36. The Citizenship Law defines a stateless person as “someone who is not considered a citizen by any state in accordance with the laws thereof, except a person who is a subject of the Law On the Status of those Former USSR Citizens who do not have the Citizenship of Latvia or that of any Other State”.65 Aside from excluding ‘non-citizens’ from the definition of a stateless person, the formulation “in accordance with the laws thereof” is narrower than the 1954 Convention, which defines a stateless person as someone “not considered a national of any state under the operation of its law”.66 37. Information about the Latvian procedure for the determination of statelessness is only available in Latvian for prospective applicants.67 Applications can be made in writing and orally, and there is no application fee. However, applications cannot be initiated ex officio and can only be considered based on an application submitted to an official in Latvian accompanied by a personal identification document and proof of inability to acquire another nationality. Positively, the law permits a decision to be made based on the documentation available and there is no requirement for lawful stay nor a time limit on when applications can be made. 68 38. The Latvian legal system does not provide for legal assistance before administrative authorities in general (although there is an obligation on the institution to assess all circumstances of the case objectively and for the proportional benefit of the individual concerned). 69 Another gap in Latvian law is the lack of protection and rights for applicants during the statelessness determination procedure. Applicants for stateless status do not have automatic legal admission by law, and deportation orders are not suspended automatically. There is no ground in law for a person's claim to be decided if they are no longer in Latvia. During the procedure, applicants do not have a right to work, nor to social services and assistance and are only entitled to emergency (minimum state funded) healthcare. In practice, there have been isolated cases of applicants for stateless status being placed in municipal crisis centres where basic shelter and services are provided.70 39. A person recognised as stateless under the SDP may apply for naturalisation after five years’ permanent residence; so they must have resided with a permit as a stateless person for five years and then acquired and held a permanent residence permit for five years (10 years’ total legal residence) before applying for naturalisation. There is no accelerated naturalisation procedure for a person recognised as stateless as the general provision is five years’ permanent residence.71 40. There are no exemptions for stateless people from the general naturalisation requirements, therefore to apply for a nationality they must be able to demonstrate: fluency in Latvian language, a legal source of income, knowledge of the constitution, national anthem and history and culture of Latvia. The only exemption is a general one from the written test for applicants over 65 years old.72 Previous criminal convictions 65 Citizenship Law, 2013: https://likumi.lv/ta/en/id/57512-citizenship-law UN Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, 1954: Article 1(1) 67 Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs website, Bezvalstnieka statusa iegūšana (Obtaining stateless person status): https://www.pmlp.gov.lv/lv/sakums/pa kalpojumi/nepilsona-bezvalstniekastatuss/bezvalstnieka-statussiegusana.html 68 ibid; Law on Stateless Persons, 2007, Art. 4: https://likumi.lv/ta/en/en/id/84393-law-on-stateless-persons 69 Valsts nodrošinātās juridiskās palīdzības likums (State Ensured Legal Aid Law), Arts. 3(1)(3), 3(2), 3(1)(6): https://likumi.lv/doc.php?id=104831 70 ENS Statelessness Index Country Survey 2019: Latvia, pp. 27-29, available at: https://index.statelessness.eu/sites/default/files/ENS_Statelessness_Index_Survey-Latvia-2019.pdf 71 Citizenship Law, 2013, Art 12(1)(1) & (5): https://likumi.lv/ta/en/en/id/57512 72 Citizenship Law, 2013, Section 12: https://likumi.lv/ta/en/en/id/57512 66 10