Vilnius University

Work during study

The default rule for a foreign student holding a Lithuanian temporary residence permit for study is a 20-hour-per-week limit on work. The Migration Department's own announcements confirm this default by describing who is exempted from it: since 1 March 2021, doctoral students, and since a further reform, master's-degree students and foreigners who have completed their studies and hold a temporary residence permit for job-seeking purposes, may all work without the 20-hour weekly limit applying to them at all. A bachelor's-level student not covered by these exemptions remains subject to the 20-hour cap.

Post-study work visa

Leidimas laikinai gyventi darbo paieškos tikslu (temporary residence permit for the purpose of job-seeking) . Up to 1 year
Available to a foreigner who has completed higher education (or, since a later reform, formal vocational training) in Lithuania. Since 1 March 2021, a holder of this permit may not only search for work but actually start working, or start self-employed activity, without needing the Employment Service's confirmation that the job matches Lithuania's labour-market needs (a requirement that otherwise applies to hiring a foreigner). The deadline to apply was extended at the same time, from 3 months to 1 year from the date the higher-education qualification was obtained. The permit itself is issued for up to 1 year.

Route to permanent residence

The Migration Department gives a graduate a specific concession on the route into ordinary work-based residence: a foreigner who completed higher education (or formal vocational training) in Lithuania may apply for a work-based temporary residence permit 'on simplified conditions' within 10 years of completing their studies (extended, from a 2022 reform, from a previous 2-year window). This is a procedural simplification for that one application, not a separate permanent-residence scheme in its own right. Lithuania's citizenship law itself confirms that a further, distinct status — the right to reside in Lithuania permanently — must already be held before someone can even apply for naturalisation (see citizenshipRoute): Article 18 requires that, at the time of both the citizenship application and the decision on it, the applicant already 'has the right to permanently reside in the Republic of Lithuania.' StudyPath did not find a Migration Department page stating the specific number of years of temporary residence required to reach that permanent-residence status.

Route to citizenship

Lithuanian citizenship by naturalisation is governed by Article 18 of the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania. An applicant must meet all of: at least 10 years of lawful, permanent residence in Lithuania immediately before applying; the right to permanently reside in Lithuania at the time of both the application and the decision on it; a passed state-language (Lithuanian) examination; a passed examination on the fundamentals of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania; a lawful source of livelihood; and no disqualifying circumstance under Article 22 of the same law. A separate, faster route (Article 19) exists for someone married to a Lithuanian citizen and living with them in Lithuania for the preceding 7 years, and a discretionary 'exceptional' route (Article 20) for someone found to have rendered special merit to the Lithuanian state, with no fixed residence requirement of its own. On dual nationality, Lithuania's default position is restrictive: condition 6 of Article 18 requires the applicant to already be stateless, or a citizen of a state whose own law causes automatic loss of that state's citizenship on acquiring Lithuanian citizenship, or — the option most likely to apply to StudyPath’s readers — to declare in writing their intention to renounce their other country's citizenship once granted Lithuanian citizenship. Lithuania does not offer an unconditional right to keep an original nationality on naturalising; a specific renunciation-related condition must be met.