RIGA, March 3 (LETA) - Several thousand Ukrainians have not applied to renew their documents necessary for legal residence in Latvia, LETA has learned from the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (PMLP).

On February 21, the PMLP reported that on March 4, Latvian long-term visas and residence permits will expire for about 15,000 people. A large number of Ukrainian civilians still residing in Latvia were issued long-term visas and residence permits until December 31, 2022.

The migration authority noted that the application process is not active enough, with 3,500 Ukrainians having submitted their residence documents for extension so far.

If the documents necessary to extend the residence permit are not submitted within a month of March 4, the permit will be cancelled and the right to work in Latvia will be lost, as well as access to state services, according to the Law on Support of Ukrainian Civilians.

However, the PMLP does not know how many of the approximately 15,000 persons are even residing in Latvia. This will become clear once the total number of documents submitted has been established. It is likely that some of these Ukrainians have already left Latvia, representatives of the migration authority said.