Latvia stopped issuing visas of all kinds to Russians from June 26 amid the situation with Wagner PMC. Visa applications for some categories were again accepted after an assessment of the security situation. You can apply starting July 4. RBC writes about it.
Visa applications can be submitted by Russians: relatives of Latvian citizens (spouses, parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren and dependents), citizens of other EU countries and Switzerland. Acceptance of humanitarian visa applications (attending a funeral, seriously ill loved ones, when there are threats to the applicant’s health or life) will also resume.
The Latvian Foreign Ministry noted that the decision was made after assessing the current security situation and consulting with neighboring countries. Recall that the country’s government stopped issuing visas to Russians after the start of the military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, but then a number of exceptions were established. In September, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia closed their borders to Russian citizens with Schengen visas.
Earlier, the Czech Republic extended a ban on granting visas to Russians for one year. The country’s government approved the relevant proposal of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We talk about it in more detail here.
