Entry of foreigners into Lithuania

Entry of foreigners into Lithuania

A T T E N T I O N !  From 1 March 2024, passengers will no longer be able to board or alight transit trains at the Kena Railway Border Station and the Kybartai Railway Border Station, unless in exceptional cases approved by the State Border Guard Service under the Ministry of the Interior.

Control the entry of foreigners into the Republic of Lithuania across the external borders of the European Union as well as across the internal borders of the European Union during temporary reintroduction of border control is performed by the State Border Guard Service under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania; therefore, the Embassy does not provide advice on whether a foreigner holding certain documents, etc., will be allowed to enter the Republic of Lithuania.

When admitting a foreigner into the Republic of Lithuania, officers of the State Border Guard Service must establish whether he fulfils the conditions set out in the Schengen Borders Code and whether there are grounds laid down in the Schengen Borders Code preventing the foreigner’s admission into the Republic of Lithuania.

The entry conditions for third-country (non EU) nationals are the following:

(a) they are in possession of a valid travel document entitling the holder to cross the border satisfying the following criteria:

(i) its validity extends at least three months after the intended date of departure from the territory of the Member States;

(ii) it has been issued within the previous 10 years;

(b) they are in possession of a valid visa, if required pursuant to the Regulation (EU) No 2018/1806, except where they hold a valid residence permit or a valid long-stay visa;

(c) they justify the purpose and conditions of the intended stay, and they have sufficient means of subsistence, both for the duration of the intended stay and for the return to their country of origin or transit to a third country into which they are certain to be admitted, or are in a position to acquire such means lawfully;

(d) they are not persons for whom an alert has been issued in the SIS for the purposes of refusing entry;

(e) they are not considered to be a threat to public policy, internal security, public health or the international relations of any of the Member States, in particular where no alert has been issued in Member States’ national data bases for the purposes of refusing entry on the same grounds.

ON THE ENTRY OF CITIZENS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION INTO THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA

In accordance with the provisions of the Law on the imposition of restrictive measures in view of military aggression against Ukraine entry of citizens of the Russian Federation into the territory of the Republic of Lithuania through external borders of the European Union is subject to an individual additional detailed control regarding the threat such an entry can have to the national security of the Republic of Lithuania, to the public order, to public policy, to the internal security, to the public health, or to the international relations.

Such an individual additional detailed control is not applicable for the citizens of the Russian Federation, if they meet the conditions for entry laid down in the Schengen Borders Code AND fulfill at least one of the following criteria:

1) hold a residence permit issued by one of the Schengen States, the Member States of the European Union, the States of the European Economic Area or the Swiss Confederation;

2) hold a long-stay national visa issued by one of the Schengen States fully applying the Schengen acquis;

3) use facilitated transit scheme and travel from the territory of the Russian Federation to the Kaliningrad Region of the Russian Federation and back, and hold a Facilitated Transit Document or a Facilitated Rail Transit Document;

4) hold a Schengen visa and:

(a) are family members of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania (as defined in Article 2(26) of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the Legal Status of Aliens*);

b) are family members of a citizen of a Member State of the European Union or of a State of the European Economic Area or of the Swiss Confederation (as defined in Article 2(4) of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the Legal Status of Aliens**);

(c) are members of crews and crews employed in undertakings engaged in international carriage of goods and passengers or engaged in international carriage of goods and passengers to or from Member States of the European Union or in transit through the Republic of Lithuania, as well as seamen and crew members of merchant seagoing vessels on their way to or from their place of employment on board the vessel;

(d) come to the Republic of Lithuania for humanitarian reasons and family members thereof (as defined in Article 2(26) of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the Legal Status of Aliens*);

e) enjoy immunities and privileges under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations or the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations;

(f) are diplomatic couriers or ad hoc couriers of the Russian Federation who have presented an official document certifying their status and the carriage of diplomatic mail;

(g) are members of staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, diplomatic missions or consular posts of the Russian Federation, other than those referred to in subparagraphs (e) and (f), who travel for a short stay for the purpose of professional or technical assistance to a diplomatic mission of the Russian Federation located in the territory of the Republic of Lithuania, or in transit through the territory of the Republic of Lithuania to a diplomatic mission or consular post of the Russian Federation accredited to a Member State of the European Union, a Schengen State, a State in the European Economic Area, or the Swiss Confederation;

(h) perform single trip by passenger train formed by the Russian Federation and travel from the territory of the Russian Federation to the Kaliningrad Region of the Russian Federation in transit through the territory of the Republic of Lithuania, or back.

* A spouse or a person with whom a registered partnership has been contracted, minor children/adopted children ("children"), including a minor children of the spouse or of the person with whom a registered partnership has been contracted, on condition that they are unmarried and are dependent on their parents, as well as direct relatives in the ascending line who have been dependent for at least one year and are unable to use the support of other family members residing in a foreign state.

** A spouse or a person with whom a registered partnership has been contracted, his direct descendants who are under the age of 21 or are dependants, including direct descendants of the spouse or of the person with whom the registered partnership has been contracted, who are under the age of 21 or those who are dependants, the dependent direct relatives in the ascending line of a national of an EU Member State, of the spouse or of the person with whom the person has contracted a registered partnership.