Many Belarusians will lose the opportunity to work in Lithuania. Here's what changes from November

How does it work now?

Until November 1, Belarusians can still apply for a Lithuanian work residence permit directly at the offices of the Lithuanian Migration Department. The main requirement is legal stay in Lithuania at the time of application.

And since, with some rare exceptions, Lithuania has not issued visas to citizens of Belarus for many years, Belarusians mainly applied for a Lithuanian residence permit having a valid national or Schengen visa of another country in their passport.

What will change?

Formally, no prohibition or new restrictions on the employment of Belarusians in Lithuania, and accordingly, on obtaining work residence permits, will appear, but de facto it will become almost impossible to do so from November 1.

This is due to the new rules, adopted back in May, according to which an application to the Migration Department for a temporary residence permit on the basis of work or study can only be submitted if you have:

• a valid residence permit or a national visa issued by Lithuania;
• a valid residence permit of another EU country or a Schengen area country;
• or legal grounds for visa-free stay.

This means that foreigners who arrive in Lithuania with a Schengen visa or a national visa of another state after November 1, 2026, will not be able to apply for a residence permit in Lithuania on the basis of work or study through the Migration Department.

Павялічыць

Is there an alternative?

In such cases, citizens of foreign states will have to apply for residence permits in Lithuania at VFS Global external service centers.

However, in Belarus, it is impossible to obtain a Lithuanian residence permit through VFS Global. From December 1, 2024, only citizens of the country where such a center is located are eligible to apply for a Lithuanian residence permit, with the exception of highly qualified specialists (Blue Card) and some other cases.

That is, a conditional IT specialist or other highly qualified specialist from Belarus who meets the requirements for obtaining a Lithuanian Blue Card type residence permit can fly to Georgia or Kazakhstan without a visa and apply for a residence permit (Blue Card) there, but an ordinary truck driver or builder cannot.

Considering all these circumstances, it follows that ordinary labor migration from Belarus to Lithuania will soon become virtually impossible, so it can be assumed that the number of Belarusians with valid Lithuanian residence permits will begin to decrease even faster.

As of September 1, 2026, citizens of Belarus held 47,872 valid residence permits of all types. Of these, 33,203, or almost 70%, were precisely work residence permits issued on the basis of ordinary employment.

This places citizens of Belarus in the first position in Lithuania by the number of work residence permits. Belarusians also continue to hold the first place in the list of highly qualified specialists. As of September 1, there were 2,677 such individuals.

Павялічыць

Overall, Ukrainians come first in terms of the number of valid residence permits in Lithuania — 80,312 people, Belarusians with 47,872 occupy the second place, and Russians with 13,272 residence permits in Lithuania come third.

At its peak, 62,844 citizens of Belarus held a Lithuanian residence permit (of any type). This was according to official data from the Lithuanian Migration Department, as of April 1, 2024. However, this number has been steadily declining for more than two years.

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