Visa requirements for Latvian citizens

Latvia belongs to the European free movement area, so Latvian citizens need no visa anywhere in the Schengen area and can use a national ID card.

Of the 198 countries whose entry rules are known in both directions, Latvia and 93 of them let each other’s citizens in without a visa obtained in advance (visa-free, on arrival or with an ETA; an e-visa counts as a visa).

No country asks holders of the Latvian passport for a visa beforehand while its own citizens enter Latvia without one.

The reverse holds for 65 countries: holders of the Latvian passport get in without a visa obtained in advance, but their citizens need one for Latvia (Angola, Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus and 60 others).

13 countries ask holders of the Latvian passport for a visa obtained before travel from an embassy, a consulate or a visa centre. 0 of them have an embassy or consulate on record in Latvia.

13 countries have no embassy or career consulate on record in Latvia, so the application usually goes to one of their posts in another country. Counting the post an official diplomatic list names for Latvia, or else the nearest one within 2,000 km, those posts are most often in Sweden (4), Denmark (2) and Belarus (2).

The United States refused 19% of visitor-visa (B1/B2) applications from citizens of Latvia in fiscal year 2025, by the State Department’s adjusted refusal rate. 64 of the 197 nationalities with a published rate had a lower one and 132 a higher one; the middle value was 32%.

Visa-free travel with the Latvian passport

By continent, the Latvian passport is visa-free in 43 countries in Europe, 29 countries in the Americas, 21 countries in Asia, 14 countries in Africa and 11 countries in Oceania. The longest visa-free stays for Latvian citizens are allowed in Georgia (360 days), Antigua and Barbuda (180 days), Armenia (180 days), Costa Rica (180 days), Dominica (180 days) and Mexico (180 days).

Visa on arrival

Latvian citizens can get a visa at the airport or land border of Bahrain, Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia, the Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt and 23 others.

E-Visa and electronic travel authorisation

An e-Visa, applied for online before the trip, is how Latvian citizens enter Azerbaijan, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cuba and 20 others. Australia, Canada, Israel, Ivory Coast, Kenya, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and 4 others ask instead for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a lighter online check than a visa.

Latvia’s neighbours

Lithuania, Estonia and Belarus admit Latvian citizens without a visa. For the other neighbours, the rules are: Russia (e-Visa for up to 30 days).

How the passport compares

Among neighbouring passports, the Estonian passport ranks 28th (159 destinations), the Lithuanian passport ranks 34th (158 destinations), the Russian passport ranks 79th (115 destinations) and the Belarusian passport ranks 107th (82 destinations). Of the 198 passports in the data, 93 can enter visa-free and 105 need a visa from an embassy or consulate for Latvia.