(1) The registered ethnicity can be changed if the applicant wants to record in the passport or in some other personal identity document the ethnicity of his/her direct antecedents within 2 generations and if he/she can prove his/her belonging to this line of relations.

(2) The registered ethnicity can only once be changed on the basis of this law.

[ with amendments made on 23/05/1996 ]

(1) If a citizen of the Republic of Latvia or a person who is not a citizen of the Republic of Latvia or of another country, but who has a personal identity number assigned by the Population Register and a permanent place of residence in Latvia, and who has reached 16 years of age, wants to change the registered ethnicity, this citizen or person shall submit an application to the Civil Registry Office of his/her place of residence, indicating in the application the reason for changing the registered ethnicity.

(2) Underage persons between 16 and 18 years may submit an application for changing the registered ethnicity only with the consent of their parents or guardians. If the parents have been divorced, the consent to the change of the registered ethnicity shall be given by the parent with whom the child resides. If the parents or guardians, for a valid reason, do not give their consent, the issue shall be decided by the Orphans' Court.

(3) If a person, by a court decision, has been found incapacitated, the application, upon the consent of the Orphans' Court, shall be submitted by that person's guardian.

[ with amendments made on 16/01/1997 and on 22/10/1998 ]

(1) The following documents shall be annexed to the application for changing the registered ethnicity:

(2) If the applicant wants the ethnicity "Latvian" to be registered in his/her passport or in some other personal identity documents, a certificate of education or some other document confirming that the applicant's state language skills correspond to the third (highest) level, shall be annexed to the application for changing the registered ethnicity, but in cases when the applicant is a disabled person with the first group of disability assigned without time limitations, or with second or third group of disability on the basis of vision, hearing or speech disorder, or is more than 75 years old, a certificate of education or some other document confirming that the applicant's state language skills correspond to the second (medium) level, shall be annexed to the application for changing the registered ethnicity.

(3) If the applicant wants the ethnicity "Liv to be registered in his/her passport or in some other personal identity documents, and this cannot be proven with the documents mentioned in the paragraph 2 of the first part of this article, an opinion about his/her ethnic origin, issued by the Liv organisation determined by the Cabinet of Ministers, shall be annexed to the application for changing the registered ethnicity.

[ with amendments made on 23/05/1996 ]

(1) After verifying the application documents, the Head of the Civil Registry Office shall send them, together with his/her opinion, to the Civil Registry Department of the Ministry of Justice.

(2) The term for examining the application for changing the registered ethnicity shall be one month.

[ with amendments made on 16/01/1997 and on 22/10/1998 ]

(1) The permission to change the applicant's registered ethnicity shall be granted by the Civil Registry Department of the Ministry of Justice. This permission shall be the document confirming the lawfulness of the change of the registered ethnicity.

(2) The Civil Registry Office shall notify the applicant about the permission or the refusal to change the registered ethnicity in his/her documents.

(3) The refusal to change the registered ethnicity, within one month as of the date of receiving the notification thereof, can be appealed against in court.

[ with amendments made on 16/01/1997 and on 22/10/1998 ]

(1) A person who has obtained permission to change the registered ethnicity, within one month, should apply to the Citizenship and Migration Board of the Ministry of Interior where he/she should be issued a new passport or some other personal identity document.

(2) The Civil Registry Office, to which the application for changing the registered ethnicity has been submitted, within 10 days, shall notify the Citizenship and Migration Board about the change of the registered ethnicity.

[ with amendments made on 16/01/1997 and on 22/10/1998 ]

(l) On the basis of the permission to change the registered ethnicity, the head of the Civil Registry Office who has received the application for changing the registered ethnicity, shall make additional entries in the following civil status registers:

1) in the marriage register entry about the applicant's marriage;

2) in the birth register entries about the birth of the applicant's children (who are under age).

(2) Additional entries in the second copy of the civil status registers shall be made in the procedure set in Article 39 of the Law "On Registering the Civil Status".

[ with amendments made on 22/10/1998 ]

For the change of the registered name, surname or ethnicity a stamp duty of 20 lats shall be charged. The persons who want the ethnicity "Liv to be registered in his/her passport or in some other personal identity documents, shall be exempted from the stamp duty charge.

[ with amendments made on 23/05/1996 ]

The Law was passed by the Saeima on 15 July 1994

The President of State Riga, 5 July 1994

G. ULMANIS

Source: Unofficial translation