A foreigner who wishes to establish employment legal relations by concluding an employment contract or be employed on the basis of another civil contract (including as a member of the Board of a commercial company or executive body) or be a self-employed person shall be required a work permit;
Work permits in Latvia are issued by the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (OCMA);
Remember that you are allowed to work in only that profession, speciality or position which are specified in the work permit;
If you have several jobs, several positions in one work place or work in several specialities in one work place, a work permit shall be required for each job;
If the conditions which have been the basis for the issue of the aforementioned work permit within the framework of the term specified in the work permit change (for example, an employer, position, working hours, work place change), you shall have an obligation to receive a new work permit;
If employment relations are terminated, an employer shall inform the OCMA of this fact within 3 days at the latest;
If a work permit is lost, damaged or expired, you shall notify the OCMA thereof in writing within three working days and ask to issue a copy of the work permit;
A foreigner who is a student of an educational establishment accredited in the Republic of Latvia or a full time student is issued a work permit only in such a case if the working hours stipulated in his/her employment contract do not exceed 20 hours per week or if he/she is a self-employed person and his/her residence period in Latvia is not shorter than one year;
The state fee for review of the documentation required to claim for a work permit allowing to employ one foreigner in the Republic of Latvia is 35 lats a year. If the employment period is shorther than a year, the state fee is calculated for a full year. The state fee shall be paid by an employee him/herself, but it is also possible to agree individually with an employer that he/she covers these expenses;
You are released from paying a fee to obtain a work permit if you have arrived to the Republic of Latvia in order to live together with a spouse who is a citizen or non-citizen of Latvia or a foreigner having received a permanent residence permit.