Minister predicts more firms linked to Latvia’s golden visa business

Latvian Interior Minister Jānis Dombrava said more companies may be found selling so-called golden visas to non-EU nationals, LSM reported, citing his remarks on Latvian Television’s Rīta Panorāma programme.

“I appreciate the work of journalists. If they keep digging in this direction, more companies will emerge, linked to the same people or others,” Dombrava said. He said the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs and the Financial Intelligence Unit had been instructed to conduct an in-depth assessment of people connected to Lights Medical.

The company is led by executive director Ņina Linde and development director Džeralds Hopštēdters. LTV reported on Tuesday that, in return for an investment in a nursing home project in Spuņciems, the company helps clients arrange documents to obtain residence permits in the European Union.

Dombrava said the number of such companies was not excessively large, but that a “sufficient number” of people had obtained temporary residence permits this way. Latvia’s Immigration Law allows residence permits to be granted in return for investment in real estate.

The remarks follow questions about the citizenship granted to Divja Kanana Višvanata, an Indian citizen and the wife of Kanan Višvanats, who has been a Latvian citizen since 2023. Parliament approved granting Divja Višvanata Latvian citizenship on October 15, but claims later appeared on social media that she may have provided false information about herself. On October 22, parliament passed a law declaring its earlier decision invalid from the moment it was adopted.