In Lithuania, Belarusians are most often denied citizenship - for the sake of state security.

The head of the Lithuanian migration service,

, told what difficulties Belarusians face after moving.

"Most Belarusians go to Lithuania for work"

In most cases, Belarusians come to Lithuania to work, and they are not natives or activists, but people of working specialties.

The director of the Department of Migration at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Lithuania, Evelina Hudzinskaita, told Svaboda about this.

"Most Belarusians come to Lithuania to work.

This year, 6,000 Belarusians received temporary residence permits for economic reasons, and only 235 for humanitarian reasons.

Most come to work in construction or as a driver.

If we take the middle portrait, it will be a 37-year-old man, his family is in Belarus, and he works as a truck driver.

When the political crisis began in Belarus, more highly qualified workers began to arrive, but the majority are still workers," says Evelina Hudzinskaite.

Director of the Department of Migration at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Lithuania, Evelina Hudzinskaita

According to the head of the department, at the beginning of 2023, 48,804 Belarusians lived in Lithuania.

Three years ago, there were 17,769 of them. That is, since 2020, at least 31,035 citizens of Belarus have moved to Lithuania for permanent residence.

This does not include those who live in Lithuania with a visa rather than a residence permit.

One of the problems faced by Belarusians when submitting documents to the Lithuanian Migration Department is deadlines.

It happens that the documents are not submitted on time, says Evelina Hudzinskaya.

So far, such situations ended with a warning.

"One of the problems is when people forget that they need to follow the terms of stay.

Sometimes, they turn to migration when the term of the temporary residence permit or visa has already expired.

Such documents must be submitted in advance.

The second problem is a certificate of no criminal record and an apostille, because there are long queues at the consulates.

It's hard to do at the last minute.

So far, there have only been warnings for violating these terms," ​​the head of the department shares her experience.

The second after the Ukrainians

Now Belarusians in Lithuania are the second largest group of emigrants, according to the Department of Migration.

Emigrants from Ukraine are on the first place.

Since the beginning of the war, 78,000 Ukrainians have been registered in the migration service of Lithuania.

At the end of April, 44,000 of them remained in Lithuania.

In rare cases, Belarusians are denied a residence permit, this is most often related to security issues, says the Lithuanian official.

"Thousands of Belarusians receive residence permits, only 331 were refused. It was because of threats to the country.

Including through answers in the questionnaire, which must be filled in when submitting documents.

Some justified Russia's actions.

Some try to explain something in complicated language," says Evelina Hudzinskaiata.

Director of the Department of Migration at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Lithuania, Evelina Hudzinskaita

According to her, since 2020, 155 Belarusians have applied for citizenship in Lithuania.

Last year, 32 Belarusians received it.

Now the migration service is planning to release a program for smartphones, and they are also thinking about transferring the majority of document turnover to electronic format.

The flow of emigration from Belarus to Lithuania is constantly increasing, the head of the migration department notes.

"The flow of emigration is not decreasing, it is growing.

This is also related to the war, but our economy is also growing, employers in Lithuania need labor.

Belarusians are close to us in terms of mentality, the way we approach work, that's why our employers like to hire Belarusians," explains Evelina Hudzinskaite.

For sensitive topics,

write to us here.

SAFE