The country’s external service centers that process documents for employment and entry have stopped accepting new applications, Indrė Gasperė, director of Lithuania’s Migration Department, said on September 22, according to BNS.
Gasperė said the number of workers arriving in Lithuania from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan had increased significantly in recent years. She did not specify which countries in the region were covered by the suspension.
“The operations of the external centers have been suspended and applications are no longer being accepted, taking into account the expectations of employers and foreign nationals seeking employment,” BNS quoted Gasperė as saying.
The decision comes as Lithuania tightens controls on labor migration. In early September 2026, the country reached its annual quota of 24,706 workers from third countries. Once the quota is exhausted, temporary residence permits can be issued only in cases provided for by law, including when salary requirements are met.
As of September 1, nearly 227,000 foreign nationals held valid residence permits in Lithuania, according to the Migration Department. About 80,000 were Ukrainian citizens and 48,000 were Belarusian citizens, while Russia and Uzbekistan each accounted for around 13,000 residents. More than 9,000 Indian citizens and over 7,000 Tajik citizens also held valid permits.
Lithuania had previously restricted the acceptance of applications from the region. On October 22, 2025, it suspended operations at an external service center in Dushanbe, citing a review of employers’ needs and assessments by the relevant state authorities.
During the two years the Dushanbe center operated, around 6,500 people, mainly drivers and construction workers, applied for temporary residence permits in Lithuania. Lithuanian officials later criticized some of them for occasional violations of local laws, overstaying visas or attempting to enter the country illegally.
