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In response to the situation in Ukraine, we provide answers to frequently asked questions. Here you will find information about arrival and registration in Lithuania, conditions of legal stay and assistance, as well as other relevant information.

• Migration Department line  8 707 67 000 (calling from Lithuania); +370 5 271 7112 (calling from abroad)
• Hot line for Ukrainians in Lithuania 1808 (24/7)
• Humanitarian help line +370 684 98 688 (Red Cross)
• Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Ukraine +380 (67) 924 04 42; +380 (67) 924 04 27

 

Departure from Ukraine

At the moment, the Ukrainian airspace is closed. The only way to travel is travelling by road towards Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Rumania. It is recommended not to travel to Russia or Belorussia. Information about waiting time on the border checkpoints is updated and can be found here.

Poland allows entry without a travel document. In such bases, Polish border guards undertake identity verification procedures at the border. Slovakia allows entry for persons whose travel document has recently expired. If you have a valid travel document this will expedite the border crossing procedure.

Ukraine has declared a general mobilization. This means that Ukrainian male citizens (age 18-60) cannot leave the country. Unfortunately, Lithuanian authorities cannot help in these circumstances.

Arrival to Lithuania

Citizens of Ukraine first need to reach Poland. From there, we can offer transport to Lithuania. Fill in the form for help here – sylnirazom.lt or call +370 677 22222 to get a transfer. Also, foreigners can reach Lithuania on their own.

Citizens of Ukraine do not need a visa for arrival to Lithuania. They can enter under the visa-free regime for 90 days. You need a biometric passport but if you don’t have it, you will be able to enter the territory as well. The Migration Department of Lithuania can issue a new travel document – a temporary alien’s passport.

There are no restrictions for arriving Ukrainian citizens. There is no requirement to have a negative COVID-19 test or to self-isolate.

There are no obstacles for Ukrainian citizens who do not have travel documents to transit through the territory of the Republic of Lithuania.

Registration

Ukrainian citizens and their family members are registered only during the working hours of the Migration Department (I-IV 7.30-16.30, V 7.30–15.15) in:

• Vilnius, Vytenio str. 18;
• Kaunas, A. Juozapavičiaus str. 57;
• Klaipėda, Kauno str. 6;
• Šiauliai, Aušros al. 19;
• Panevėžys, K. Binkio str. 14;
• Alytus, Jotvingių str. 8 or at the registration center, Juozapavičiaus str. 33;
• Marijampolė, Kęstučio str. 1;
• Tauragė, Stoties str. 15;
• Telšiai, Žemaitės str. 34;
• Utena, Maironio str. 4;
• Visaginas, Veteranų str. 13;
• Šalčininkai, Architekto str. 4;
• Elektrėnai, Draugystės str. 32. 

You must register immediately or as soon as possible. It is necessary for you to register so that Lithuanian authorities and institutions can provide you with help and ensure your stay in Lithuania is legal. Only persons who arrive to the registration centre will be registered. You have to bring your children as well in person. 

Documents for legal stay

Citizens of Ukraine do not have to apply for asylum. Ukrainians can obtain:

• A temporary residence permit in Lithuania (for 1 year)
• A national visa (for 1 year)

These documents will ensure your right to reside and work in Lithuania as well as to receive social guarantees such as medical care and integration assistance. 

• Visa will be issued within 15 calendar days
• Temporary residence permit will be issued within 1 month

You will be exempt from the state charges and a national visa, or a temporary residence permit will be issued free of charge.

Ukrainian citizens who arrive without a valid biometric passport cannot be issued a national visa. However, they can be issued a temporary residence permit on humanitarian grounds. 

Minor children who arrived only with the birth certificate must register with the Migration Department of its regional division. When they register, they can get a national visa or a temporary residence permit in a fast-track procedure. Minor children must arrive in person to the division of the Migration Department.

You don‘t have to declare your place of residence in Lithuania if you don‘t have any possibility.

Accommodation

If you don’t have a place where to stay, after registration procedure at Migration Department you can contact 1808 (24/7) or fill in the form https://stipruskartu.lt. 

AirBnb and Booking.com are the main platforms to look for a short-term accommodation. 

If you look for a long-term accommodation, please check these websites: Aruodas, Domoplius, Rebaltic.

Work

If you are a citizen of Ukraine and arrive in Lithuania on a visa-free regime or have a Schengen visa, a national visa, or a residence permit issued on humanitarian grounds, you can start working immediately and you are exempt from the requirement to get a work permit.

There are specialised websites which already offer Ukrainian-tailored job opportunities in various cities. You can download Scobo app or visit cv.lt, cvonline.lt, lovejob.lt. Here you can find job opportunities which do not require Lithuanian/English language.

You can also address the Lithuanian Employment Service and ask for their advice (phone: 1883, or e-mail: info@uzt.lt).

Business

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania launched a hotline (+370 616 95910) for all Ukraine-related business questions. More information is currently under preparation.

Lithuania is ready to provide a safe and stable environment for all international, globally-minded businesses and their employees.

Health care

If you do not have health insurance but you need urgent medical treatment, contact the medical institution of the municipality where you registered after arrival.

Ukrainians will receive access to necessary healthcare free of charge:

• Emergency medical aid;
• Pregnancy care and supervision;
• Medical care during childbirth and other necessary services (levels I, II, and III) if it is necessary to provide it and if not provided this could lead to a deterioration in health to the extent that emergency medical care would be required;
• Medical treatment and rehabilitation services to foreigners injured during the war in Ukraine;
• Charge-free immunoprophylaxis for COVID-19 coronavirus infection and prophylaxis as well as vaccination of minors in accordance with the paediatric preventive vaccination schedule;
• Necessary prescription medication.

More information can be found here.

Lithuania has two insurance systems – compulsory and private. If you are a Ukrainian citizen who received a temporary residence permit or national visa you will be insured for compulsory health insurance (only after you receive the registration card issued by the Migration Department). 

If you are employed in Lithuania under the employment agreement, you will be insured by your employer who will pay compulsory health insurance fees. If you are self-employed and have the individual activity certificate you must pay compulsory health insurance yourself. If you do not apply for asylum, are not registered to get a residence permit or are unemployed, you need to have private health insurance.

You can address us and we can provide counselling in English or Russian by contacting us at psichologas@iom.int.

Emotional help over the phone in Russian:

• 1809 or +370 664 65 792, Mon–Fri 18:00–21:00, Sat–Sun 12:00–15:00.
• Linija Doverija: 8 800 77 277 Mon-Sun, 16:00–19:00.
• In person or online psychological consultations: +370 640 51 555 Mon-Sun, 16:00–20:00, Sun 12:00–16:00.

Online psychological consultation in Russian and Ukrainians: manodaktaras.lt/slava-ukraini.

Self-help guidelines can be found at: samopomi.ch.

Education

Information for Ukrainian citizens regarding the admission of children to an educational institution is provided by the contact persons of the education units in municipalities. They provide all necessary information about admission to schools or kindergartens. Please address the municipality you are planning to stay in (there are 60 municipalities in Lithuania). Schools can admit and include into the students register children who still do not have a residence permit or a national visa. 

If you have questions regarding studies in Lithuanian university, please address the Ministry of education, science and sport. Contacts: Eglė Remeisienė, phone: + 370 5 219 1216, e-mail: egle.remeisiene@smsm.lt.

The Lithuanian Children and Youth Centre invites children from Ukrainian families who have escaped the war to attend non-formal education activities for free. Non-formal education teachers - artists, musicians, dancers, theatre players, athletes - will work with the children. Registration form can be found here.

Social security

In order to reduce the social exclusion of Ukrainians fleeing the war, those who have a temporary residence permit in Lithuania for humanitarian reasons have a right to get social assistance. Ukrainians can get:

• One-time accommodation support;
• Compensation for a part of the housing rent;
• Child benefits;
• Compensations for care (assistance) and nursing costs;
• Social payments;
• Social benefits.

To receive social assistance Ukrainians must contact municipalities.

To receive municipally funded services, such as social allowance, you should contact the municipal administration at your place of residence. You should contact local municipality. Contacts for social support in municipalities here. 

At the initial stage of arrival in Lithuania, Ukrainian nationals can obtain:

• Free meals for schoolchildren (free lunch for pre-schoolers, first-graders and second-graders without income assessment).
• Support for the purchase of school supplies at the beginning of the school year.
• 3-day food packages (depending on the situation of each foreigner, they are later given food cards or food packages, hygiene packages, child hygiene packages, assistance to the newborn and mother).
• Social support (e.g. lump sum, targeted, periodic, conditional benefit).

All information can be found here.

Other services

Ukrainian national may have a right to an unemployment social security benefit if:

• You were insured with unemployment social insurance, that is to say – You yourself paid or someone else has been paying unemployment social insurance tax for You;
• You have registered at the local Lithuanian Labour Exchange subdivision;
• Labour Exchange has not offered You a job;
• Unemployment status was granted for You by Lithuanian Labour Exchange;
• Over the past 3 years You have been employed for at least 12 months.

If over the past 3 years a person has not been employed for 12 months in Lithuania, but has been employed for the same period in another EU member state, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Ukraine or Belarus, these work periods can be accumulated. If that is the case, documents on unemployment insurance and employment periods from the previous State of employment competent authorities would have to be presented (in EU, EFTA and Switzerland, this document is a U1 form). Then the unemployment insurance period will be credited to Lithuania. If one cannot obtain the U1 form, the person has to provide “Sodra” with documents, related to work in another Member State, and the institutions responsible for social benefits in Lithuania and the foreign country, will contact each other for data retrieval.

If one has been working in other EU, EEA member state or Switzerland and has a right to unemployment benefit in one of these states, he/she may look for a job in Lithuania and, in the meantime, receive unemployment benefit from foreign country (transfer it to Lithuania).

For more information, click here.

If you are a recipient of the unemployment benefit in one of the EU, EFTA member states or Switzerland, you have the right to go search for a job in Lithuania and during this period receive unemployment benefits from, for example: United Kingdom (i.e. the unemployment benefit can be exported to Lithuania).

You can continue to receive the unemployment benefits for at least three months from the EU country where you have registered at the labor exchange, but come to Lithuania to look for a job, if:

• In the country, where you became unemployed, you are entitled to unemployment benefits;
• At least 4 weeks prior, you have registered as a job seeker at the employment services of the country where you became unemployed;
• You asked your national employment services for a permit to export your unemployment benefits (the relevant document is the U2 form);
• You registered at the Lithuanian Employment Service within 7 days and will be visiting it on a regular basis.

For more information, click here. 

A person obtains the right to receive a state social insurance pension, when he/she meets these requirements:

• Reaches the statutory retirement age (in 2022: 64 and 4 months for men and 63 and 8 months for women);
• Has acquired the minimum state social pension insurance period, set forth in order to receive old-age pensions (15 years).

If a person has not worked for 15 years in Lithuania, the right to a pension can be summed up from his insurance periods completed in other countries (EU and EFTA member states, Switzerland, as well as countries that signed international agreements with Lithuania, apart from Russia).

Whether a person is entitled to a pension is decided according to the general record acquired, but every country will pay pensions only based on the record in that specific state. When a person has worked in several countries, the general rule is that two countries cannot pay a pension for the same period.

When the countries in which the person has worked have a different retirement age (ex.: Ireland – 67, Lithuania – 63), a person must apply to the foreign payment service when he reaches the age of retirement in the country from which he must receive the pension.

It is worth noting that when receiving a pension from a foreign country, one cannot be granted an early retirement in Lithuania.

For more information, click here. 

In the case if you have a 12 month (in the past 24 months) maternity and sickness insurance record and your last place of employment before going on maternity leave was in Lithuania, you have the right to receive maternity benefits. If your last place of employment was not in Lithuania, you cannot receive a maternity benefit. According to the law, if a pregnant woman cannot receive maternity benefits, 70 days before the expected date of child birth, one is given a single payment – the sum of 6,43 basic social benefit payments (270 EUR). Every newborn (or an adopted child) receives the sum of 11 basic social benefit payments (462 EUR). The single payment is granted by the municipality to one of the parents (or a single parent) or a guardian.

For more information, click here.

Bringing animals and pets

You can bring your pet/animal if it is properly labelled, vaccinated, has a valid document, and meets other requirements of the EU.

If your pet is not labelled, is not vaccinated against rabies and has no required documents, then Lithuanian State food and veterinary service will label (by microchip), vaccinate, and monitor your pet for 21 days. This exception only is valid for Ukrainian citizens but not for legal entities, sellers or breeders. They need to follow the general rules which can be found here.

Ukrainian citizens bringing in pets need to inform the State Food and Veterinary Service at ukrainepets@vmvt.lt. 

More information can be found here. If you have additional questions, please contact 8 800 40 403 or +370 5 240 4361.

Ukrainian citizens who were in Lithuania before 24^th February 2022

Ukrainian citizens, holding biometric passports and whose national visas or temporary residence permits in the Republic of Lithuania are expiring can immediately start using the 90-day visa-free regime. At this point in time, no return or expulsion decisions will be taken in respect of Ukrainian nationals and their family members. Residence permits or national visas will not be annulled for Ukrainian citizens and their family members. Ukrainian citizens who have been in Lithuania for more than 90 days without a visa should apply for a residence permit or a visa in Lithuania.

Citizens of Russia and Belarus

In solidarity with Ukraine and its people undergoing Russian military aggression, the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs suspended the issuance of visas to Russian citizens. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs mediates the issuance of visas to those Russian citizens whose right to apply for a visa has been established in accordance with international or accession obligations to the European Union, e.g. for family members of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania or other European Union.

From March 10th 2022 Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs suspended the issuance of visas to Belarusian citizens. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs mediates the issuance of visas to those Belarusian citizens whose right to apply for a visa has been established in accordance with international or accession obligations to the European Union, e.g. for family members of citizens of the Republic of Lithuania or other European Union.

Ukrainian citizens holding biometric passports can enter Lithuania without a visa and stay here up to 90 days. For a long-term stay in Lithuania, Ukrainian citizens should apply to the Migration Department.