Who the Client Was
If you are planning to obtain a residence permit for yourself or your family members, contact us to discuss your situation.
A Turkish national, married to a Latvian citizen.
The couple had lived in several countries before deciding to settle in Latvia, where the husband would apply for a residence permit on family grounds.
There was also a second application to manage: a residence permit for the client’s minor son from a previous marriage. The child was moving in with his father, enrolling in a Latvian school, and starting what the family hoped would be a long-term European education.
The client came through a recommendation — acquaintances who had already completed their own Latvian immigration process with us.
The Task
What the Client Needed
Five objectives from the start:
obtain a residence permit for the spouse of a Latvian citizen;
obtain a residence permit for the minor child from a previous marriage;
prepare a correct document package on family grounds;
organise the submission so PMLP would not need to request additional documents;
support the family through the practical side of the move.
The child’s documents required separate handling. In cases involving a minor from a previous marriage, PMLP verifies the second parent’s consent and the legal basis for the child’s relocation with particular care.
Why Latvia
Why the Client Chose Latvia
His wife is a Latvian citizen, and her family lives here. That was the deciding factor.
Beyond that, the family had four practical reasons:
The client wanted to establish a solid long-term legal position from the beginning, rather than resolving status issues one at a time as they arose.
Main Challenges
The Main Challenge
The residence permit for the child from the previous marriage. This is always a separate workstream.
PMLP verifies four things in these cases:
- the second parent’s written consent;
- documents confirming the child’s place of residence;
- proof of the family relationship;
- confirmation that no restrictions exist on the child leaving their country of residence.
The situation was further complicated by the fact that some documents had been issued in Turkey and others in a third country where the family had previously lived. That meant separate coordination on apostilles, translations, and legalisation across multiple jurisdictions.
Concerns
The Client’s Concerns
Four main concerns coming in:
- refusal of the residence permit for the child;
- additional document requests from PMLP;
- errors in processing the Turkish documents;
- delays stretching the timeline beyond the acceptable window.
The last point had a concrete consequence: if the process ran too long, the child would miss the start of the school year in Latvia. That deadline became the fixed reference point for planning the work.
Why Us
Why the Client Chose Us
The client said later that what made the difference was how we explained the process — specifically, what happens with children from a previous marriage at the point of submission, not a general description of the law. Concrete, practical, based on what we actually see at PMLP.
The family wanted someone to review the documents in advance, identify risks before they became problems, and handle communication with the immigration authority directly. The client had no interest in tracking every administrative step himself.
Work Scope
What We Did
From the initial consultation through to collecting the residence permit cards:
We also gave the client a separate briefing on the subsequent path to a permanent residence permit and, eventually, citizenship.
Process
How the Process Went
The family submitted under family reunification grounds.
Most of the preparation work concentrated on the child’s file: the birth certificate, a notarised consent from the second parent, and correctly apostilled Turkish documents.
The package was submitted without errors on the first attempt.
PMLP issued no additional requests. The case moved through within the standard timeframe, and the family received their cards following a positive decision.
In practice, an incomplete or incorrectly legalised document package is the most common cause of delays in cases like this.
That was avoided here entirely.
Features
What Was Unusual About This Case
Result
Result
Feedback
What the Client Found Most Valuable
In the client’s own words: the confidence that the process was being handled correctly. The family did not have to work out document requirements across multiple countries on their own, or manage contact with government authorities themselves. The process concluded without refusals and without additional requests.
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