The Ministry of Economy understands that the authors of the new immigration law "got carried away."
As is known, shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine, amendments to the Immigration Law were adopted, which prohibited the issuance of temporary residence permits (TRP) to citizens of Russia and Belarus in exchange for the purchase of real estate. For citizens of other third countries, this opportunity remained - both for obtaining an initial TRP for a period of 5 years and for its extension.
However, the currently effective immigration law has been so "disfigured" by dozens of amendments that the Ministry of Internal Affairs decided five years ago to prepare a new law. The draft law was submitted to the Saeima of the previous convocation, but the parliamentarians did not manage to adopt it. Even in the current Saeima, the deputies have not rushed to consider it. Only with the beginning of the autumn session did work begin on the adoption of the draft law in the second reading.
However, there were so many amendments that the commission did not manage to review all the proposals in three meetings. It is noteworthy that the new draft law does not provide for the issuance of TRP in exchange for investments in real estate at all! This means that the state is effectively giving up the opportunity to earn tens, if not hundreds of millions of euros. The Association of Real Estate Traders proposed to maintain the previous procedure for obtaining TRP - if real estate is purchased for an amount of at least 250,000 euros.
The deputies have not yet supported this proposal, but since the Ministry of Economy also considers it advisable to retain such a bonus for investors in the form of obtaining TRP, the parliamentarians suggested that the ministry submit the corresponding proposals by the third reading.
