According to information from the Ministry of Welfare of Latvia, in recent years the number of work permits issued to foreigners has decreased slightly. In particular, in 2000, 3,453 people received them, in 2001 - 3,323, and in 2002 - 2,843.
At the same time, the number of approved work invitations increased over three years from 1,473 to 1,790. This circumstance is explained by the fact that in many cases companies cannot obtain a valuable employee without such a document.
Today, representatives of only a few professions are exempt from the need to obtain a work invitation: teachers of state and municipal educational institutions, scientists, heads of cultural institutions, coaches of Latvia's national sports teams, members of boards or councils of companies (including executive directors), heads of public organizations, composers, musicians, singers, choreographers, actors. Others have to wait for an invitation and pay a state fee of 35 lats for a work permit.
According to the deputy head of the labor market development department of the Ministry of Welfare, Vilnis Bužs, in many cases the invitation is purely formal. "After the rules come into force, the procedure for obtaining a work permit will be significantly simplified, because there will be far fewer documents," he is confident.
According to the draft approved by the government, the list of professions whose representatives are entitled to work in Latvia without hindrance has been expanded to almost 40 positions. One of the main innovations is the provision of benefits to IT specialists - directors and project managers, leading system architects, system analysts, programmers, consultants on IT solutions and business activities. However, at the same time a limit of 100 people per year was imposed on them. Businessmen can also expect relaxations. In particular, this applies to persons who have invested at least 600 thousand lats in the share capital of local companies, or who are the sole founder of a company, performing in it the duties of an official with the right of signature.
Others still need to take care of obtaining an invitation and pay 35 lats for each month of work activity in Latvia. To do this, the employer must submit an appropriate application to the State Employment Agency. Here it will be reviewed, and if no worthy candidate is found for the vacancy in Latvia, the foreigner will receive an invitation.