Third-country citizens who have not been issued a visa or residence permit in Latvia will be required to provide specific information about themselves, their relatives and the purpose of their travel before entering Latvia, the Saeima decided in the final reading on Thursday, 3 April.
Third-country residents are residents of countries that are not in the European Union, as well as countries and territories whose citizens do not enjoy the European Union right to free movement. These include countries outside the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development or the OECD, a European Economic Area country, Switzerland or Brazil.
The changes will require third-country citizens who have not been issued a visa or residence permit in Latvia to indicate the purpose of their travel, the planned duration and location of their stay, their travel route and their contact details 48 hours before entering Latvia.
This obligation will be introduced in September this year. Failure to provide information or providing false information could result in a fine of up to €2,000.
This change will not apply to persons with diplomatic immunity or those travelling on short-term trips for official functions or technical support, according to the amendments.
However, third-country citizens will now be issued with a border zone pass subject to the written consent of the State Security Service.
The validity of the already issued and valid fixed-term passes will not exceed two months from the entry into force of the amended law. The authors of the amendments have pointed out that there are currently increased national security risks during the construction of the border infrastructure, and therefore, such a special pass verification procedure for the border zone should be established by the end of 2027. The State Border Law stipulates that persons aged 15 and over in the border area need a permanent or fixed-term special pass issued by the Border Guard.
The amendments were submitted to the Saeima by the Saeima National Security Committee, underlining that Russia and Belarus will not refrain from using citizens of countries friendly to them for intelligence and other harmful activities against EU and NATO member states.
“Foreigners who have been issued residence permits by Latvia have been vetted, but given the different risk perceptions and tolerance in the EU and Schengen Member States, Russian and Belarusian citizens have different opportunities to obtain these documents and travel freely within the Schengen area. For example, Hungary does not apply security checks to citizens of these countries. Thus, when travelling in the EU, our border guards may not have any information about the presence of these persons in Latvia,” explains the annotation to the amendments.
The changes provide that the national security authorities will assess the need for such a requirement, its impact and future necessity at least once a year and submit a report to the Saeima.
Source: LSM