As is known, the president returned the new Immigration Law for revision in early June. The head of state had three main complaints about the new law. The first - during the third (final) reading of the bill, 159 amendments were submitted, which already indicates a disregard by the deputies for good legislative practice. In a normal legislative process, conceptual proposals, especially in such numbers, are not submitted at the third reading. The second complaint - on one hand, the deputies supported a proposal allowing for residence permits to be obtained for relatively small investments in some alternative investment fund that has not even been created yet, while on the other hand, amendments proposing to issue residence permits for much larger investments were rejected. The head of state pointed out that under the new law, even citizens of allied countries - for example, Canada - cannot obtain a residence permit in exchange for, say, purchasing real estate in Latvia. And so, the Ministry of Economics, responding to the president's wishes, prepared amendments that allow for the resumption or, if you will, the saving of the residence permit program in exchange for investments in real estate - in the new Immigration Law, which the president refused to sign, there was no article on issuing residence permits for the purchase of real estate at all! So what does the Ministry of Economics propose? Citizens of other EU countries, citizens of OECD countries, citizens of countries that do not require a visa to enter Latvia, as well as citizens of other countries who have had a visa from another Schengen Area country or a residence permit in a Schengen Area country within the last five years, can apply for a residence permit. The condition is that they must purchase a property worth at least 300,000 euros, located in Riga, Jurmala, Ikshkile, Saukraste, Adazi, Kekava, Marupe, Olaine, or Salaspils regions, or in the Garkalne, Ropazi, Saukraste, Stopini, and Tinuzi regions. If the property is purchased in other administrative territories, then the total cost of one or a maximum of two properties must not be less than 300,000 euros. At the same time, the applicant for the residence permit also pays 5% of the cadastral value of the property into the state treasury, and starting from the second year of the residence permit's validity, pays 3,000 euros annually into the state treasury. Also, foreigners who invest at least 100,000 euros in the construction of a new apartment building in the Latgale planning region or the Aluksne municipality and purchase an apartment in such a building will be eligible for a residence permit for a period of 5 years. These and other amendments to the returned Immigration Law will be considered by the Saeima's Defense and Internal Affairs Committee on August 12, and the Saeima may approve the revised Immigration Law on August 20.