Latvia Dual Citizenship Rules: The Permitted List
Latvia's permitted list for dual citizenship covers the EU and EFTA, every NATO member state (Turkey among them), plus Australia, Brazil and New Zealand — hold one of those passports and Latvian naturalization asks you to surrender nothing. Hold any other, and taking Latvian citizenship means renouncing the one you have. One question, one list, and everything about your Latvian citizenship planning follows from which side of it your passport sits.
We are CORVUS, an attorney-at-law office in Riga. The quick reference, then the three nuances that decide real family cases.
The Quick Reference
| Your citizenship | At Latvian naturalization |
|---|---|
| EU / EFTA member state | Keep both passports |
| NATO member state (incl. Turkey) | Keep both passports |
| Australia, Brazil, New Zealand | Keep both passports |
| Others — e.g. India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, UAE, China, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan | Renunciation required |
Note the reach of the permitted list — effectively the Western alliance plus three more: for an American, German, Turkish or Brazilian applicant, Latvian citizenship is pure addition. And note the second edge some renunciation-list countries add themselves: India and China, among others, don't permit dual citizenship under their own law in any event.
Three Nuances That Decide Cases
The exceptions. A second citizenship may be kept where it arose automatically — through marriage or adoption — or with special permission of the Cabinet of Ministers. Narrow doors, checked first in every case where they might apply.
The timing. Renunciation attaches to naturalization only — the final rung of a ten-year ladder. Nothing before it — not the TRP, not permanent residence — requires giving up anything, and many families from renunciation-list countries deliberately stop at PR, keeping a permanent status and their passport both. The choice waits at the top; it never chases you up the ladder.
The children's rule. Children of Latvian citizens may hold dual citizenship with any country. Where a child's dual citizenship formed with a non-permitted country, they keep both passports through childhood and choose by age 25; children in permitted-country families never choose at all. In practice: a parent's renunciation dilemma doesn't pass to the next generation in the same shape — a fact that has decided more family plans, in our experience, than any argument addressed to the parents themselves.
For citizens of Russia and Belarus weighing the whole road, the dedicated guides put this final-rung question in its ten-year context: everything up to it requires no renunciation of anything.
Which Side of the List Is Your Family On?
Name the citizenships in your household and we'll tell you exactly what the top of the ladder costs each member — including the exceptions worth checking and the children's arithmetic. Ten minutes now settles a decade of planning.
Contact CORVUS for an assessment of your situation →
General information, not legal advice. Rules current as of July 2026.
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.