From 2009 December onwards and for clients' convenience, the Consular Department accepts payments by bank cards, but in case the service is not urgent – also via online bank transfers.

In addition, in order to accelerate the process of document legalization and make it even more accessible for clients, the Consular Department has extended the reception hours between 9 am and 4 pm on working days, with a lunch break from 12 noon to 1 pm. On Mondays, reception time has been extended until 7 pm. The documents received are now being processed within one to three working days.

Clients abroad, for their part, are provided an opportunity to send in documents to be authenticated and to receive those documents back by using the services of diplomatic representations. Around 700 documents each year are sent to authorities/institutions in Latvia for additional attesting with the help of the Consular Department, which is a practical implementation of a one-stop agency approach.

Under an inter-ministerial agreement between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Information centre of the Ministry of the Interior, procedures for requesting/attesting certificates on criminal record have been made considerably easier for persons residing abroad.

Moreover, in order to reduce red-tape for residents, the process of authentication of general and vocational education documents has been optimized in association with the Ministry of Education and Science.

In 2009, in response to applications received at the Consular Department and representations of the Republic of Latvia abroad form private individuals and legal persons, 13 256 documents have been authenticated and attested, charging fees at the amount of 125 451 LVL (for comparison, in 2007 – 10 216 documents and 102 810 LVL, but in 2008 – 11 760 documents and 121 043 LVL).

With the Consular Department's assistance, 3536 documents have been requested from institutions in Latvia and abroad in 2009.