Foreigners who have received temporary residence permits in Latvia in return for investments in real estate, company or bank capital now have to pay 5,000 euros (5,645.25 U.S. dollars) for these permits' extension under an amendment passed by the parliament on Thursday.

Edgars Purta, a member of parliament (MP) of the ruling Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS) party in the Latvian parliament, said the fee would not only cover the costs of vetting the foreigners who seek the extension of their residence permits, but it would also provide additional money to the Economic Development Fund, which finances the government's housing support program.

"If approximately 60 percent of recipients extended these residence permits, this 5,000 euros would provide an additional three to five million euros to the state budget a year, which at this point is not insignificant," the lawmaker said.

A week ago, the parliament rejected the National Alliance party's proposal to charge 10,000 euros for the extension of temporary residence permits.

The new amendments to the immigration law, the passage of which took about a year and a half in parliament, also empower the government to restrict or suspend the issuance of the temporary residence permits to foreign investors.

However, data from the Latvian Office of Citizenship and Migration suggests that demand for the temporary residence permits has fallen sharply since the fall of 2014 when the minimum size of investments that have to be made in the Latvian economy to receive the residence permits was significantly increased.

Source: XINHUA