Lithuania

Descendants of a person who held Republic of Lithuania citizenship before 15 June 1940 qualify. That covers child, grandchild or great-grandchild, three generations in all. Restoration under Article 7 is a statutory right, not a discretionary grant. There is no language exam, no Constitution test and no residence requirement. This is the strongest ancestry route in the Baltics and one of the best in Europe, particularly for the Litvak diaspora in South Africa, Israel, the US and the UK. The real constraint is archival. You have to prove the ancestor's pre-1940 citizenship through an interwar passport or residence record, and searches at the Lithuanian Central State Archives routinely take months and sometimes fail outright.

Lithuania's constitution bans dual citizenship, but restoration comes with an express statutory exception. If the ancestor was exiled from or left occupied Lithuania before 11 March 1990, dual citizenship is retained. That covers essentially every Litvak family that fled pogroms, the Holocaust or Soviet rule. If the ancestor left after 11 March 1990, the exception generally does not apply, and renunciation is required. Be wary of advisory sites claiming that from 2026 Lithuania will recognise dual nationality for EU or NATO citizens generally. That claim is false. The constitutional ban stands, and any advisor making that claim is a red flag.

Yes, a hard three-generation limit. Great-great-grandchildren are excluded, so delay across a single generation can extinguish a family's claim permanently. Anyone who already acquired Lithuanian citizenship before 1 April 2011 is also outside this route. And note that being a person of Lithuanian descent based on ethnic origin is a separate and much weaker status. It does not itself confer citizenship. Advisors frequently conflate the two.

No, and it has no intention of having one. Lithuania has deliberately built the opposite. The business-residence route rests on a genuine operating company that the Migration Department actively polices for substance. You cannot buy in, you must employ people. For a passive investor it is simply not available. Fintech and IT businesses using Lithuania's EU licensing regime are the natural fit.

The EUR 28,000 company-equity figure, of which at least EUR 14,000 must be your own invested funds, is only the headline. The real threshold is payroll. You need three full-time employees who are Lithuanian, EU or EFTA citizens or permanent residents, with combined gross wages of at least twice the national average, realistically EUR 60,000-90,000 a year in salary alone. The company must have operated legally for at least six months before you apply. You cannot incorporate and apply the same week, and shelf companies fail at renewal. An investment of EUR 260,000 plus five full-time employees yields a three-year rather than two-year permit.

Yes. The Startup Visa, administered by Startup Lithuania / Innovation Agency Lithuania, carries no capital investment and no payroll obligation. It requires only a subsistence showing of over EUR 12,000 for the first year and EUR 30,000 of health cover. It runs two years, extendable to five, is capped at four founders per venture, and the permanent-residence clock genuinely runs. The innovation gate is real. You need a prototype, MVP or traction in a listed field such as biotech, nanotech, IT, mechatronics, electronics or lasers, and service businesses do not qualify.

Lithuania taxes residents on worldwide income and, from 1 January 2026, restructured its rates into three tiers of 20%, 25% and 32%, the top rate applying above EUR 138,270. There is no wealth tax and no investor or expatriate tax regime. Inheritance tax is 5% up to EUR 150,000 and 10% above, but spouses and close relatives are exempt, as are estates under EUR 3,000, and there is no gift tax. Capital gains are 15% up to 120x the average monthly wage and 20% above, with real estate gains exempt after five years' holding.

No. Lithuanian citizenship by naturalisation requires ten years of permanent residence, a state language and Constitution exam, and renunciation of your prior citizenship. The Article 7 dual-citizenship exception applies only to restoration by descent, not to naturalised persons. So the business and startup routes lead to an EU passport only at the price of your existing one. If you have a pre-1940 Lithuanian ancestor, restoration is the far better path.