Hiring Foreign Specialists in Latvia: Employer's Guide
Latvian companies lose strong candidates to a rumour about hiring foreign employees in Latvia: that bringing in a non-EU specialist means months of bureaucratic trench warfare, and that the candidate will be gone to a Berlin offer before the paperwork clears. For the EU Blue Card, the rumour is simply out of date. The employer's entire opening move — registering the invitation with the migration authority — is reviewed within five business days, the whole employer-side package fits into a checklist you can read in one sitting, and the resulting permit runs two full years with no annual registration to administer.
We are CORVUS, an attorney-at-law office in Riga, and we support Blue Card cases from both ends — the specialist's and the company's. This guide is written for the company: what you must do, in what order, what disqualifies an invitation, and why the Blue Card has quietly become the strongest line in a Latvian employer's offer to foreign talent.
The Employer's Checklist, Complete
The company's part of a Blue Card case consists of five items, and none of them is exotic.
Register the invitation. Before the employee applies for anything, the employer registers the invitation with OCMA, the migration authority. Review takes five business days — the fastest institutional step in the entire process, and the one that unlocks everything after it.
Arrive with no tax debts. At the time of filing, the company must have no tax debts. This is the checklist's one silent killer: the invitation fails on a condition the candidate never sees and the hiring manager may not know about. A five-minute check with your accountant before submission removes the risk entirely — make it a standing step in the hiring workflow.
Provide the employment contract. The contract carries the whole legal weight of the case: the position must sit in the qualifying Occupation Classifier groups, described by duties rather than title alone, and the gross salary must meet the threshold current at filing — EUR 2,723 monthly from 1 April 2026, or EUR 2,178 for shortage-list occupations. Draft the description concretely and set borderline salaries with margin; the thresholds article explains why EUR 23 of shortfall costs months.
Pay the invitation fee. EUR 10 for an electronic invitation (EUR 17 on paper), EUR 10 per included person, plus EUR 85 per employment-rights request — modest line items, easily forgotten in the flow, and formal conditions nonetheless.
Sign and file electronically. Documents can be signed and filed with qualified e-signatures throughout: the company's entire side can be completed without anyone standing in a queue, which for HR teams juggling several hires is the difference between a process and a project.
That's the list. No labour-market test theatrics, no quota lotteries, no serial renewals — the structural comparison with most EU work-permit regimes is the Blue Card's quiet selling point.
What the Company Gets for Its Diligence
The return on that checklist deserves stating plainly, because it's what makes the Blue Card a recruiting instrument rather than a compliance chore. The card is issued for two years — under current practice, immediately for the full term — with no yearly registration for anyone to track. The specialist's spouse and minor children are covered, which converts a hesitant candidate into a relocating family. Constant presence in Latvia is not required and remote work is possible, so distributed teams fit the format natively. And one visit to Latvia suffices if the initial documents are filed at a consulate abroad — the candidate keeps working from their current country while the case runs.
Put that paragraph in an offer letter, and the Berlin counteroffer loses some of its shine. The employers who win international candidates are increasingly the ones who lead with the immigration answer instead of appending it — and Latvia's answer, properly presented, is strong.
Not sure which route fits your situation? Send us the basics — we reply with a free preliminary assessment.
Free preliminary assessmentWhere Employer-Side Cases Go Wrong
Our refusal-and-delay archive on the company side is short and repetitive — four patterns cover nearly everything.
The tax-debt surprise — covered above, and first for a reason: it's the most common and the most avoidable.
The title-shaped job description. "Manager" or "specialist" in the contract with no duties behind it invites classification questions and "true purpose" doubts. The authority checks the inviting company as carefully as the applicant — a genuine position, concretely described, is your side of that inspection.
The threshold miscalculated. Salary set against last year's figure, or against the shortage rate for an occupation not actually on the current list. Verify both — the threshold in force and the list's contents — on the drafting date, not from memory.
The sequencing slip. The candidate applies before the invitation is registered, or documents mismatch between the invitation and the application. The order is fixed: invitation first, five days, then the employee's filing — and every detail (position name, salary, company data) must match across both.
One more employer question recurs enough to answer here: the dependent spouse. A non-working spouse is supported either through the cardholder's salary or by showing sufficient funds for the year on a Latvian bank account — the choice is made when the file is built, and we prepare the supporting documents for both variants. It costs the employer nothing but is worth knowing when a candidate asks, because the candidate will ask.
The Process From the Company's Chair
Sequenced from the employer's perspective: the offer is negotiated with classification and threshold already checked (a one-day legal review of the draft contract — the cheapest insurance in the whole case); the invitation is registered and clears in five business days; the employee applies at the Latvian consulate with the contract, qualification documents and criminal record certificate; the decision arrives, the specialist obtains a D visa, completes the health check and biometrics after arrival — and starts work with a two-year card and no further immigration admin until extension.
Our support covers the entire chain for both employer and employee; Blue Card engagements are priced individually, depending on the case. For a company hiring its first foreign specialist, the honest promise is this: the second hire will feel routine, because the first one built the checklist — and the checklist, as you've seen, fits on a page.
Building an Offer for a Foreign Candidate?
Send us the draft contract before it goes out — we'll verify the classification, the threshold and the invitation prerequisites in a day, so your offer letter carries an immigration answer the candidate can say yes to.
Contact CORVUS for an assessment of your situation →
This article is general information, not legal advice. Requirements and thresholds are set by law and change annually; details are current as of July 2026. Contact us for advice on your specific situation.
Author: Valērija Barišņikova — sworn attorney (Latvia), CORVUS Attorneys-at-Law (ZAB Corvus Vanags Legal SIA). Reviewed by Andrejs Voroncovs — sworn attorney (Latvia), founder of CORVUS Attorneys-at-Law. Mag. iur. with distinction, University of Latvia; member of the Latvian Bar Association and of its commission for tax and financial matters. Profile → The firm has handled migration cases since 2004 — hundreds of cases for clients from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Egypt, the UAE, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the USA and Canada. Member of the Russell Bedford international network.