Society Integration Fund to open one-stop shop for third-country nationals in Latvia

  • 2022-12-30
  • LETA/TBT Staff

RIGA - The Society Integration Fund (SIF) will on January 2 launch development of a one-stop shop for third-country nationals at 15 Raina Boulevard in Riga, as SIF representative Zane Jekabsone told LETA.

The one-stop shop will provide information support and services to third-country nationals moving to Latvia, said Jekabsone.

The one-stop shop will initially provide individual consultation in Latvian, English and Russian on admission of third-country nationals, conditions of residence, social protection, employment, taxation system, education, healthcare, housing and other matters. Later on, it will start providing interpretation in rare languages, such as Arabic, Farsi, Turkish, Tajik, Vietnamese, Mandarin.

From February 2023, the one-stop shop will also provide individual consultations of a lawyer, psychologist and other specialists, as well as translation in rare languages. A regional network of similar one-stop shops will be developed in the largest cities of Latvia. The one-stop shop in Riga will continue to maintain and develop the Integration.lv platform.

Services of the one-stop shop will be targeted at citizens of third countries who have the right to stay in the territory of Latvia and persons who need international protection and who are legally staying in Latvia. The target group does not include citizens of European Union member countries, citizens of the European Economic Area and Switzerland.

Ukrainian civilians, on the other hand, will continue to receive targeted support at support centers for Ukrainian civilians throughout Latvia, as well as free consultation by calling the 27380380 call center set up to help Ukrainians in Latvia.