Latvia Golden Visa from EUR 50,000: Small-Company Route

Published: 2026-07-25 · Updated: 2026-07-25 · CORVUS Attorneys-at-Law

Yes — Latvia's golden visa programme does contain an entry from EUR 50,000. It sits inside the share-capital route: a contribution of at least EUR 50,000 to the share capital of a small Latvian company can ground a temporary residence permit (TRP) of up to five years. It is also the most conditional variant on the programme's menu, and the conditions live downstream of the grant. The formula we put in front of every client who asks: EUR 50,000 is the entry; at least EUR 40,000 a year in taxes paid by the company is what keeps the permit valid. Nothing about that tax figure is examined when the permit is issued — it is examined every year afterwards, against the company's tax declarations.

Whether that trade reads as a genuine discount or as an expensive misunderstanding depends entirely on the company. We are CORVUS, attorneys in Riga; here is how the small-company variant works under the law in force, and the arithmetic we run before recommending it to anyone.

What Article 23 Means by a Small Company

The share-capital basis is set out in Article 23 of the Immigration Law, which grades the minimum investment by the size of the target company. The EUR 50,000 tier applies where the company employs no more than 50 people and its annual turnover or annual balance does not exceed EUR 10 million. Read the financial test carefully: turnover and balance are alternatives, and fitting under EUR 10 million on either indicator is enough — a company whose turnover overshoots the ceiling can still qualify on its balance sheet, provided the headcount condition holds. The definition is the statute's own, and qualification is assessed against the Latvian law's text; no outside classification of "small business" decides anything here.

Size matters beyond the entry amount, because the subpoint a company falls under selects the whole bundle of conditions that will follow the permit — which is why verifying headcount and financials against the company's actual filings is the first thing we do, not the last.

The Entry Price and the Running Condition

Three numbers define this variant's economics, and they play three different roles.

The investment: at least EUR 50,000 into the company's share capital, contributed personally and in full by each investor. There is no pooling — two applicants need EUR 50,000 each, a rule we unpack in our note on joint investments. The small-company subpoint also carries its own crowd control: one such company can serve as the permit basis for at most ten investors. That cap is written into this subpoint alone — the EUR 100,000 variants have no statutory equivalent. A spouse and children under 18 apply through family reunification — a different legal basis — so the limit concerns investors.

The state-budget payment: EUR 10,000 when the TRP is granted, and EUR 5,000 on each repeat request. Ordinary processing fees come on top; the full budget lines are in our cost breakdown.

The tax condition: the company must pay at least EUR 40,000 per reporting year in state and municipal taxes, and OCMA verifies this annually from the declarations. It is a condition of the permit's validity, never of its grant — a freshly founded company has paid nothing on the day the permit is issued, and lawfully so. What the law asks is that the business keep generating that tax contribution for every year the permit stands.

One Subpoint of Three

The EUR 50,000 tier is the first of three variants. The second asks EUR 100,000 or more for a company with over 50 employees and turnover or balance above EUR 10 million; there the annual tax condition rises to EUR 100,000. The third asks EUR 100,000 or more for a company that crosses those size thresholds together with its subsidiaries — the shape of a typical development holding. For that third variant the statute's text attaches no tax figure: the validity conditions are spelled out for the first two, and we advise holding-route clients against building plans on any assumed regime. The route's shared mechanics — the bank's confirmation of the investment, OCMA's company questionnaires, timing — are covered in our article on the EUR 100,000 share-capital route, and all of it applies at the EUR 50,000 tier too.

Run the Numbers Before Taking the Discount

One profile fits this variant well: an investor founding, or buying into, a small business that genuinely operates — one whose ordinary activity already produces, or will credibly produce, a tax bill of EUR 40,000 a year. For that investor the validity condition costs nothing extra. The company pays those taxes because it trades; the permit merely requires that it keep doing so; the variant then delivers exactly what the headline promises — entry at half the standard amount.

The profile it does not fit is the passive investor hunting a cheaper ticket. Set the sums side by side over one permit term. Choosing EUR 50,000 over EUR 100,000 saves EUR 50,000, once. The tax condition asks the company for EUR 40,000 every year — EUR 200,000 across a five-year permit. A company that would not otherwise generate that tax load turns the "saving" into a recurring cost four times its size, and the EUR 100,000 variants — or the property route — become the cheaper and considerably calmer answer. We insist on this conversation before any client commits to the smaller figure.

A Missed Year, and the Wider Backdrop

Because the EUR 40,000 test repeats annually, holding this permit means watching the company's tax profile the way you watch the company itself. A weak year is not a mystery of law: if the declarations show the condition unmet, the permit's validity condition fails. The working discipline is to see a shortfall early — management accounts will say in autumn what the declaration will say in spring — and to use that time while options remain open, including moving residence onto another qualifying basis. We build this monitoring into how we support share-capital clients; no one should first learn of a missed threshold from official correspondence.

Two framework points close the picture. The investment route, this variant included, is closed to citizens of Russia and Belarus under current law. And the thresholds above belong to the Immigration Law presently in force: a new Immigration Law was adopted by Parliament on 11 June 2026 but returned by the President and has not entered into force, with a second reading scheduled for 20 August 2026. Every figure here is current as of July 2026 and dated for that reason; the programme-wide context sits in our golden visa guide.

Does the Target Company Fit the Variant?

Headcount, the turnover-or-balance test, and above all a tax profile that clears EUR 40,000 a year without heroics — these are questions of fact about a specific company, and we verify them against the registers and filings before any money moves.

Contact CORVUS for an assessment of your situation →

This article is general information, not legal advice. Figures are current as of July 2026 and may change. 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.