Last year, the number of foreigners living in Lithuania reached 200,000. This year, 227,000 foreigners have already been counted, which is 8.1% of the total number of people living in Lithuania. The number of foreigners coming to work in Lithuania is also growing: currently, there are 114,000 such persons.
Last year, 197 Belarusian citizens and 25 Russian citizens had their residence permits revoked for security reasons. 951 permits were denied to Belarusian citizens and 163 to Russian citizens.
„The figures are relatively high compared to the previous year. Now we can see that the tightened measures are bearing fruit: the number of Belarusian citizens arriving in Lithuania in recent months has been growing at a much lower rate than in the first half of last year, while the number of Russian citizens has started to decrease,“ Evelina Gudzinskaitė, Head of the Migration Department, said at a press conference.
This year, the Migration Department will continue security checks on Russian and Belarusian citizens. It will also focus on preventing illegal grey migration, where foreigners who have taken advantage of legal migration opportunities obtain residence permits by attempting to use them illegally.
While last year, the Migration Department focused more on companies in the transport sector, this year, the construction sector will receive more attention. „We have already carried out a number of inspections, and we have noticed that there are companies that declare that they are going to build a building, but in reality, nothing is happening there. We are strengthening our cooperation with the State Labour Inspectorate in this area,“ said Ms Gudzinskaitė.
The Minister of the Interior, Agnė Bilotaitė, who also participated in the conference, spoke about the obligation to address labour shortages and humanitarian problems without overlooking threats to national security and to prevent the abuse of migration procedures.
„The growing flow of foreigners brings challenges – we need more capacity to ensure control. Last year, 16,000 decisions were taken to ban the entry of foreign nationals to Lithuania due to threats to national security. This year, 244 such decisions have been taken in a few months,“ the Minister said.
As of this year, the procedure for issuing temporary residence permits has been changed to stricter procedures. As a result, 34 companies have been banned from providing mediation letters, and 6,711 letters have been revoked.
The number of external service providers has also been reduced from 34 to 31, with the closure of offices in Lebanon, Jordan and Sri Lanka. Applications in India are accepted only on genuine grounds. Following a tightening of procedures through the introduction of prior screening, 38% of the 20,000 applications have been rejected in the last three months.
Administrative measures have also been strengthened: companies and foreigners are checked by the Migration Department, the police, the State Border Guard Service, the State Labour Inspectorate, and the State Tax Office.
In January-February this year, 641 foreigners were checked. Seventeen criminal offences were detected.
In 2023, almost 6,000 persons were subject to administrative sanctions for non-compliance with immigration rules.
Control of foreigners has also been strengthened. Last year, 6112 persons were refused, or revoked temporary residence permits for abusing the Migration Rules, compared to 1.8 thousand in just two months of this year.
Draft amendments to the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens are also being prepared. The amendments aim to tighten the requirements for companies inviting foreigners to work in Lithuania and the conditions of their employment by imposing an obligation on the employer to commit to employing the foreigner on a full-time basis.
It also proposes to reintroduce the requirement for the employer to provide information on the foreigner's qualifications and experience. The amendments aim to tighten the requirements for companies inviting foreigners to work in Lithuania, and to tighten the conditions of their employment by imposing an obligation on the employer to undertake to employ the foreigner full-time.
„At present, multiple employers are allowed. Therefore, a foreigner declares they are coming to work for one employer. Still, upon checking, they find that the employer is supposed to be responsible for the foreigner working for one hour, while the other ten hours are spent working for ten other employers. In reality, you can no longer trace who he works for,“ Gudzinskaitė said of the used loopholes. -
Driving or working in the construction sector are the easiest occupations to get a residence permit for. However, this is where we see the most abuse.“
Another innovation is to be introduced: if a foreigner still needs to submit tax returns, as is required under Lithuanian Law, there would be additional grounds for refusing a temporary residence permit.
In addition, it is proposed that only foreigners with permits should be allowed to work. This means that those who have entered Lithuania under a visa-free regime or with a Schengen visa would be denied the possibility of working.
