Starting from 1 July, 2016 construction design can be appraised by construction experts certificated by the State Construction Control Bureau of Latvia (SCCB).
SCCB provides certification of construction experts and supervision of permanent practice thereof in the specialty of construction expertise according to the Regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 169 of 20 March, 2018 “Regulations for the assessment of the competence and supervision of permanent practice in the specialty of construction expertise”. The competence of the SCCB to carry out the delegated task is approved by the Decision No.267 / 2018 of December 19, 2018 of the Latvian National Accreditation Bureau (LATAK) on the compliance of SCCB accreditation with the requirements of the standard LVS EN ISO / IEC 17024: 2012.
The fee of initial competence assessment of a construction expert is 150 EUR. The annual fee of supervision of permanent practice of a certified construction expert is 213 EUR.
Certification of foreign specialists
Recognition of professional qualifications of foreign specialists in Latvia is regulated by the Law “On the Regulated Professions and the Recognition of Professional Qualifications”, as well as by Republic of Latvia Cabinet Regulation No. 168 “Procedures for the Provision of Temporary Professional Services in a Profession Regulated in the Republic of Latvia” adopted on January 21st, 2021.
Recognition of professional qualifications in Latvia applies, when a foreign professional, who has the right to fully and independently work in a home country in the relevant profession, wishes to pursue that profession in Latvia as well. The procedure for recognizing professional qualifications as well as the list of regulated professions can be found on the website of the Academic Information Center: http://www.aic.lv/portal/en/arvalstu-diplomu-atzisana/professional-recognition-of-foreign-qualifications-in-latvia . This procedure is applicable in cases, where a foreign professional wishes to obtain the right of self-employment in a regulated profession and applies to service providers both within and outside the European Union.
However, in cases where a citizen of a member state of the European Union with a professional qualification obtained in the European Union wishes to provide temporary services in Latvia (in terms of duration, frequency and volume) and has regular professional activity in his country of residence, then the above procedure does not need to be carried out, but has to submit a declaration to the certification body, which is entitled to issue a certificate of recognition of professional qualifications in the particular field of activity.
The procedure for granting the authorization for the provision of temporary services, as well as the content of the declaration, which is determined by the Cabinet of Ministers Regulations No. 168 “Procedures for the Provision of Temporary Professional Services in a Profession Regulated in the Republic of Latvia”.
However, we point out that service providers from outside the European Union must also recognize their professional qualifications, even if the person intends to provide only temporary services in Latvia.
Further information on the authorization of temporary services in the field of construction expertise is available here.
The declaration form for the temporary provision of services is available here.
The translations of the User Guide into all the official EU languages and they are now available on our website: https://ec.europa.eu/growth/single-market/services/free-movement-professionals/ .
You can find them in the link User guide to Directive 2005/36/EC on the recognition of professional qualification
The renewal of the certificates for the provision of temporary professional services
If the professional activities of certified specialists in the expert profession are still limited in terms of duration or have the nature of being occasional, then According to the Republic of Latvia Cabinet Regulation No.47 paragraph 10 to extend the certificate the specialists must submit following documents:
- A repeat declaration form (see Annex 2 of Cabinet Regulation No. 47: https://likumi.lv/ta/en/en/id/320470-procedures-for-the-provision-of-temporary-professional-services-in-a-profession-regulated-in-the-republic-of-latvia);
- Only such documents shall be appended to a repeat declaration which contain changes in comparison to the documents appended to the previous declaration or for which the term of validity has expired.
In order to ensure the timely extension of the certificate, the necessary documents must be submitted at least one month before the end of the validity period of certificate.