Lithuania · Business & founder
Temporary Residence Permit for Company Shareholders and Managers
Open. This is a genuine operating-business test, not a purchasable residence product — the Migration Department actively polices substance.
Lithuania has deliberately built the opposite of a golden visa: you cannot buy in, you must employ people. For a founder genuinely building in the Baltics that is a feature — the permit rests on real activity and is therefore durable. For a passive investor it is simply not available.
Qualifying routes
Company equity of at least EUR 28,000, of which at least EUR 14,000 must be the applicant's own invested funds; applicant must be the manager or hold at least one third of authorised capital
Investment of at least EUR 260,000 and five full-time employees yields a three-year rather than two-year permit
The facts
- Minimum investment
- €28k
- Total landed cost
- EUR 28k equity is the floor, but the real cost is the payroll: three full-time EU/EEA staff whose combined gross wages must equal at least twice the Lithuanian average gross wage — realistically EUR 60-90k a year in salary alone
- Timeline
- 2–6 months — Filed via MIGRIS; personal appearance for biometrics within four months
- Physical presence
- Substantive management presence expected; the company must be genuinely operating
- Family
- spouseminor children
- Permanent residency
- 5 years of continuous legal residence
- Citizenship
- 10 years of permanent residence, with language and Constitution exams and renunciation of prior citizenship
- Language test
- State language exam plus Constitution test
- Dual citizenship
- Not permitted — you would have to renounce
- Requirements
- company operating legally for at least six monthsthree full-time EU/EEA employees meeting the combined wage testapplicant is manager or holds at least one third of capitalclean criminal record
- The company must have operated legally for at least six months before the permit application — you cannot incorporate and apply the same week.
- Three full-time employees who are Lithuanian/EU/EFTA citizens or permanent residents, with combined gross wages of at least twice the national average. This is the real threshold and it dwarfs the EUR 28,000 headline.
- Shelf companies and nominee structures fail. The Migration Department checks substance and renewal is where thin structures collapse.
- Citizenship requires renouncing your existing passport — the Article 7 dual exception does not extend to naturalised persons.
- Russian citizens: TRP applications are suspended save for narrow exceptions.