Residence Permit for Truck Drivers in Latvia: Licence and Code 95

In residence permit cases for truck drivers in Latvia, we check the driver's licence and the inviting company's documents before anything is filed. Since 15 September 2026, when the new Immigration Law (Imigrācijas likums) took effect, the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (PMLP) has approved invitations for a newly established transport company we work with. The company hires drivers from outside the EU, and one of them already holds a residence permit. Another case began with a refusal. The driver had earlier left Latvia following a decision by the authorities, and after we wrote to PMLP about his case, the answer was positive.

This article is written for two readers. If you are a driver from a country outside the EU, including one who already drives for a company in another EU country, it shows what to check in your licence before you move. If you run a transport company or recruit drivers for one in Latvia, it shows what PMLP looks at in the company that issues the invitation.

The order is fixed. The employer files an invitation (izsaukums), and PMLP approves it. Without an approved invitation, the driver cannot apply for a residence permit for employment. Such a permit is issued for up to one year (Immigration Law, Section 27(1)(12)).

Before you move: what your driving licence allows in Latvia

Show us the licence before filing

The other half of the case: the inviting company

An invitation can also be refused for reasons that have nothing to do with the driver. Among the grounds listed in Section 26 of the Immigration Law are these:

• the employer has not registered the vacancy with the State Employment Agency (NVA) or has not received its opinion that hiring a foreign national is necessary;
• there are grounds to believe that the company was set up, or operates, mainly to make it easier for foreign nationals to enter Latvia;
• the inviting party has filed for insolvency or is in insolvency proceedings, has been liquidated or carries out no business activity;
• the inviting party has a tax debt of more than EUR 150.

Invitations from companies set up to bring people in were refused under the old law too. What is new in Section 26 concerns two situations: a company that supplies workers to other companies, and a company inviting someone for unskilled work (major group 9 of the Classification of Occupations). In those situations the invitation is refused if the inviting company was founded less than six months ago, is listed as an inactive taxpayer, or has tax compliance violations recorded under the rating system of the State Revenue Service (VID). A truck driver is not in group 9 (occupation code 8332 03, major group 8), so a new transport company hiring drivers for its own runs is not caught by the six-month rule. The "set up for entry" ground still applies, though. In our cases, words have not been enough to answer it: PMLP looks at what the company already has, such as its vehicles and licences.

For recruiters the difference matters. The invitation comes from the employer. If the inviting employer provides labour supply services, placing drivers with other companies rather than using them for its own transport, Section 26(1)(16) applies: the invitation is refused if the employer was founded within the past six months, is an inactive taxpayer or has the tax compliance violations described above.

What a transport company needs before it invites drivers

Commercial carriage of goods by a goods vehicle (category N), or by such a vehicle with a trailer or semi-trailer, requires a licence if the permissible maximum mass exceeds 2.5 tonnes. The Road Transport Administration (Autotransporta direkcija) issues the licence (Road Transport Law, Section 6). One licence for the company is not enough. Each vehicle needs its own document, and for international transport within the EU the haulier also obtains a driver attestation for each driver from a third country who is neither an EU national nor an EU long-term resident.

Names and validity periods: Road Transport Law and the Road Transport Administration, as of 11 October 2026.

No attestation is needed for transport only within Latvia; it is required for international carriage under a Community licence (Regulation (EC) No 1072/2009). For haulage in vehicles of categories C1, C1E, C and CE, code 95 is needed in both cases.

The licence goes to a company that meets the four requirements of Regulation (EC) No 1071/2009. It has an effective and stable establishment in Latvia with vehicles at its disposal, it is of good repute, it has a transport manager with a certificate of professional competence, and it has the financial standing the regulation requires. That standing is set in figures: capital and reserves of at least EUR 9,000 for the first vehicle and EUR 5,000 for each additional vehicle with a permissible laden mass over 3.5 tonnes. For vehicles over 2.5 and up to 3.5 tonnes the amounts are lower: EUR 900 for each additional vehicle, and if the fleet consists only of such vehicles, EUR 1,800 for the first and EUR 900 for each additional one. How we handle this licence is described on our page on the transport licence in Latvia.

This bears directly on the invitation. If the job the foreign national is invited for requires a licence, the employer attaches a copy of it to the invitation (Cabinet Regulation No. 564, paragraph 16.5). One more condition comes from the law: if the employer pays the micro-enterprise tax, the worker cannot apply for a residence permit for employment.

For the company in our example, we obtained the licence and a document for each vehicle. Without them, there would be nothing to attach to the invitation and nothing to show that the driver is needed for real work.

Questions a driver can put to the future employer

A driver cannot see the employer's documents, but can ask about them before agreeing to anything. Each of these questions follows from the rules above:

• Has the company registered the vacancy with the NVA, and for which occupation?
• Does it hold the licence for commercial carriage of goods, and a licence card or a certified true copy of the Community licence for the vehicle you will drive?
• Will you drive only within Latvia or abroad as well? For international carriage under a Community licence, the haulier has to obtain a driver attestation for you, unless you are an EU long-term resident.
• Will the company employ you for its own transport, or does it supply drivers to other companies?
• Does it pay the micro-enterprise tax? If it does, you cannot apply for a residence permit for employment.

Three mistakes to catch before anything is filed

1. An invitation from a company with no vehicles and no licence. Registering a company and inviting drivers straight away is, in our experience, the shortest route to a refusal. By law, an invitation is refused if the company carries out no business activity or if there are grounds to believe it was set up to bring foreign nationals in.
2. Counting on exchanging the licence after arrival. If the current licence does not allow the driver to drive a truck in Latvia, they cannot do the job, and a Latvian licence is issued only to someone whose normal residence is already in Latvia or who has studied here for the last six months.
3. Agreeing terms with the driver before the checks. Check the company's documents first and ask the driver to show the licence. Otherwise the obstacle comes to light after you and the driver have already agreed.

When we tell you not to file

We review each case separately and check the documents before filing. If the driver's or the company's documents do not meet the requirements, we say so plainly and in advance, so that you do not spend time on a case the law closes.

We ask you to put things right first and file only afterwards if:

• the company has a tax debt of more than EUR 150;
• the company carries out no business activity;
• the transport requires a licence, and the company does not yet hold the licence or the document for the vehicle the driver will work on.

We advise against filing while any of the following applies, subject to the exceptions noted below:

• the employer pays the micro-enterprise tax;
• the company supplies workers to other companies or invites someone for unskilled work, and it was founded less than six months ago, is an inactive taxpayer or has violations under the VID rating system;
• in the past year the invited person worked without a right to work, breached the conditions on which that right was granted, or was employed illegally in another Schengen state: a residence permit is refused in that case (Immigration Law, Section 34(1)(23));
• the invited person is a Russian citizen. Under the new law, they cannot apply for a residence permit for employment or for investment in a company's capital (Section 27(8)), or for a visa with the right to work, except a seasonal one (Section 18(3)). There is an exception for those already working in Latvia: a person may apply for a further one-year residence permit if they have already been granted the right to work here, have worked in Latvia for at least the last three months, have had personal income tax paid for that period and continue to work (Section 27(9)). In our practice, a second citizenship does not change this: the restriction applies for as long as the person keeps that citizenship. The restriction does not cover, for example, a residence permit for the spouse of a Latvian citizen, a Latvian non-citizen or a foreign national with a permanent residence permit in Latvia, where the spouses live together and share a household, or the EU Blue Card (Section 27(1), points 2 and 13).

For Belarusian citizens, the law closes the route through investment in a company's capital (Section 27(7)), but not the residence permit for employment.

If your case matches one of these points, tell us which. Where the law leaves an exception, we will say so before filing.

If PMLP has already refused

A refusal to approve an invitation is challenged by the employer before the head of PMLP. The head's decision can be appealed to the Administrative District Court, and for an invitation the court's ruling is final (Immigration Law, Section 26(3) and (4)). A refused residence permit takes the same path. It, too, is challenged by the employer, and by the foreign national only where no invitation is required for them (Section 41). The decision itself states how many days you have to challenge it, so look for that line first. If PMLP cancels an invitation that was already approved, challenging the cancellation does not suspend it.

In the refusal case mentioned at the start, we prepared an application to PMLP, and a positive answer came three days later.

That is how long it took to answer the application, not how long it takes to obtain a residence permit. It happened in one case, and no one should count on it: the law promises no such timeframe.

Send us the whole decision. We will look at which ground PMLP relied on and whether it can be answered with documents. If it cannot, we will tell you at once.

Send us the refusal decision

Similar situations outside haulage

In other sectors, too, the vacancy and the employer are checked; only the requirements for the profession and the documents differ. Below are related cases and how they differ.

• You are hiring a worker from a third country who is not a driver. The same authority approves the invitation and asks the company the same questions. More on our page on the residence permit in Latvia for employment.
• You need a worker for a season or a short period. Then the route may be a work visa in Latvia rather than a residence permit. It also requires an invitation from the employer and a registered vacancy.
• Your driver is from Ukraine and has temporary protection. Here the procedure is different. A person who has received a residence permit under temporary protection has the right to work without restrictions (Immigration Law, Section 44, point 7), and according to CSDD, licences issued in Ukraine are valid in Latvia for the duration of temporary protection. The haulier's licences and the driver's professional competence are required in this case too.
• You are setting up a company that needs a licence before it needs workers. The permit for the activity comes before the invitation. See licences and permits for companies in Latvia.
• You own the new company and want to live in Latvia yourself. That is a different route, investment in a company's capital: residence permit through investment in a Latvian company. From what we see, the authority looks not only at the money invested but also at what the company will do; the law itself ties this permit to the taxes the company pays. We have looked separately at what the new law changed for investors.
• A residence permit was refused on another ground. The review starts with the text of the decision, which also states how and by when it can be challenged. Everything else we handle is on our page on residence permits and visas in Latvia.

Questions before you call

Does a truck driver need a separate work permit in Latvia?

There is no separate permit document: the right to work is recorded in the visa or residence permit. It may be granted with restrictions, for a specific employer and a specific occupation (Immigration Law, Section 42). So when a driver moves from another EU country, we check on what basis they will be able to work in Latvia. The driver attestation for international runs is a different document, and the haulier is the one who obtains it.

How long does PMLP take to decide on a residence permit?

By law, 30 days from the date all documents are accepted. If shortcomings are found, 14 days are given to remedy them. PMLP may extend the period, but to no more than four months from the date all documents were received (Immigration Law, Section 33). That timeframe applies to the residence permit itself. The invitation is approved earlier, by a separate decision.

Can the driver stay in Latvia while a refusal is being challenged?

Filing an application with the court does not by itself give a right to stay in Latvia. The law makes exceptions only where the refusal is not based on a threat to national security, public order or public safety and the person meets one of the conditions it lists: for example, having lived in Latvia with a temporary residence permit for at least three years (Immigration Law, Section 41(5)).

Is it true that a third-country licence must now be exchanged after six months, with all the tests taken again?

The six-month part is not true: a bill to that effect was before the Saeima, the Latvian parliament, in 2026 and was rejected at first reading. The exchange deadline is still one year (Road Traffic Law, Section 47). Tests are already part of the exchange where Latvia has no separate agreement with the issuing country, but not the full set: the driver takes the category B driving test and, with truck categories on the licence, a driving test on a vehicle of each of those categories.