Residence permits to work in Lithuania must be obtained by Ukrainians without temporary protection starting from September 2024

Ukrainian refugees without temporary protection will need a residence permit since September 1, 2024 to continue working in Lithuania.
Before that, Ukrainians could work in Lithuania even without a permit, due to certain conditions they met.
So, these changes will affect all those who used the visa-free regime or had a valid Schengen visa, as well as those who had national visas issued based on unforeseen circumstances.
According to the explanation of the Lithuanian Department of Migration, as soon as the new rule becomes effective, Ukrainians without temporary protection will be able to work only after they receive their permit and not from the submission date. It is suggested that everyone takes care of their application ahead of time.
It makes a foreigner who is not entitled to temporary protection but unable to return to Ukraine due to hostilities and who has applied for a temporary residence permit on work or humanitarian grounds be entitled to work from the date of obtaining a residence permit, and not from the date of submission of their application.
Lithuania’s Department of Migration assures that Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war who benefit from the Temporary Protection Mechanism introduced by the European Union in Lithuania after the Department of Migration grants them digital residence permit will not be affected by such changes.
So, newly arrived war refugees can start work when they apply for a temporary residence permit to the Migration Department under temporary protection, as before.
According to Lithuanian authorities, Ukrainian employees will not have to meet language requirements (to speak Lithuanian) to work in the country for at least another year (until 2025).
The period during which “categories of knowledge of the state language will not apply to the employment of foreign nationals under temporary protection in Lithuania” that initially was two years after receiving temporary protection, has been extended to three years by the country.
The period of temporary protection for Ukrainian refugees was extended until March 2025 by the decision of the Cabinet at the beginning of this year.
The Ministry of Social Security and Labor reported that almost 30,000 Ukrainians have found work in Lithuania since the beginning of the full-scale occupation of Ukraine by Russia from February 2022 until February 2024.
According to an International Organisation for Migration (IOM) survey of Ukrainian refugees living in Lithuania, 70 per cent of respondents were actively involved in the labour force (73 per cent of men and 70 per cent of women), while 30 per cent remained inactive (27 per cent of men and 30 per cent of women).

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