In October, employees of the IIA gained new knowledge and skills, as well as participated in various events, informing about the range of services provided by the agency and raising the awareness about it.

The representatives of the IIA`s Jelgava branch on October 17th participated in the experience exchange event in Tukums organized by the association “I want to help refugees” (“Gribu palīdzēt bēgļiem”) and during the event presented the services offered by the agency. On October 19th, representatives of the IIA`s Liepāja branch participated in the Liepāja University International Week event: “How to enhance cooperation between people from different countries in higher education: improve your intercultural competence”, to introduce the audience to the agency`s support and activities to foreign students in the Kurzeme region. On October 26th, the representatives of the IIA`s central – Riga office – participated in the experience exchange event organized by the association “I want to help refugees” (“Gribu palīdzēt bēgļiem”) in Ķekava on issues related to the integration of Ukrainian civilians.

In the Riga office, the number of individual consultations provided per month remains stable, which in October, similar to September, has neared 300. Meanwhile, in the Liepāja branch, 69 individual consultations were provided in October and in the Jelgava branch – 44.

Client Experience Story

A married couple from a third country, who, thanks to the involvement of VPA client advisors, managed to get residence permits this month as visa-free state pensioners, are grateful: “You ladies are awesome! We felt like you treated us as close relatives. Thank you very much for making an effort to get all the information needed for the smooth process of acquiring residence permits!”

Services of the Integration and Inclusion Agency are provided by the Society Integration Foundation within the framework of the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund’s project (Agreement No. PMIF/13.1./2022/1/01). The funding has been allocated by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (75%) and Latvian State budget (25%).