Posting a third country worker to Lithuania: work permit or residence permit

The route is decided by where the sending company is established, not by the worker's nationality. Under article 57(1)(2) of the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens, a work permit is required when the worker is posted by a company established outside the EU and EFTA. Where the company is established in an EU or EFTA state, article 44(1)(1) applies and the route is a temporary residence permit.

Which route applies to your case

Article 57(1)(2) sets three conditions at once. The sending company must be established outside the EU and EFTA, the worker must hold an open ended employment contract with it, and he must be covered by social insurance in that state. All three are checked together. A fixed term contract with a Serbian or Indian company no longer fits this route, so the file moves to ordinary employment in Lithuania under a local contract.

The second route is shorter on documents and longer on time. Where the posting company is established in an EU or EFTA state, article 44(1)(1) points to a temporary residence permit rather than a work permit. A company registered in Poland or Germany sending its Nepali employee to a site in Klaipeda therefore files a completely different case from the same group sending the same person directly from a parent company registered in Kathmandu. The residence permit sequence is set out in the employer path to a temporary residence permit for work.

Before choosing a route, write down three facts about every posted person: where his employer is established, what type of contract he holds, and in which state his social insurance is paid. Those three data points, not the job title, decide which institution examines the file.

The work permit: duration, content and cost

Article 61(1) provides that a posted worker's work permit is issued for up to 1 year. The permit names the work, the services provided and the company or person to whom the worker is posted. The permit is therefore tied to one site and one service contract: if the client changes, the content of the permit changes with it, so a worker cannot be moved to another construction site on the same document.

Work permits are issued by the Employment Service under the Ministry of Social Security and Labour. The application takes up to 1 month, and a state fee set by the Government is payable for issuing the permit. Add translation, legalisation and visa costs on top, which for most third countries exceed the fee itself. The realistic planning window from signing the service contract to having the worker on site is 2 to 3 months, because a visa or residence permit still follows the work permit.

On working conditions, Directive 96/71/EC on the posting of workers applies as transposed into Lithuanian labour law. A posted worker is guaranteed the minimum conditions in force in Lithuania, including pay, working and rest time, and safety. When pricing the service, this means the wage level of the sending country is not the number that will apply on site.

Who owes the notification, and where the file breaks

This is where the gap usually opens. Article 62(8) places the duty to inform the Migration Department, the State Labour Inspectorate and the Employment Service on the company to which the worker is posted, that is the receiving Lithuanian company. Not the sender, and not the top of the contracting chain. A receiving company that assumes its third country partner handles the paperwork tends to discover the duty during a State Labour Inspectorate visit. The general reporting mechanics are set out in employer notification duties for a foreign hire.

The second breaking point is the state of the receiving company itself. Article 63(1)(5) makes liquidation, bankruptcy or the absence of economic activity at the receiving company a ground for refusal. A dormant entity or a subcontractor with no real turnover sinks the file no matter how clean the sending company's documents are. Checking the receiving company in the registers is cheaper before filing than after a refusal. The recurring refusal grounds across EU corridors are collected in why work permit applications are refused.

A posting to Lithuania is settled in three sentences before any document is collected: where the sending company is established, what contract binds it to the worker, and whether the receiving company carries on real activity. Once those are answered, it is clear whether the Employment Service or the Migration Department will examine the case.