Lithuania
Residency route coverage
| Route family | Routes | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Investment |
| Routes recorded Four active grounds. Two sit in the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens art. 45(1) – clause 2-1, an investment of at least EUR 260 000 into a company's own capital with five jobs created, and clause 2-2, a company with own capital of at least EUR 500 000 and ten jobs, entered as the company's manager. Two sit in the Law on Investments – art. 13-1(3), the investment-contract ground, and art. 15-7(5), the large-project investment-agreement ground. Lithuania has no citizenship- or real-estate-by-investment route: every investment ground here is an operating-business ground and all four are temporary residence permits. The split between this family and entrepreneur is set out in the entrepreneur note. |
| Remote work | No routes recorded | No qualifying route as of 2026-07-01[10] Lithuania has no digital-nomad or remote-work residence permit. Art. 40(1) of the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens sets out the exhaustive list of grounds on which a temporary residence permit may be issued or changed, and none of the sixteen is remote work for an employer or clients outside Lithuania; art. 53(1) contains no such permanent-residence ground either. The Law addresses remote work once, and from the opposite direction: art. 58(17) gives the right to work to an alien who does NOT come to Lithuania and intends to work remotely under an employment contract concluded with an undertaking carrying on activity in Lithuania. That is a rule about working for a Lithuanian employer from abroad, not a residence route for a person living in Lithuania and working elsewhere. |
| Passive income | No routes recorded | No qualifying route as of 2026-07-01[10] Lithuania's Law on the Legal Status of Aliens sets an exhaustive list of grounds for a temporary residence permit, and none of them is retirement, a pension or private means. Living on income you do not work for is not, by itself, a basis for residence here. |
| Entrepreneur |
| Routes recorded |
| Work |
| Routes recorded |
| Study |
| Routes recorded Five active grounds, all five clauses of art. 46(1): admission to a study programme at a science and studies institution; admission to an education establishment under a general education or formal vocational training programme; a traineeship for a person studying abroad for a higher-education qualification or who completed such studies no more than two years ago; an invitation to improve a qualification at a science and studies institution; and admission to a second-cycle programme, a residency or a doctoral programme. The clauses differ in permit term and in whether any right to work attaches, so they are recorded as separate routes. The subsistence condition is half the general one on every study ground – 0.5 MMA a month under order No. A1-22 – and the accommodation floor drops from 7 to 4 square metres per person under art. 26(3-1). |
| Family | Routes recorded One ground, art. 43, recorded as a single route with a sponsor matrix because the article is genuinely a matrix: eight limbs pairing a relation with a sponsor status, each with its own conditions, and a two-year prior-residence condition in art. 43(6) that applies to three of them and is then disapplied for eleven separate categories of sponsor across art. 43(6) and 43(6-1). Family members arriving with the principal are covered by art. 40(6) and are recorded in each route's own family_inclusion block rather than as separate routes. |
Country facts
Identity
| Local name | Lietuva |
|---|---|
| ISO code | LTU |
| Region | Europe |
| Currency | EUR as of 2026-08-17[1] The EU country profile records Lithuania's currency as the euro and its euro-area membership from 1 January 2015. All amounts in the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens, the Law on Investments and the state-fee schedule are stated in euro. |
| Official languages | lt as of 2026-08-17[1] Lithuanian is Lithuania's official EU language. The consolidated laws are authoritative in Lithuanian only; the English translation of the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens carried on e-seimas is a 2022-03-17 text marked as having no valid consolidated version, so it was not used. |
Memberships
| Memberships |
|---|
Permanent residence
| Qualifying years | 5 as of 2026-07-01[10] Art. 53(1)(8): a permanent residence permit – which Lithuania issues as the EU long-term resident's residence permit – may be issued to an alien who has resided lawfully and without interruption in Lithuania for the last 5 years holding a document conferring or confirming the right to reside, a national visa, or a document confirming the right to remain issued under art. 22-1(1)(5). This is the general track a relocator uses; art. 53(1) lists nine other grounds turning on Lithuanian descent, citizenship or family. Art. 53(9) counts only half the time held on the study ground at art. 40(1)(6) and art. 46, unless the alien completed higher education in Lithuania. |
|---|---|
| Language requirement | required, level unspecified as of 2026-07-01[10] Art. 53(6): a permanent residence permit on the art. 53(1)(8) to (8-2) grounds may be issued if the alien has passed the state language examination and the examination on the basics of the Constitution. The statute delegates the rules for both examinations to the Government and states no CEFR level, so the level is recorded as required_unspecified rather than guessed. Art. 53(8) exempts people aged 65 and over, people with a 0-55 per cent participation level, people with individual assistance needs, people with severe chronic mental and behavioural disorders, children, and aliens whose earlier permanent permit was revoked on the art. 54(1)(3) or (4) grounds. |
| Integration requirement | Yes as of 2026-07-01[10] |
| Income requirement | 1 × minimum monthly wage per month as of 2026-07-01[5][7][10] |
| Absence rules |
|
Citizenship
| Years to naturalisation | 10 as of 2024-01-01[6] Law on Citizenship art. 18(1)(1): citizenship may be granted to a person who has lawfully and permanently resided in Lithuania for the last 10 years. Art. 18(2) reduces this to 5 years for a stateless person born in Lithuanian territory. |
|---|---|
| of which on permanent residence | Recorded at the source, but not reducible to a single value as of 2024-01-01[6] |
| Dual citizenship | restricted as of 2024-01-01[6] Art. 18(1)(6) requires an applicant for naturalisation to be stateless, or a citizen of a state whose law makes them lose that citizenship on acquiring Lithuanian citizenship, or to declare in writing the intention to renounce their other citizenship once Lithuanian citizenship is granted; art. 18(5) disapplies this for refugees. Art. 7 lists the cases in which a Lithuanian citizen may at the same time be a citizen of another state – acquisition of both at birth, exile from occupied Lithuania before 11 March 1990 or departure before that date and descent from such a person, automatic acquisition by marriage, certain adoptions, grant by way of exception, and retention or restoration for exceptional merit. A relocator naturalising on the 10-year track is outside those cases and must renounce. |
| Language requirement | required, level unspecified as of 2024-01-01[6] Art. 18(1)(3): the applicant must have passed the state language examination. Art. 18(3) delegates the rules, the documents evidencing a pass and the issue procedure to the Government, and states no CEFR level. Art. 18(4) exempts people aged 65 and over, people with a 0-55 per cent working-capacity level, people of old-age pension age with high or medium special needs, and people with severe chronic mental and behavioural disorders; children under 18 are additionally exempt from the lawful-income condition. |
| Citizenship test required | Yes as of 2024-01-01[6] Art. 18(1)(4): the applicant must have passed the examination on the basics of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania. |
Tax
| Tax-residency day threshold | 183 as of 2026-06-11[2] Law on Personal Income Tax art. 4(1)(3): a natural person who during the tax period is present in Lithuania continuously or intermittently for 183 or more days is a permanent resident of Lithuania. The rules for calculating the 183-day period are set by the Government or an institution it authorises. |
|---|---|
| Other tax-residency triggers | domicile, centre of vital interests, physical presence as of 2026-06-11[2] Law on Personal Income Tax art. 4(1): a person is also a permanent resident if their permanent place of residence during the tax period is in Lithuania (recorded as domicile), or if the place of their personal, social or economic interests during the tax period is in Lithuania rather than abroad (centre of vital interests), or if they are present in Lithuania for 280 or more days across two consecutive tax periods having been present 90 or more days in one of them (a second physical-presence limb alongside the 183-day rule). Art. 4(1)(5) adds a rule for Lithuanian citizens paid from the state or municipal budgets, and art. 4(2) excludes accredited diplomatic and consular personnel. |
| Headline income tax rate | 20% as of 2026-08-17[12] The basic personal income tax rate from 1 January 2026. Art. 6(1) of the Law on Personal Income Tax as applied by the State Tax Inspectorate: 20 per cent on the annual income up to 36 VDU, 25 per cent on the part from 36 to 60 VDU, and 32 per cent on the part above 60 VDU. In 2026 those bands are up to EUR 83 237.40, EUR 83 237.40 to EUR 138 729, and above EUR 138 729, computed on 1 VDU of EUR 2 312.15 a month. A separate 15 per cent rate applies under art. 6(2) to non-employment income up to 12 VDU (EUR 27 745.80 in 2026) and under art. 6(6) to listed income including distributed profit. |
| Income tax structure | progressive as of 2026-08-17[12] Lithuania moved from a two-rate to a three-rate progressive schedule on 1 January 2026 – see recent_changes. Before that date art. 6 applied 20 per cent up to 60 VDU and 32 per cent above it. |
| Net-wealth tax | No as of 2026-08-17[13] |
| Inheritance or estate tax | Yes as of 2026-08-17[13] |
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Reference figures
| minimum monthly wage |
|
|---|---|
| calendar-year average monthly gross wage in the national economy, including sole proprietorships |
|
| average wage used to compute the state social insurance contribution base |
|
Changes
Recent changes
| 2026-01-01 | Personal income tax became a three-rate progressive schedule. From 1 January 2026 art. 6(1) of the Law on Personal Income Tax applies 20 per cent to annual income up to 36 VDU, 25 per cent to the part from 36 to 60 VDU and 32 per cent above 60 VDU; in 2026 those boundaries are EUR 83 237.40 and EUR 138 729 on a VDU of EUR 2 312.15 a month. A 15 per cent rate applies to non-employment income up to 12 VDU and to listed income including distributed profit. The previous schedule had two rates, 20 and 32 per cent, with the step at 60 VDU.[2][12] |
|---|---|
| 2026-01-01 | The minimum monthly wage rose from EUR 1 038 to EUR 1 153, and the minimum hourly rate from EUR 6.35 to EUR 7.05, by Government resolution of 16 October 2025. Because the subsistence condition for a residence permit is set as a multiple of the minimum monthly wage by order No. A1-22, the sum an applicant must show rose with it.[7][9] |
| 2026-05-12 | The State Data Agency published a new calendar-year average monthly gross wage: 1 BDU EUR 2 411.40, up from EUR 2 223.00 published on 20 May 2025. The Migration Department applies the new figure to applications accepted from 12 May 2026, and returns intermediary letters still quoting the old figure after 25 May 2026. The BDU is the index behind the payroll conditions in art. 45(1)(1) and (2-2).[3] |
| 2026-05-22 | Law No. XV-945 of 14 May 2026 amended the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens. For the lawful-activity family it added art. 45(5-1), which lets an alien holding a permit under art. 45(1)(1) or (2-1) notify the Migration Department in writing of objective reasons for temporarily failing to meet those clauses' conditions and obtain a 3-month deferral of the revocation check, once per permit validity period; it rewrote the leave-the-country provisions at art. 45(4) and art. 45-1(5); and it amended the permanent-residence ground at art. 53(1)(8). Further provisions of the same law take effect on 1 November 2026 and 1 January 2027 and are recorded in pending_changes. Affects: Temporary residence permit for an alien engaged in lawful activity – participant in a Lithuanian company, Temporary residence permit for an alien who is a participant in a company into whose own capital the alien has invested at least EUR 260 000, Temporary residence permit for an alien intending to establish a start-up in Lithuania and carry on its activity[10][11] |
| 2026-07-01 | The consolidated text of the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens in force at the date of this run – 1 July 2026 to 31 October 2026 – was produced by law No. XV-1062 of 25 June 2026. The substance of that amendment was not established in this run; it is recorded here as the provenance of the text every route value cites.[10][11] |
| 2026-05-22 | Law No. XV-945 of 14 May 2026 (published in the Register of Legal Acts on 20 May 2026, i. k. 2026-08446) amended the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens across more than forty articles, with its first stage of consolidation in force from 22 May 2026 and further stages from 1 November 2026 and 1 January 2027. Changes reaching run B's families include: a new EU Blue Card condition where the alien is to be employed as the undertaking's manager, requiring annual income of at least EUR 1,000,000 in one of the last three financial years for the employer or its foreign participant (art. 44-1(1)(3)); the right for a lawfully present alien to start highly qualified work from the day the Blue Card application is lodged (art. 44-1(2)); a 12-month grace period during which a Blue Card holder may fail the pay condition because of pregnancy and childbirth, paternity or childcare leave, illness or disability, and a matching permit-change rule (art. 44-1(5-1) and (5-2)); the same day-of-application right to start work for lecturers and researchers and confirmation that a researcher may also lecture (art. 49-2(4)); a rewritten art. 58 heading and a new art. 58(19); and the amendment of art. 43(1)(7) and art. 43(6-1)(1) on family reunification. The instrument was identified from the Law's own edition list and its per-article amendment stamps; the content of the 1 November 2026 and 1 January 2027 stages was deliberately not established here. Affects: Temporary residence permit (EU Blue Card) for an alien intending to perform highly qualified work, Temporary residence permit for an alien intending to work as a lecturer or researcher, Temporary residence permit for an alien in the case of family reunification, Temporary residence permit for an alien intending to work – on an employer’s undertaking to employ, Temporary residence permit for an alien engaged in and intending to continue lawful activity – participant in a voluntary-activity programme recognised by the European Union or its member states[10][11] |
| 2026-07-01 | Law No. XV-1062 of 25 June 2026 (published in the Register of Legal Acts on 29 June 2026, i. k. 2026-11236) produced the consolidation of the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens in force from 1 July 2026 to 31 October 2026. Its only substantive amendment inside the Law is to art. 57-1(3-1), the provision under which both sides of a sectoral collective agreement may jointly propose an additional employment quota of up to 20 per cent of the trade-union members covered by that agreement. This closes run A's reviewer item 7, which recorded that every route value in the record cites a consolidation whose amending law had not been examined. Affects: Temporary residence permit for an alien intending to work – on an employer’s undertaking to employ, Temporary residence permit for an alien intending to work under a temporary-work contract with a listed temporary-employment undertaking[10][11] |
| 2026-01-01 | Order No. A1-723 of the Minister of Social Security and Labour of 10 December 2025 approved the 2026 quota of aliens intending to work in Lithuania who are issued temporary residence permits under art. 44(1)(2) of the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens at 24,706, in force from 1 January 2026. The 2025 quota was 24,830 and the Migration Department announced on 2 December 2025 that it had been used up, after which a permit on the work ground could be issued only at 1.2 BDU, or at 1 BDU for a profession on the high-value-added shortage list. Affects: Temporary residence permit for an alien intending to work – on an employer’s undertaking to employ, Temporary residence permit for an alien intending to work under a temporary-work contract with a listed temporary-employment undertaking[4][8] |
Pending changes
| 2026-11-01 | A further consolidated text of the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens, produced by law No. XV-945 of 14 May 2026, takes effect on 1 November 2026 and runs to 31 December 2026. Its content was not established in this run – the version in force at the date of access carries no forward-dated markers – so nothing is asserted about which articles change. A reviewer or a later touch should diff it against the 1 July 2026 text before the record is published.[11] |
|---|---|
| 2027-01-01 | A further consolidated text of the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens, also produced by law No. XV-945 of 14 May 2026, takes effect on 1 January 2027. Content not established in this run; same caveat as the 1 November 2026 consolidation.[11] |
Verification
| Sources cited | 13 |
|---|---|
| of which official (tier 1) | 13 |
| Oldest as-of date | 2024-01-01 |
| Newest as-of date | 2026-08-17 |
| Reviewed on | 2026-08-22 |
| Schema version | 1.1 |
Sources
- [1] Lithuania – EU country profile
European Union (Directorate-General for Communication) · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-17 · Archived copy - [2] Lietuvos Respublikos gyventojų pajamų mokesčio įstatymas (Law on Personal Income Tax) No. IX-1007, consolidated text in force 11 June 2026 – 31 December 2026
Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas (e-seimas.lrs.lt consolidated-law service) · statute · Tier 1 · Published 2026-06-11 · Accessed 2026-08-17 · Archived copy - [3] Paskelbti nauji kalendorinių metų darbo užmokesčio dydžiai – new calendar-year average monthly gross wage figures, 12 May 2026
Migracijos departamentas prie Lietuvos Respublikos vidaus reikalų ministerijos · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2026-05-12 · Accessed 2026-08-17 - [4] Išnaudota šiems metams numatyta į Lietuvą dirbti atvykstančių užsieniečių kvota
Migracijos departamentas prie Lietuvos Respublikos vidaus reikalų ministerijos · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-12-02 · Accessed 2026-08-18 - [5] PATIKSLINTA INFORMACIJA dėl pragyvenimo Lietuvos Respublikoje lėšų dydžio užsieniečiui, prašančiam išduoti nacionalinę vizą ar leidimą gyventi Lietuvos Respublikoje
Migracijos departamentas prie Lietuvos Respublikos vidaus reikalų ministerijos · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2019-01-14 · Accessed 2026-08-17 - [6] Lietuvos Respublikos pilietybės įstatymas (Law on Citizenship), consolidated text in force from 1 January 2024
Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas (e-seimas.lrs.lt consolidated-law service) · statute · Tier 1 · Published 2024-01-01 · Accessed 2026-08-17 · Archived copy - [7] Socialinės apsaugos ir darbo ministro 2007 m. sausio 29 d. įsakymas Nr. A1-22 dėl pragyvenimo Lietuvos Respublikoje lėšų dydžio nustatymo
Lietuvos Respublikos socialinės apsaugos ir darbo ministras (e-seimas.lrs.lt) · official guidance · Tier 1 · Published 2007-01-29 · Accessed 2026-08-17 · Archived copy - [8] Įsakymas Nr. A1-723 dėl užsieniečių įdarbinimo kvotos 2026 metams patvirtinimo
Lietuvos Respublikos socialinės apsaugos ir darbo ministerija · gazette · Tier 1 · Published 2025-12-10 · Accessed 2026-08-18 - [9] Patvirtinta: MMA nuo 2026 m. – 1153 eurai
Lietuvos Respublikos socialinės apsaugos ir darbo ministerija · official portal · Tier 1 · Published 2025-10-16 · Accessed 2026-08-17 - [10] Lietuvos Respublikos įstatymas dėl užsieniečių teisinės padėties (Law on the Legal Status of Aliens) No. IX-2206, consolidated text in force 1 July 2026 – 31 October 2026
Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas (e-seimas.lrs.lt consolidated-law service) · statute · Tier 1 · Published 2026-07-01 · Accessed 2026-08-17 - [11] Suvestinių redakcijų sąrašas – edition list of the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens No. IX-2206
Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas (e-seimas.lrs.lt) · statute · Tier 1 · Published 2026-08-17 · Accessed 2026-08-17 · Archived copy - [12] Apie gyventojų pajamų mokesčio tarifus – guidance on the personal income tax rates applying from 1 January 2026
Valstybinė mokesčių inspekcija prie Lietuvos Respublikos finansų ministerijos · official guidance · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-17 · Archived copy - [13] Mokesčiai ir jų dydžiai – enumeration of the taxes administered by the State Tax Inspectorate
Valstybinė mokesčių inspekcija prie Lietuvos Respublikos finansų ministerijos · official portal · Tier 1 · Accessed 2026-08-17 · Archived copy