Hiring a Non-EU Employee in Latvia

Hiring someone from outside the EU into a Latvian company comes down to two routes, and choosing between them is mostly a question of salary. An ordinary employment permit asks for a sector wage and puts the vacancy through the State Employment Agency first. An EU Blue Card skips the agency entirely and is decided in 10 working days, but the salary has to reach EUR 2,722.50 a month.

Most of what is written about this in English is out of date in at least one of three ways. The Blue Card thresholds still quoted are calculated from an old average wage. The agency step was rewritten at the start of 2025, from a waiting period into an obligation to consider its candidates. And the state fees were replaced that same month.

This states the rules with a link to each, and the permit counts are computed from the migration authority's own annual spreadsheets. It is written for the employer and it is not advice. A founder moving here to run their own company wants the startup visa guide instead.

How Do You Hire a Non-EU Employee in Latvia?

A Latvian company hires a non-EU employee through an employment permit or an EU Blue Card. The employment permit pays a sector wage and goes through the State Employment Agency first; the Blue Card needs a degree and a salary of EUR 2,722.50 a month, skips the agency, and is decided within 10 working days.

There is a third route, the intra-corporate transfer, for moving an existing employee of a foreign group into its Latvian company. It is rare at startup scale and this guide leaves it out. Someone joining your board rather than your payroll is on a different ground again, with conditions about the company itself, and that is closer to what the startup visa guide covers.

Russian citizens have a narrower choice. A separate article of the Immigration Law limits them to permits of up to a year, and only for employment established by EU law, and the ordinary employment permit is not among their grounds. For a startup hire, that leaves the Blue Card. Belarusian citizens are dealt with in the same article under a list of their own.

The short version: if the person has a degree and the salary clears the Blue Card floor, use the Blue Card. It is faster, it avoids the agency, and it is the easier permit for the employee to carry to a new job. Everything else is the employment permit.

What Is the Minimum Salary for a Latvian Work Permit or Blue Card?

An EU Blue Card in Latvia requires EUR 2,722.50 a month, or EUR 2,178 a month in a shortage occupation. An ordinary employment permit requires the previous year's average gross wage in the sector the person will work in, or the minimum set by that sector's general agreement, and never more than the national average.

All three floors are set by one Cabinet regulation, on the financial means a foreigner must have, and all three hang off one number: the average monthly gross wage for the previous year. The Central Statistical Bureau put the 2025 figure at EUR 1,815 a month.

• EU Blue Card: 1.5 times that, which is EUR 2,722.50 a month.
• EU Blue Card in a shortage occupation: 1.2 times it, which is EUR 2,178 a month.
• Employment permit: the previous year's average gross wage in the sector the person will work in, or the minimum set by that sector's general agreement, and never more than the national average.

The regulation uses the bureau's latest published figure, and the 2025 average was published in March 2026. So these floors move once a year, in spring, and a threshold you read somewhere without a year attached is probably the wrong one. While researching this we found Blue Card thresholds in current articles calculated from both the 2022 and the 2024 averages.

The shortage list is worth checking before anything else. It is a separate Cabinet regulation, and for a software company the part that matters is that it includes a whole section of information and communication technology specialists: programmers, application developers, systems analysts, database engineers, testers and IT project managers among them. The list is due to lose force on 2 December 2027, so confirm it is still the one in force when you apply.

The Blue Card also asks for a degree. The Immigration Law means a qualification from a recognised higher education institution, on a programme of at least three years at level 6 of the Latvian qualifications framework. The residence permit regulation makes one exception that matters here: an ICT manager or senior ICT specialist without such a degree can show three years of professional experience in the field gained in the seven years before applying instead. The migration authority can ask the ministry for the sector whether that experience counts, which adds time.

How Does the State Employment Agency Step Work?

Before sponsoring an employment permit, a Latvian company registers the vacancy with the State Employment Agency, considers the candidates the agency sends, and gives reasons for rejecting them. The agency gives its opinion within 10 working days of publication, and the company files the sponsorship within one month of a positive opinion.

Before you can sponsor an employment permit, the State Employment Agency has to agree that the hire needs to come from abroad. The regulation behind this was rewritten in December 2024 and the new version applies from 2025. What it now asks for, in order:

1. Register the vacancy in the agency's vacancy system, with a justification for the number of places, and have it published.
2. Work with the agency on selecting candidates who meet the vacancy's requirements.
3. Consider who it sends. The agency will only approve if you have assessed the candidates the agency put forward and given reasons for rejecting them.
4. Receive the opinion. The agency gives it within 10 working days of the vacancy being published.
5. File the sponsorship with the migration authority within one month of a positive opinion.

The agency refuses if you did not cooperate, did not assess its candidates, did not explain why you rejected them, or filled the vacancy with a suitable candidate during selection. That last one is the point of the step: if the agency finds someone and you hire them, there is no permit to apply for. A refusal can be contested to the agency's director and then in court.

Older guides describe a fixed advertising period of a month. The current text of the regulation does not contain one. What remains is in the Immigration Law, and only for shortage occupations, where the vacancy must be open for at least 10 working days.

A positive opinion can be reused. If the foreign employee you hired leaves, you can sponsor a replacement within 12 months of the opinion without registering the vacancy again.

Who skips the agency. No opinion is needed for a highly qualified worker holding an EU Blue Card, which is most of the Blue Card's practical advantage. Nor is one needed for someone who has been continuously employed in Latvia for at least two years immediately before moving to you, which makes a candidate already working here far simpler to hire than one abroad.

What Obligations Does a Latvian Visa Sponsor Take On?

A sponsoring Latvian company becomes responsible for the person's stay matching the purpose stated in the application and for their leaving on time, among other duties. It must report changes in writing within three working days, and a sponsor that gives false information or fails to notify can be barred from inviting anyone for up to one year.

Filing the sponsorship makes the company responsible for more than the salary. Under the Immigration Law the sponsor answers that the person's stay matches the purpose stated in the application, that they leave on time, and, where necessary, for the cost of their healthcare, their stay and their return home. If those conditions stop being met, you must tell the migration authority or the border guard in writing within three working days.

The authority can bar a sponsor from inviting anyone for up to one year for giving false information or failing to notify. For a company that expects to hire from abroad again, that is the real penalty. The employment regulation separately requires you to tell the authority when working hours, place of work or pay change.

The sponsorship itself is filed online, and it states among other things the monthly salary and confirms the company has no unpaid taxes. The employee's own application adds a passport, the signed contract, health insurance and, for a Blue Card, proof of the qualification. The migration authority's application page carries the current checklist and is the one to follow; a foreign degree certificate that needs recognising is usually the slowest document to produce.

How Much Does a Latvian Work Permit Cost?

The state fees are EUR 10 to file the sponsorship online, plus EUR 85 for each right-to-work request, then EUR 160 for the permit on the standard clock or EUR 280 for a faster decision. The salary floor and the months of waiting cost far more than the fees.

• The sponsorship: EUR 10 filed online, plus EUR 85 for each right-to-work request included in it.
• The permit, on the standard clock: EUR 160, for a decision in 30 days, or 10 working days for a Blue Card.
• The permit, faster: EUR 280, for 10 working days, or five for a Blue Card.

Those are the state's fees and they are the small part. The cost of this hire is the salary floor, the time between deciding to hire and the person starting, and the obligations above. The employer taxes on top of the salary are the same as for anyone else, and the cost of hiring guide works through them.

How Long Does a Latvian Work Permit Take?

An employment permit waits for the agency's opinion within 10 working days, a decision within 30 days, and the card within 10 working days, so two to three months from advert to start is realistic. A Blue Card skips the agency, is decided within 10 working days, and takes roughly a month once the documents are ready.

The statutory clocks, laid end to end. Each is a maximum, each starts only once the documents are complete, and the time you spend on the agency's candidates or on gathering papers is on top.

Employment permit:

1. The agency's opinion, within 10 working days of the vacancy being published.
2. The sponsorship, filed within one month of that.
3. The permit decision, within 30 days.
4. The card, produced within 10 working days of the decision.

Two to three months from advert to start date is a realistic plan.

EU Blue Card:

1. The sponsorship, with no agency step before it.
2. The decision, within 10 working days.
3. The card, within 10 working days of the decision.

Roughly a month once the documents are ready, and the documents are usually what decides it. A Blue Card is issued for up to two years, or the length of the contract plus three months where that is shorter.

What Happens to a Latvian Work Permit When the Job Ends?

There is no grace period to work without a sponsor. A Latvian employment permit and a Blue Card both tolerate a limited spell of unemployment, starting at three months in total, before cancellation or refusal of renewal. Changing employer needs a new sponsorship, and the person can start once it is approved or at the latest 30 days after filing.

Several sources describe a three-month grace period. That is a loose description of two different rules, and neither is a period in which the person may work without a sponsor.

• An employment permit is not cancelled for unemployment of three months in total, or six after more than two years here on an employment permit, provided the end of the job was reported to the migration authority.
• A Blue Card is not refused renewal for unemployment of three months in total, or six once the card has been held for two years.

Changing employer means the new employer files a new sponsorship. Under the residence permit regulation as amended in July 2026, the person can start once it is approved, or at the latest 30 days after it is filed. A Blue Card holder who is between jobs, or who has held the card for more than a year, can start as soon as the new sponsorship is filed.

Can a Blue Card Holder Bring Family to Latvia?

Yes. A Latvian Blue Card holder's spouse and children are decided on the same clock as the card, within 10 working days, and at the same fee. In 2025, 88 family members arrived alongside 81 Blue Card holders, according to the migration authority's own figures.

How Many Work Permits Does Latvia Issue?

Latvia issued 4,205 first-time employment permits and 81 EU Blue Cards to principal applicants in 2025, roughly 52 to one. The Blue Card peaked at 303 in 2023. The counts come from the migration authority's spreadsheets, which record why a permit was granted but not the occupation.

The migration authority publishes every first-time temporary residence permit by citizenship and by reason, and two of the reason columns are these two routes. Principal applicants only, from the same spreadsheets as the startup visa count.

The employment permit is the route. In 2025 there were 4,205 of them against 81 Blue Cards, roughly 52 to one.

The Blue Card peaked at 303 in 2023 and was down to 81 by 2025. The largest origins that year were India 42 and Russia 19. The employment permit column is a different population altogether: Uzbekistan 1,337, India 559, Tajikistan 436, Belarus 197.

Two cautions before reading much into that. The spreadsheets record the reason for a permit and not the occupation, so neither column says how many of these people were engineers. And the columns are partly substitutes: someone paid above the Blue Card floor can be sponsored either way, so a fall in one is not necessarily fewer people arriving. The files do not say why the Blue Card count fell, and we are not going to guess.

A separate column counts Blue Card holders moving here from another member state. That is a different route and is not included above.

For how Latvia compares with Estonia and Lithuania on the same definition, and what its Blue Cards were issued for, see the skilled migration report.

What Should a Non-EU Candidate Ask a Latvian Employer?

Ask first whether the company will sponsor a permit, then what it will pay. An offer below EUR 2,722.50 a month is not a Blue Card offer unless the job is on the shortage list, and an employment permit adds the State Employment Agency's search for a local candidate before the application.

Everything above is the employer's side, and it tells you what to ask. Whether the company will sponsor is the first question. The salary is the second: an offer below EUR 2,722.50 a month is not a Blue Card offer unless the job is on the shortage list, and if it is an employment permit instead, the timeline above includes the agency's search for someone local first.

The roles on this map are a primary source for who is hiring in Riga right now. We have no way to tell which of them will sponsor a permit, because the boards do not say.

Once a permit is granted, the arrival checklist covers what comes next: the personal code, the declared address, a bank account, healthcare and school.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Salary Requirement for an EU Blue Card in Latvia?

An EU Blue Card in Latvia requires a salary of EUR 2,722.50 a month, which is 1.5 times the EUR 1,815 a month average gross wage, or EUR 2,178 a month for a shortage occupation. The holder also needs a recognised degree, or qualifying experience for an ICT role.

Do You Need the State Employment Agency for a Blue Card?

No. No State Employment Agency opinion is needed for a highly qualified worker holding an EU Blue Card, which is most of the Blue Card's practical advantage. Someone continuously employed in Latvia for at least two years before changing employer also skips the agency step.

Are IT Jobs on Latvia's Shortage Occupation List?

Yes. Latvia's shortage occupation list includes a whole section of information and communication technology specialists, among them programmers, application developers, systems analysts, and testers. The list is due to lose force on 2 December 2027, and a shortage vacancy must stay open for at least 10 working days.

Can Russian Citizens Get a Work Permit in Latvia?

Only a limited one. A separate article of the Immigration Law limits Russian citizens to permits of up to a year, and only for employment established by EU law, and the ordinary employment permit is not among their grounds. For a startup hire, that leaves the EU Blue Card.

How Long Is a Latvian Blue Card Valid?

A Latvian EU Blue Card is issued for up to two years, or the length of the contract plus three months where that is shorter. A holder who is between jobs, or has held the card for more than a year, can start with a new employer as soon as the new sponsorship is filed.

Sources

• Imigrācijas likums. Article 1 defines a higher education qualification. Article 9 covers the right to work and the shortage-occupation conditions, 9.1 the sponsor's obligations, 23 the Blue Card's duration, 23.1 the separate grounds for Russian and Belarusian citizens, and 33 the decision deadlines and card production. Article 34 has the Blue Card unemployment allowance and article 35 the employment permit's.
• Noteikumi par ārzemnieku nodarbināšanu, Cabinet Regulation No. 55. Points 3.2 to 3.6 are the agency step as rewritten by Regulation No. 803 of 10 December 2024, and points 8 and 9 list who is exempt.
• Noteikumi par ārzemniekam nepieciešamo finanšu līdzekļu apmēru un finanšu līdzekļu esības konstatēšanu, Cabinet Regulation No. 225, point 11, for all three salary floors.
• Uzturēšanās atļauju noteikumi, Cabinet Regulation No. 564. Point 16.2.15 is the ICT experience route and 18.1 covers changing employer.
• Noteikumi par valsts nodevu par migrācijas pakalpojumiem, Cabinet Regulation No. 731, in force since 1 January 2025, for every fee.
• The shortage occupation list, Cabinet Regulation No. 108.
• Central Statistical Bureau, average monthly gross wages and salaries in 2025.
• State Employment Agency, on the employer requirements that took effect on 1 January 2025.
• PMLP residence permit statistics. Each year's first-time temporary permits, by citizenship and reason. The counts here are computed from those spreadsheets.

This page states rules and counts permits. Whether a particular person qualifies is a question for someone who can see the case.