Latvia Startup Visa — national programme for relocating non-EU startup founders to Riga

Latvia's Startup Visa launched in 2017 under the country's dedicated Startup Law and was substantially reworked in 2019 to broaden eligibility and cut bureaucracy. It is administered by the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA), with the State Employment Agency and the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, giving non-EU/EEA founders of scalable tech startups a 3-year residence permit without the capital requirements of a conventional investor visa.

LIAA evaluates applications on innovation potential and scalability rather than capital held, processes them in roughly 30 days, and grants access to its 11-region incubator network and Latvia's wider startup infrastructure (TechHub Riga, Startup House, Startin.lv). Up to five co-founders per startup can qualify, and family members may accompany them. Complementary Riga city programmes add EUR 4,500 per relocated foreign specialist and a EUR 1,845 diaspora-return grant.

By early 2023, LIAA data reported by LSM and corroborated by EU-Startups showed 360 foreign founders from 175 startups had relocated to Latvia through the scheme since 2017. Uptake peaked in 2021 at 135 founders across 65 startups, then fell roughly 75% in 2022 to 17 startups after Russia's invasion of Ukraine removed Russia and Belarus, previously the two largest source countries, prompting LIAA to pivot outreach toward the Balkans.

As of 2024, about 25% of Latvia's 512 active startups (Startin.lv) have at least one foreign founder, a legacy partly attributable to the visa. Total 2023 government investment in the wider startup ecosystem — LIAA, the Ministry of Economics, the City of Riga, Norwegian Financial Instrument funding and Startup Law tax incentives — exceeded EUR 4 million, embedding the visa within a funded ecosystem rather than leaving it as an immigration measure alone.