National Library of Latvia Companies" signed the contract on the construction of the new "National Library of Latvia". On 18 May 2014, the main facility of the Library at Krišjāņa Barona iela was closed for the move. In 2008, construction started according to the design of the Latvian-American architect Gunnar Birkerts who has been tasked with the project already in 1989. The new building has 13 floors and is 68 m high. Construction costs were given as 193 million euros. 480 people work there. As part of Riga's programme for its title as European Capital of Culture, selected holdings were symbolically carried from the
Politics of Latvia have an opposite practice, requiring visas from both citizens and non-citizens of Latvia, but allowing non-citizens to travel to Russia with a cheaper visa. As a transitional clause, the Latvian law allows dual citizenship for those who were forced to leave Latvia during the Soviet or Nazi occupation and adopted another citizenship while away from Latvia. In order to be eligible for dual citizenship, they had to claim it by July 1, 1995. After that date the other citizenship must be renounced upon the acceptance of the Latvian citizenship. Latvian is the sole state language in Latvia; while the threatened