The Senate's Department of Administrative Cases has upheld the Regional Administrative Court's judgement overturning the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs' decision to revoke a temporary residence permit of an applicant, a Belarusian citizen.

The applicant, who had previously worked for the Belarusian internal affairs authorities, had his residence permit revoked because the Latvian State Security Service had concluded that he could pose a threat to national security. The applicant appealed this decision in the administrative court, arguing that it did not comply with the principle of proportionality and stating that he had been living in Latvia for a long time, had started a family with a Latvian citizen and was taking care of two minor children who were Latvian citizens. Both the first instance and the appellate courts upheld the application, obliging the authority to maintain and register the applicant's temporary residence permit, provided that the other conditions for its registration were met.

Having examined the case, the Senate found that the Regional Administrative Court had correctly ruled that the appealed decision was inconsistent with the principle of proportionality. Although the Immigration Law provides that the revocation of the residence permit was mandatory in this particular case, the Senate points out that the proportionality of a mandatory administrative act must also be assessed if the issuance of the act would infringe upon a person's fundamental rights. Contrary to the arguments put forward in the cassation complaints filed by the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs and the State Security Service, the court was not obliged to first establish that the decision taken by the authority was arbitrary in order to find the contested decision disproportionate, as this is not a mandatory prerequisite for recognizing the legal consequences of the decision as disproportionate – these two circumstances must be examined independently of each other. The Regional Administrative Court has duly examined whether the decision was taken in accordance with the principle of proportionality. In carrying out this examination and familiarising itself with the circumstances surrounding the adoption of the contested decision, it was not convinced that the public benefit of the restriction imposed on the applicant would outweigh the harm caused to the applicant's private and family life that would result from the revocation of the residence permit, and therefore reasonably concluded that the decision should be overturned. The Senate therefore found that there were no grounds for amending the judgment of the Regional Administrative Court.

Case No SKA-227/2025 (A420130923)

 

Information prepared by Viesturs Lācis, Adviser in the Matters of Senate Communication

Telephone: +371 67020302; e-mail: viesturs.lacis@at.gov.lv