For almost a decade, the identity card of electronic identification cards (hereinafter – eID card) has become an essential part of everyday work. It not only facilitates travel within the European Union and the process of receiving various public administration services, but also allows electronic signing of documents, sign up for different sites and enjoy a number of other benefits.
Latvia, being a country with a successfully developed infrastructure for business implementation, is a place that many foreigners choose to start their own businesses. Eliminating the shortcoming repeatedly found in practice that it is not possible for foreigners to obtain a Latvian e-signature and use the advantages provided by the eID card, on 17 June the Parliament of Latvia adopted amendments to the Personal Identification Law.
In which cases is a foreigner’s identity card issued?
The foreigner’s identity card or eID card will be issued to persons who will be registered in the Register of Natural Persons (hereinafter – the Register). The register includes and updates information on Latvian citizens and non-citizens, as well as on foreigners who correspondent to specific categories of foreigners (see more in Section 4 Paragraph One, Clause 2 Law on the Register of Natural Persons).
In order for a foreigner to have the right to receive the eID card, it must comply with the categories specified in Law on the Register of Natural Persons, namely:
- foreigner has a legal relationship with Latvia on the basis of which mutual rights and obligations are forming or have been established in the field of immovable property, commercial activity, health, taxation, benefits, asylum, and education;
- foreigner wishes to receive a Latvian identity card (electronic identification card) in order to promote the development of economic, scientific, educational or cultural relations;
- foreigner wishes to receive State administration services in Latvia electronically by means of electronic identification issued by a European Union Member State, a state of European Economic Zone, or the Swiss Confederation;
- foreigner is an asylum seeker in the Republic of Latvia.
What rights will foreigners with an identity card have?
The possibility to use the eID card will provide foreigners with access to a number of services provided by state and local government institutions, which until now were not available to persons due to the impossibility of authorization. Staying anywhere in the world, foreigners, while using e-signatures, will be able to electronically sign documents required for the successful operation of the company, creating equivalent documents to a hand-signed document. Foreigners will also be able to use an identity card to prove their identity in person on the territory of Latvia.
This benefit will reduce the administrative burden on foreigners – corporate members, shareholders, board members and other officials – of notarizing their signatures.
It is expected that the use of the eID card, being an effective tool for personal identification also in the electronic environment, will allow the use of various e-services, running a business and conducting transactions remotely.
It is important to take into account that a foreigner’s identity card cannot be used as a travel document when going abroad.
A person will have to pay a state fee for issuing the eID card; currently it has been reported that its amount will be 80.00 EUR.
The amount of the state fee and the procedure for requesting and issuing the eID and will be regulated in more detail by amendments to the regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers, which have not been adopted yet. BDO Law will follow and inform when the relevant regulator enactments will be amended and foreigners will be able to start applying for eID.