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Contents
In brief

The country
- 3
37.1 million people, young and growing fast
- 4
Births drive growth; circular work abroad is not in the count

Going abroad for work
- 5
153,000 placements abroad in 2024, by the agency’s count
- 6
Bulgaria ranks first for Uzbek citizens, then Poland and Latvia
- 7
Lithuania has led since 2023; Poland is below its 2022 high
- 8
Nepal’s EU permit rate is 3.7 times Uzbekistan’s
- 9
A state job platform; 6.13 million more of working age by 2041

The outlook
- 10
About 22,500 permits in 2026, falling in 2027
- 11
Lithuania leads, and filing there from Uzbekistan ends in November
- 11
What could change this

Method and sources
- 12
How to read this report
- 12
Sources, photographs and flags
Cover: Registan Square in Samarkand at night, its three madrasas lit. Photograph by AXP Photography, Pexels.
Citizens of Uzbekistan received 22,928 first EU residence permits for work in 2025, 20.3 percent more than in 2024 and more than seven times the 3,030 of 2019. The Migration Agency reports only the placements it and licensed private agencies make, 153,000 in 2024, with no split by country. Lithuania issued 34.7 percent of the 2025 permits, Poland 18.8 and Bulgaria 16.2. On ease of entry, then size, Bulgaria ranks first for citizens of Uzbekistan, then Poland and Latvia. Lithuania's Migration Department ends filing in Uzbekistan from 1 November 2026 (notice of 24 September 2026). Our estimate is 22,500 permits in 2026 (13,900 to 34,000). For 2027 the range is too wide for a yearly number; the direction is falling, and it stays falling through 2031. From 2028 we give one line on a stated assumption and two scenarios: in 2031 held flat gives 22,100, the sum of the destinations, a scenario without Lithuania's permits, 18,300, and route kept in Lithuania, a scenario, 26,200.
First EU residence permits for work in 2025, up 20.3 percent on 2024
Permits in 2026, our estimate, between 13,900 and 34,000
Permits a year from 2027 to 2031: the range is too wide for a yearly number
Lithuania's share of the first EU residence permits for work issued to citizens of Uzbekistan, 2025
37.1 million people, young and growing fast
Uzbekistan has 37.1 million people, 6.3 million more than in 2015: births outnumber deaths by about 710,000 a year, while slightly more people leave than arrive, on the UN's count of moves of residence, which leaves out circular work abroad. Output per head is 3,968 US dollars, 28 percent of the world average, and the economy grew 7.7 percent in 2025. Half the population is under 28, and the number aged 15 to 64 keeps rising until 2041.

People living in Uzbekistan in 2025, mid year
20.5 percent more than in 2015. People aged 15 to 64 were 62.6 percent of the population in 2025.
Median age in 2025
Half the population is younger. Our estimate from the World Bank's five year age groups.
GDP per head in 2025
28 percent of the world average of 14,406 US dollars.
The minimum wage a month, 2026
1,360,000 UZS a month, at 13,737.81 UZS to the euro.
Money sent home by people working abroad, share of GDP, 2025
Against 0.8 percent across the world.
The rules for going abroad
Sources: World Bank, World Development Indicators (population, GDP per head, personal remittances received as a share of GDP) and population estimates and projections (five year age groups, for our median age), retrieved 27 September 2026. Wage: President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Decree UP-115 of 23 June 2026 on raising wages, pensions, stipends and benefits, item (b)(i), retrieved 27 September 2026. Key dates: lex.uz, Presidential Resolution PP-91 of 4 March 2025 and PP-367 of 17 October 2024.
Births drive growth; circular work abroad is not in the count
Births outnumber deaths by about 710,000 a year; on the UN's count, net departures stay under 10,000
In 2024, births minus deaths came to +709,893 and net migration to −7,066. The UN counts changes of usual residence, so circular work abroad is not in it: remittances were 14.3 percent of GDP, and the agency reported 153,000 placements in 2024.
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (net migration and crude birth and death rates from UN World Population Prospects 2024, whose estimates end in 2023; later years are its projection), retrieved 27 September 2026. Births minus deaths is our arithmetic on the crude rates. Not yet published: births minus deaths for 2025.
About 46.64 million people by 2041 on the World Bank's projection
Estimated to 2025, then the World Bank's projection in the lighter line.
Source: World Bank, SP.POP.TOTL (World Development Indicators); World Bank, population projection based on UN World Population Prospects 2024; retrieved 27 September 2026.
The share aged 65 and over rises to 9%
Source: World Bank, population estimates and projections, retrieved 27 September 2026.
147.0 billion US dollars in 2025, and the IMF forecast to 2031
Real growth under each year: observed to 2025 (World Bank), the IMF forecast after. Sources: World Bank, NY.GDP.MKTP.CD (2025); IMF, World Economic Outlook April 2026; Werklist calculation: the other years are the 2025 value moved by the real growth rates; retrieved 27 September 2026.
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Reports153,000 placements abroad in 2024, by the agency’s count
The agency’s three published totals, and when each was posted
The agency labels each total with a year but not a period, so the bars are not a trend: the 2025 total was posted in August 2025, part way through the year.
Source: Migration Agency under the Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan, statistics feed of migration.uz, item: residents placed in existing jobs in other countries (Uzbek label: aholi boshqa davlatdan mavjud ish o'rniga joylashtirildi), retrieved 27 September 2026. Posting dates: our reading of the time stamps in the feed’s own file names.
The Migration Agency counts 153,000 placements in jobs abroad in 2024, a rounded total of its own, and does not say where they went. Eurostat counts 19,065 first EU residence permits for work issued to citizens of Uzbekistan that year.
No split by destination is published
The agency gives rounded totals only, with no table by country, job or month. A total of 313,500, tagged 2026 but posted in February 2026, most likely covers 2025; the agency does not say. The same feed reports 69,937 residents taught one of about 30 trades and 207 contracts signed with foreign employers and agencies, both tagged 2026. Europe can only be set against the register as two different counts.
First EU residence permits for work (Eurostat, 19,065) against the national count (153,000), 2024; our arithmetic on two observed counts.
Sources: Migration Agency under the Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan, statistics feed of migration.uz; Eurostat, migr_resfirst; retrieved 27 September 2026.
What the register counts, and what it does not
Counted: Placements in jobs abroad made in a year by the Migration Agency and the licensed private agencies, under Presidential Resolution PP-367 of 17 October 2024; the agency publishes rounded totals only, with no table by year, country or job.
Not counted: Anyone who finds a job abroad on their own, including most who go to Russia and Kazakhstan without the agency. No official count of all departures for work exists.
Bulgaria ranks first for Uzbek citizens, then Poland and Latvia
We rank destinations for citizens of Uzbekistan by the ease of entry for them first, then by the size of their flow. The first eight are in grade 1, the easiest of five. Lithuania, which issued 7,960 of their 22,928 first EU residence permits for work in 2025, ranks 9th, in grade 2, as its filing point in Uzbekistan closes on 1 November 2026.
| Place and destination | Size, Werklist estimate 2027 to 2031 | Ease, share of the full score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 29,700 | 95.0% |
| 2 | 19,800 | 97.2% |
| 3 | 8,780 | 92.6% |
| 4 | 6,520 | 85.5% |
| 5 | 6,450 | 81.3% |
| 6 | 5,480 | 91.6% |
| 7 | 3,340 | 85.8% |
| 8 | 1,980 | 88.8% |
| 9 | not reported | 69.0% |
| 10 | 2,680 | 69.1% |
Source: Werklist ranking of destinations by corridor, run 2026.1-rk-15d, 29 September 2026, from the country records of edition 2026.1 and the arrivals of the latest year (Eurostat, migr_resfirst, 2025; Immigration Services Agency of Japan, new entries on a working status of residence, 2025). Size: the Werklist estimate of each destination for 2027 to 2031 together, times the share of citizens of Uzbekistan in its count, rounded to three significant figures, in the unit of that count: Japan, new entries on a working status of residence; Serbia, first residence permits for work that Serbia reports to Eurostat (from 2024), issued mainly as the single permit for temporary residence and work; the others, first EU residence permits for work. Lithuania's size is set aside: the ranking gives 39,600, which keeps its 2025 share, while filing in Uzbekistan closes on 1 November 2026 (Migration Department notice of 24 September 2026).
Ease of entry first, then the size of the flow
Each destination is graded 1 to 5 on a score out of 100 for citizens of Uzbekistan: admission, where they file, the approval at home, the labour market test and the decision time, and the arrivals of the latest year. Within a grade the larger flow ranks first.
Poland has the highest score, 97.2, and ranks second on size. Serbia and Japan, outside the EU, rank 7th and 8th. Lithuania is 9th, in grade 2: admission on a condition, a filing point in Uzbekistan that closes on 1 November 2026 and a decision in law of up to 90 days. The ranking's size for Lithuania keeps its 2025 share, which the closure ends, so it is set aside. Czechia is 10th, in grade 2.
Source: Werklist ranking of destinations by corridor, run 2026.1-rk-15d, 29 September 2026.
More than seven times 2019, with dips in 2020 and 2024
First residence permits for work issued in the 27 EU countries to citizens of Uzbekistan, by year, with the change on the year before.
Source: Eurostat, migr_resfirst, first residence permits issued for employment reasons in the 27 EU countries to citizens of Uzbekistan, reference years 2019 to 2025, updated 11 September 2026, retrieved 27 September 2026.
Lithuania has led since 2023; Poland is below its 2022 high
Lithuania issued a third of Uzbekistan's first EU residence permits for work in 2025
Poland issued the most from 2019 to 2022, 7,269 in 2022; Lithuania has led since 2023 and issued 7,960 in 2025. Bulgaria doubled to 3,716 in 2025, while Croatia halved to 1,865.
Source: Eurostat, migr_resfirst, first residence permits issued for employment reasons in the 27 EU countries to citizens of Uzbekistan, by country of issue, reference years 2019 to 2025, updated 11 September 2026, retrieved 29 September 2026; the totals of the seven centres: Eurostat, migr_resfirst, EU27, 2025, updated 28 September 2026, retrieved 29 September 2026.
Among the seven sourcing centres of Werklist, Uzbekistan's 22,928 first EU residence permits for work in 2025 came fifth, after India 101,573, Nepal 71,061, the Philippines 50,944 and Bangladesh 29,626, and ahead of Vietnam 14,794 and Indonesia 6,239.
| Destination | 2019 | 2024 | 2025 | Share 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 120 | 5,874 | 7,960 | 34.7% | |
| 1,301 | 3,946 | 4,305 | 18.8% | |
| 36 | 1,874 | 3,716 | 16.2% | |
| 73 | 3,895 | 1,865 | 8.1% | |
| 421 | 1,234 | 1,434 | 6.3% | |
| 5 | 510 | 1,017 | 4.4% | |
| 124 | 459 | 928 | 4.0% | |
| 537 | 281 | 440 | 1.9% | |
| Other EU countries | 413 | 992 | 1,263 | 5.5% |
| All EU countries | 3,030 | 19,065 | 22,928 | 100.0% |
Source: Eurostat, migr_resfirst, first residence permits issued for employment reasons in the 27 EU countries to citizens of Uzbekistan, by country of issue, reference years 2019 to 2025, updated 11 September 2026, retrieved 29 September 2026; the totals of the seven centres: Eurostat, migr_resfirst, EU27, 2025, updated 28 September 2026, retrieved 29 September 2026.
Nepal’s EU permit rate is 3.7 times Uzbekistan’s
First EU residence permits for work per 100,000 residents aged 15 to 64
The first residence permits for work that the 27 EU countries issue in a year to citizens of a country, divided by that country's residents aged 15 to 64. Both lines use the same two sources.
Source: Eurostat, migr_resfirst (first residence permits for employment in the EU27, by citizenship), updated 11 September 2026; World Bank, SP.POP.1564.TO (residents aged 15 to 64); reference years 2019 to 2025, retrieved 27 September 2026. Werklist calculation.
Uzbekistan, 2025
Up from 14.0 in 2019.
Nepal, 2025
Up from 63.0 in 2019.
In 2025 citizens of Uzbekistan received 98.8 first EU residence permits for work per 100,000 residents aged 15 to 64, seven times the 14.0 of 2019, after a dip to 83.2 in 2024. Nepal’s rate rose every year after 2020, to 367.3, 3.7 times Uzbekistan’s. That includes Portugal’s 16,807 of 2025, a year Eurostat flags as a break in series, when Portugal’s Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum cleared a backlog of pending applications; without it Nepal’s rate is 280.4, 2.8 times Uzbekistan’s. Nepal signed a memorandum with Romania in 2023, and Romania issued 24,486 of Nepal’s 71,061 permits in 2025. The two moved together; the data do not show that one caused the other.
Nepal has Romania, Uzbekistan new partners
Sources: Nepal Labour Migration Report 2024, table 2.7; lex.uz, PP-91 of 4 March 2025, PP-320 and PP-322 of 11 September 2026; Eurostat, migr_resfirst; retrieved 27 September 2026.
A state job platform; 6.13 million more of working age by 2041
The rules at home, as they stand on 27 September 2026
No law on labour abroad is in force: the Senate passed one on 25 June 2025, sent back on 29 July. Resolution PP-367 of October 2024 applies.
Every foreign job offer is published on the Migration Agency’s platform, where people post a CV and apply. No separate exit permit for work was found.
A private agency needs a licence and must reserve 4,000 times the base amount, 1.76 billion som, which it may not spend without the Migration Agency’s consent.
People going in an organised way to developed countries can borrow up to 10 million som for two years from the Migration Fund, at the central bank rate plus four points.
State colleges teach trades and languages on the agency’s order, and private agencies may run courses. The 50 teachers with most B1 graduates get 50 million som each.
The programme to 2026 orders a public register of unreliable foreign employers and agencies, and bars registering agency contracts with anyone on it.
PP-367 sets no limit on what an agency may charge and no compulsory insurance; it orders only a study of life and health insurance for people leaving.
Sources: lex.uz, Presidential Resolution PP-367 of 17 October 2024 (items 1, 3 and 6 and the programme to 2026), Senate resolution PS-143-V and Legislative Chamber resolution 1158-V of 2025, Decree UP-115 of 23 June 2026 (base amount of 440,000 som); retrieved 27 September 2026.
Where the visa is issued
For the largest EU destinations of citizens of Uzbekistan, the embassy or visa centre that takes the application, and its city.
Sources: EU Delegation to Uzbekistan; Embassy of Poland in Tashkent; Croatian foreign ministry, visa overview for Uzbekistan; VFS Global; retrieved 27 September 2026.
Unemployment among people aged 15 to 24, 2025, against 13.4 percent across the world
About one young person in nine in the labour force is looking for work.
World Bank, SL.UEM.1524.ZS (ILO estimate), retrieved 27 September 2026
The minimum wage in Lithuania against the minimum wage at home
One month at Lithuania’s minimum wage pays almost as much as a year at the minimum wage at home.
Eurostat, earn_mw_cur (Lithuania, first and second half of 2026, 1,153 euro a month); the wage at home as on page 3
More people aged 15 to 64 in 2041 than in 2026, on the World Bank's projection
The number of people who could go abroad for work keeps rising every year until at least 2041.
World Bank, SP.POP.1564.TO, retrieved 27 September 2026
About 22,500 permits in 2026, falling in 2027
We expect about 22,500 permits in 2026, between 13,900 and 34,000, close to the 22,928 of 2025. Lithuania ends filing in Uzbekistan from 1 November 2026 (Migration Department notice of 24 September 2026). From 2027 our estimate takes out Lithuania's permits to citizens of Uzbekistan, 7,920 in 2026, and assumes no move elsewhere, so the count stays below 2026 through 2031 (falling); the range of 2027 is too wide for a yearly number. From 2028 held flat, a stated assumption, stays at 22,100; the sum of the destinations, a scenario, recovers to 18,300 in 2031, most of it from Bulgaria; route kept in Lithuania, a scenario, reaches 26,200.
Permits in 2026, our estimate
between 13,900 and 34,000
Permits a year from 2027 to 2031, the direction
Too wide for a yearly number; in 2031 held flat, a stated assumption, gives 22,100, the two scenarios 18,300 and 26,200
Direction of the rules and of the count
From 2028 two scenarios give 18,300 in 2031 without Lithuania's permits and 26,200 with them
Permits issued to 2025, then our estimate with its range for 2026; 2027 as a direction, falling; from 2028 one line on a stated assumption and two scenarios. The sum of the destinations, a scenario, starts lower, as Lithuania's permits leave it from 2027, and stays below 2026 through 2031. Held flat, a stated assumption, keeps each destination at its 2025 count, Lithuania included, but Croatia at its 2026 count to August and Portugal at its 2024 share, so it stands at 22,100, below the 22,928 of 2025.
Source: Werklist estimate from Eurostat migr_resfirst (reference years to 2025, updated 11 September 2026); 2027: a direction, as its range is too wide for a yearly number. From 2028: sum of the destinations, a scenario, the central lines of the EU destinations at the 2025 shares of their permits, Lithuania's taken out from 2027; held flat, a stated assumption, each destination at its 2026 base (the 2025 count; Croatia at the 2026 pace of the Ministry of the Interior, 44,646 to 31 August; Portugal at its 2024 share); route kept in Lithuania, a scenario, Lithuania's permits to these citizens kept, as if they filed inside Lithuania, moved to another destination or filing opened again. Retrieved 29 September 2026. Values rounded to three significant figures; Low and High give the range of 2026.
Lithuania leads, and filing there from Uzbekistan ends in November
Lithuania, Poland and Bulgaria tighten; Croatia holds
Rules and first EU residence permits for work issued to Uzbeks, 2024 to 2025.
Quota 24,706 for 2026, used up on 7 September 2026. The Migration Department notice of 24 September 2026 ends filing in Uzbekistan from 1 November 2026.
Act of 20 March 2025, in force from 1 June 2025: no labour market test, but counties may close named jobs to foreign workers.
Permits to Uzbeks doubled in 2025 (1,874 to 3,716). Under State Gazette 52/2025 a degree earned abroad needs Bulgarian recognition for a work permit.
Narodne novine 55/2026, in force from 4 June 2026, adds 90 day processing and an employer change right and keeps admission open. Permits to Uzbeks fell 52 percent in 2025.
Sources: the instruments named, as in our country records of edition 2026.1; Eurostat, migr_resfirst; read 27 September 2026.
Lithuania's permits leave the estimate in 2027; Bulgaria's part rises
Only the lines of the EU destinations enter the estimate; the rest is context.
6.13 million more people aged 15 to 64 in 2041 than in 2026.
7,066 more people left than arrived in 2024 (UN); circular work abroad is not in it.
6.5 percent projected for 2026 (IMF); unemployment 4.8 percent in 2025.
Lithuania's 7,920 of 2026 leave from 2027; Bulgaria's part rises from 4,100 to 6,930 by 2031, a scenario.
153,000 placements abroad in 2024, eight times the 19,065 first EU residence permits for work.
Sources: World Bank, SP.POP.1564.TO and SM.POP.NETM (UN World Population Prospects 2024); IMF, World Economic Outlook, as served on 27 September 2026; Migration Agency of Uzbekistan (placements); Werklist destination lines from Eurostat migr_resfirst; retrieved 27 September 2026; Werklist estimate, eighth repair, 29 September 2026.
What could change this
The scenarios carry one dated change, Lithuania's end of filing in Uzbekistan. The other two cards are changes outside the estimate.
Lithuania's notice of 24 September 2026
Filing in Uzbekistan ends on 1 November 2026, after the quota ran out on 7 September. Our estimate takes Lithuania's permits out from 2027 and assumes no move elsewhere. In 2031 route kept in Lithuania, a scenario, gives 26,200; the sum of the destinations, a scenario, 18,300.
Agreements with Austria and Sweden
Both were approved on 11 September 2026. After Germany’s agreement of 2024, its permits for Uzbek citizens rose from 155 in 2022 to 928 in 2025; the data show timing, not cause. Either could lift our estimate.
A law on labour abroad
The Senate passed a law on external labour migration on 25 June 2025, and the lower chamber took it back for review on 29 July 2025. It is not law, and its final text is not known.
How to read this report
What a first EU residence permit for work is
Eurostat's first permit for employment: the first residence permit, valid three months or more, that an EU country issues to a citizen of Uzbekistan for work. It gathers the single permit for residence and work, the EU Blue Card, permits for seasonal work and each country's other permits for work. Renewals are not counted.
What the range and the lines mean
Our estimate gives a yearly number with a low and a high end for 2026 only. For 2027 its range is too wide, so we give the direction, falling. From 2028 we give held flat, a stated assumption, and two scenarios; none is a forecast. Observed numbers are solid lines, estimates dashed.
How the estimate is made
We add up the EU countries that issue the permits: each destination's line times Uzbekistan's share of its permits in 2025, Portugal at its 2024 share. That gives 22,500 in 2026. From 2027 the sum of the destinations, a scenario, takes out Lithuania's permits; route kept in Lithuania, a scenario, keeps them; held flat keeps each destination at its base.
Numbers, dates and words
Past counts are printed exactly; estimates are rounded to three significant figures. The national register counts placements in jobs abroad, Eurostat counts first residence permits for work: they are two different counts. Permits are counted, not people; people appear only where we speak of the population.
Sources
Every source retrieved 27 September 2026; the estimate, the ranking and the totals of the seven centres on 29 September 2026.
- Eurostat, migr_resfirst, first residence permits by reason, length of validity and citizenship, reference years 2019 to 2025, updated 11 September 2026. ec.europa.eu/
eurostat/ databrowser/ view/ migr_resfirst - World Bank, World Development Indicators and population estimates and projections (population, age, births, deaths, net migration, GDP, employment, unemployment). data.worldbank.org
- Eurostat, migr_resfirst by citizenship and country of issue, first residence permits for employment. ec.europa.eu/
eurostat/ databrowser/ view/ migr_resfirst - International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook, April 2026, real GDP growth. imf.org/
external/ datamapper - World Bank, personal remittances received as a share of GDP (BX.TRF.PWKR.DT.GD.ZS), unemployment aged 15 to 24 (SL.UEM.1524.ZS, ILO estimate), population by five year age group. data.worldbank.org
- Eurostat, earn_mw_cur, monthly minimum wages. ec.europa.eu/
eurostat/ databrowser/ view/ earn_mw_cur - Migration Agency under the Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan, statistics feed of migration.uz, residents placed in jobs abroad. cabinet.migration.uz
- President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Decree UP-115 of 23 June 2026, minimum wage and base amount. lex.uz
- National Legal Information Centre Adolat, PP-367 of 17 October 2024; PS-143-V and 1158-V of 2025; PP-91 of 4 March 2025; PP-320 and PP-322 of 11 September 2026. lex.uz
- Visa posts, Delegation of the European Union to Uzbekistan; Embassy of Poland in Tashkent; Croatian foreign ministry, list of VFS Global visa centres and visa overview for Uzbekistan; VFS Global, Lithuania in Uzbekistan. eeas.europa.eu, gov.pl/
web/ uzbekistan, mvep.gov.hr, vfsglobal.com - Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, Nepal, Nepal Labour Migration Report 2024 (final, 11 November 2025), table 2.7, agreements. moless.gov.np
- Werklist country records, edition 2026.1, Lithuania, 2026 quota order and Migration Department notice of 24 September 2026; Poland, Act of 20 March 2025; Bulgaria, State Gazette 52/2025; Croatia, Narodne novine 55/2026. werklist.com
- Croatia, Narodne novine 55/2026, amendments to the Foreigners Act, in force 4 June 2026. narodne-novine.nn.hr
- Werklist, ranking of destinations by corridor, run 2026.1-rk-15d of 29 September 2026: ease of entry and size for citizens of Uzbekistan, from the country records of edition 2026.1. werklist.com
Photographs and flags
Pexels: Registan Square, Samarkand, at night, AXP Photography (cover); Kalta Minor minaret, Khiva, Rüveyda Akkaya (page 3); mountains of Fergana region, Nurkamol; a park in Tashkent from the air, Zokir; mountains of Uzbekistan, Artem Korolev; Samarkand from above, Xusenru; Charvak reservoir at sunset, Sohibjon Siddiqov (back cover). Flags: circle-flags by HatScripts, MIT licence.
What this report answers
How many first EU residence permits for work went to citizens of Uzbekistan each year since 2019?
22,928 in 2025, 20.3% more than the 19,065 of 2024 and more than seven times the 3,030 of 2019, with dips in 2020 and 2024.
Which EU countries issue the most of them, and which are growing?
Lithuania issued 7,960 in 2025, 34.7% of the total, ahead of Poland with 4,305 and Bulgaria with 3,716. Lithuania has led since 2023 and Bulgaria doubled in 2025, while Poland is below its 2022 high and Croatia halved.
How many placements in jobs abroad does Uzbekistan count, and what do they leave out?
The Migration Agency counts 153,000 placements in jobs abroad in 2024, made by itself and licensed private agencies, with no split by country. Anyone who finds a job abroad on their own is left out, including most who go to Russia and Kazakhstan.
What rules apply at home before a worker from Uzbekistan can leave?
Since 1 November 2024 every foreign job offer is published on the Migration Agency's platform. A private agency needs a licence and a reserve of 1.76 billion som, and people going to developed countries can borrow up to 10 million som from the Migration Fund.
How are the rules changing in the main destinations?
Lithuania ends filing in Uzbekistan from 1 November 2026, after its quota ran out on 7 September. Lithuania, Poland and Bulgaria tighten their rules and Croatia holds; permits to Uzbeks doubled in Bulgaria in 2025 and fell 52 percent in Croatia.
How many first EU residence permits for work do we expect in 2026, and what comes after?
About 22,500 in 2026, between 13,900 and 34,000. From 2027 Lithuania's permits leave the estimate, and the direction is falling through 2031. In 2031 held flat, a stated assumption, gives 22,100; the sum of the destinations, a scenario, 18,300; route kept in Lithuania, a scenario, 26,200.
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