From now on, the naturalization office will have more grounds to deny citizenship applications. For instance, the review of an application will be terminated after the third unsuccessful attempt to pass the state language exam. According to the authors of the amendments, currently applicants treat the language proficiency test as just another lesson.
Also, an application for citizenship will not be considered if the applicant fails to show up for the state language exam without providing documents within two months confirming their absence for a valid reason. Currently, the rule is that the processing of an application is suspended if the applicant fails to appear for the exam without a valid reason. The application is only terminated if the applicant fails to appear for the exam within one year from the suspension of the application processing.
The amendments also introduce stricter requirements for assessing language proficiency of those who have passed a centralized exam in Latvian language and literature under the basic or secondary school curriculum. In the future, their knowledge of Latvian will have to correspond to level A, B, or C. Currently, to proceed with naturalization, one must achieve a grade of A, B, C, or D on the centralized exams.
According to the Ministry of Justice, the level of state language knowledge of those who passed the centralized Latvian language exam at level D does not meet the requirements for applicants for Latvian citizenship.
The threshold for allowable benefits for those eligible for preferential citizenship (without exams or with only one exam) has also been tightened. According to the latest regulation, only schoolchildren who received grades of 'good' and 'excellent' on the centralized exam are exempt from taking the Latvian language exam.
Latvia has about 400,000 so-called 'non-citizens'. To obtain citizenship, they must sign an oath and pass two exams - in Latvian language and Latvian history. The state fee for the exam ranges from 3 to 10 lats ($5-20). In 15 years of Latvia's independence, about 110,000 people have obtained citizenship through naturalization.
Based on materials from RIA Novosti.