Lithuania residence permit for company owners and managers

Two further variants exist for bigger projects. A participant in a company active for at least six months that has created jobs for at least five full-time employees from the groups above and invested at least EUR 260,000 in its equity can apply if he or she is its manager or holds at least one third of the shares. A manager of a company with equity of at least EUR 500,000 that has created at least ten jobs paying at least the average gross monthly earnings, or employing Blue Card holders, can apply to work for it.

Both variants give a three-year permit and are decided within one month, against up to three months on the standard route.

You qualify if you are a participant in a company that has carried out the activities in its founding documents according to a business plan for at least the six months before you apply, and that employs full time Lithuanian citizens, EU or EFTA nationals, or foreigners with permanent residence in Lithuania whose monthly wages together amount to at least twice the latest published average gross monthly earnings. The company’s equity, or assets for forms other than public and private limited companies, must be at least EUR 28,000, with at least EUR 14,000 being funds or assets you invested.

You must either be the manager of the company or hold shares with a nominal value of at least one third of the authorised capital. A manager of a company meeting these conditions who comes to work for it qualifies on the same ground. The Migration Department checks whether the company is a shell entity before issuing or renewing the permit.

You start in MIGRIS (migracija.lt): choose your citizenship, the permit you want and the ground, fill in the form and upload scans. When asked where to lodge, choose the external service provider and then book a visit separately with VFS Global. Since 1 December 2024 a VFS branch accepts residence permit and national visa applications from citizens of the country where it is located, and from other nationals only on a few grounds such as family reunification, highly qualified work or studies. VFS charges its own service fee, which includes delivery of the finished card to the centre.

Every applicant must meet the general conditions of the Law on the Legal Status of Foreigners: health insurance (at least EUR 5,792 under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs rules, unless you are covered by compulsory insurance as an employee), sufficient means of subsistence, a written pledge to declare your residence at a home with at least 7 square metres per adult, a list of the countries you visited or lived in, and a detailed questionnaire on your ties with people in Lithuania and with foreign security or military bodies. Children from the age of two attend in person. Your passport must be valid three months longer than the permit, or the card will be issued for a shorter period.

The Migration Department decides. Its standard time is three months in the general procedure and 1.5 months in the urgent one, with shorter legal limits for some grounds. The approved card is sent to VFS, and you travel to Lithuania with the card itself, so no separate visa is needed. Within one month of collecting the permit you declare your place of residence.

A renewal is applied for in MIGRIS and lodged at the Migration Department in Lithuania. Since 16 November 2024 the application may be filed no earlier than six months before the current permit expires, and the Migration Department advises lodging it at least four months ahead; the legal time limit for a renewal decision is two months. A pending application does not let you stay or work once the old permit has expired. For renewal the company must still meet the equity, activity and employment conditions. If you stop the activities you must leave Lithuania unless you hold a permit on another ground.

Holders of a permit on any of these business grounds can bring a spouse or registered partner and minor children without first living in Lithuania for two years. The family applications can be lodged together with yours and the permits are issued for the same period.