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Citizenship of children

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Recognition of stateless persons' or non-citizens' child, who was born in Latvia after August 21, 1991 to be a citizen of Latvia:

A child shall be recognized to be citizen of Latvia if he/she meets the following requirements:

• his/her permanent place of residence is Latvia;
• he/she has not been sentenced to more than five years' imprisonment in Latvia or in any other state for committing a crime;
• and he/she has, prior to that, been a stateless person or a non-citizen for the entire time.

Until the moment a child reaches the age of 15 years, an application for acquisition of the citizenship of Latvia may be submitted by:

• both parents of a child;
• the mother of a child, and if there is no entry as to the father in the birth record of the child, or such record has been made on the instructions of the mother;
• a parent of a child if the other parent is dead;
• the adopter of a child.

A person, who submits an application, shall be registered in the Population register. This person must be a stateless person or a non-citizen who has, until the time of submission of the application, been permanently residing in Latvia for no less than the preceding five years (for persons who entered Latvia after July 1, 1992, the five-year time period shall be counted from the day a permanent residence permit has been obtained).

Applications on recognition of stateless persons' or non-citizens' child, who was born in Latvia after August 21, 1991 to be a citizen of Latvia are accepted in regional branches of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs.