EU citizen

If you are an EU citizen, a citizen of a Member State of the European Free Trade Association or a family member of an EU citizen or another person who, under EU law, enjoys the right to free movement within the EU, joining the Republic of Lithuania or an EU citizen or a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania who has exercised free movement within the EU you can stay in Republic of Lithuania for up to 3 months from the first day of arrival.

A citizen of an EU Member State is an alien holding the nationality of one of the EU Member States.

The member countries of the European Free Trade Association are Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

Family members of a citizen of an EU Member State mean the person’s spouse or the person with whom a registered partnership has been contracted, his direct descendants who are under the age of 21 or are dependants, including direct descendants of the spouse or person with whom the registered partnership has been contracted, who are under the age of 21 or those who are dependants, the dependent direct relatives in the ascending line of a citizen of an EU Member State, of the spouse or of the person with whom the person has contracted a registered partnership.

The straight upper family line is a kinship that comes from the offspring to the ancestor (grandchildren, children, parents, grandparents, etc.).

Another person enjoying the right of free movement of persons under EU law is a person who is not a family member of a citizen of an EU Member State but is a cohabiting partner with whom a citizen of an EU Member State has a regular relationship for the last 3 years as well as a person who is dependent of the citizen of an EU Member State either has a common household with a citizen of an EU Member State or who, for serious health reasons, necessarily requires personal care of a citizen of an EU Member State.

A citizen of the Republic of Lithuania who has exercised the right to free movement of persons under EU law is considered an EU citizen. In order for a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania to be considered to have exercised his right to free movement within the EU, he must have lived in another EU Member State for some time after 1 May 2004. It is important that the family relationship with the citizen of the Republic of Lithuania was established or already existed at the time when the citizen of the Republic of Lithuania exercised the right of free movement within the EU.

When applying for a certificate or card, the application must be accompanied by the original required documents or copies thereof, the authenticity whereof must be evidenced by the identity of the person or authority (e.g. a notary) entitled to authenticate the copies. If the application is accompanied by the documents issued by foreign authorities, with the exception of travel documents, or copies thereof certified by a person or authority having the right to authenticate copies of documents, these documents must be verified by a certificate (Apostille) or legalised and translated into Lithuanian (the translation must be validated by the person or authorities having the right to translation from one language to another, e.g. by a translation agency). Exceptions: legalization or approval certificate (Apostille) is not required for documents issued in Estonia, Latvia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine, as well as documents issued by diplomatic missions or consular posts of other countries accredited to Lithuania.

Certificate (Apostille) is the legalisation of a document when the authenticity of the stamps and the position title of the signatory are confirmed. Both the original and the original notarized copy can be approved by the Apostille. Documents with Apostille are valid in all states which have acceded the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation of Foreign Documents.

Legislation is required for the documents issued in the countries that do not certify the documents (Apostille).