirms marital status (marriage certificate, document on divorce);
a document issued by a foreign competent authority determined by the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs certifying that the person is not a citizen of the relevant state and he or she is not guaranteed the citizenship thereof, or documentary evidence that it is not possible to obtain such a document.
When determining the authority referred to in Paragraph 5, the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs takes into account the person’s legal ties with the relevant state:
state where the person was born;
state where the person’s place of residence was registered last;
nationality of the person’s parents or other family members;
state whose citizen (national) the person in question may be or whose citizenship (nationality) may be granted to the said person.
Documents must be sent by post to the Person Status Control Division of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs at the following address: Čiekurkalna 1. līnija 1, k-3, Rīga, LV-1026.
The following must be submitted to the OCMA:
copies of documents that are notarized and legalized* in accordance with the procedures established by regulatory enactments,
or
original documents that are legalized in accordance with the procedures established by regulatory enactments.
Please note that before a notarized and legalized copy of a document can be made, the original document itself must first be legalized. A copy of an identity document does not need to be notarized or legalized.
*For a public document issued abroad to have legal force in Latvia, it must be legalized. Legalization is not required for public documents issued in the European Union, European Economic Area countries, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (except for its overseas territories), or the Swiss Confederation, if the document is intended for use in Latvia.
Original documents submitted may be returned:
by collecting them in person at the OCMA or by authorizing a representative, or
by using postal services (a paid service) — the original documents will be sent back to the correspondence address indicated in the application. The fee for returning original documents is €12.15, and postal expenses must also be covered according to the postal service tariff.
After obtaining stateless person status, the individual must obtain a stateless person travel document and submit documents to apply for a residence permit.
A decision shall be taken within three months after the day on which the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs received all the required documents.
In case of questions and concerns, you may obtain the information by writing an e-mail to: pskn@pmlp.gov.lv or by phone +371 67209400 on working days.