The Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs said that notices asking people to leave Latvia would be sent out as early as next week. Most of them are people who did not even show up for the exam.
Latvia is going to expel several thousand citizens of the Russian Federation who failed the Latvian language exam. This was stated by a representative of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (OCMA), Myra Rose, Delfi reports on September 18.
The 3,600 Russians will receive notices to leave the country next week. They will have 3 months to comply with the local authorities’ request.
“Those who did not pass the exam and did not apply will be notified next week that they will have to leave Latvia – there will be about 3,600 of them. In these 90 days, many will start doing something and fussing – we are already receiving a lot of calls: they say that their mother said she would do everything, but it turned out that she did nothing, the person did not even go to take the exam,” says Maira Roze.
There is another category of Russians, which was described by a representative of the UDGM. We are talking about those who hoped for the Constitutional Court and believed that there would be no deportations. Now these citizens will lose their residence permits and will be forced to move back to their homeland.
“These people will be able to try to get a permit without any relaxation – like any other Russian citizen, not a long-time resident of Latvia,” continued Maira Roze.
Latvian language exam in Latvia: what is known
Until early September, citizens of the Russian Federation living in Latvia had to prove their knowledge of the Latvian language through an exam.
Today, about 25 thousand Russians are subject to the new law. 14,000 of them have applied for permanent resident status, about 1,000 have applied for a residence permit, and another 6,700 are going to take the exam again.
This week, the local Sejm extended the deadline and provided for a two-year transition period, but this will apply only to those citizens who have at least attempted to pass the language exam. All others are subject to deportation.
Those citizens who have reached the age of 75 will be exempt from the Latvian language exam.
On September 6, it was reported that more than half of Russians in Latvia failed the language test. To stay in the country, Russians had to apply for a new status, which requires an A2 language certificate.
