Naturalisation

The naturalisation process has always had an important role to play in furthering social integration in Latvia. Following the liberalisation of the Law on Citizenship in autumn of 1998, the number of naturalisation applications rose almost fourfold. The Law provides for the granting of citizenship within a one-year time frame; however, in practice, the procedure takes two to four months after passing the last exam.

The intensity of the process of acquiring citizenship has always varied, because it is affected by internal and external factors; however, the non-citizens are still interested in acquiring the citizenship. The number of naturalised citizens was especially high in the period of 2004-2006. This could mainly be explained by Latvia’s accession to the European Union and NATO. In subsequent years the number of naturalised citizens decreased.

Number of persons granted Latvian citizenship by Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers

Currently the rate of the naturalisation process is stabilizing. In 2008, a total number of 2,601 applications were submitted, in 2009 – 3,470 applications, but in 2010 – 3,182 applications.

Trend in number of naturalisation applications (2008 – 2010)

Since the start of the naturalisation process on 1 February 1995 and until 30 September 2011, by Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers 136,897 persons were granted Latvian citizenship, including 14,012 minors. Thus the representatives of more than 70 nationalities have acquired the citizenship of Latvia. The major portion of all applicants for citizenship consists of Russian residents and represents 68% of the total. 59.8% among those 612,306 residents of Russian ethnicity in Latvia have obtained citizenship.