It has been decided to curb Russians coming to Lithuania who hide the details of their biography
Head of the Migration Department Evelina Gudzinskaite LNK said that citizens of some countries coming to Lithuania had to answer detailed questions due to the new procedure.
“For the Russians, and perhaps for other categories of foreigners that they indicated Department of State Security (VSD) Migration Department will ask additional, very detailed questions about their past and connection with the intelligence, security, law enforcement institutions of possible unfriendly countries.
They will answer those questions. If they do not answer, the refusal is such a questionnaire, their application for a residence permit is simply not accepted,” said the head of the LNK Migration Department.
E. Gudzinskaitė told LNK that practice shows that the questionnaire is necessary.
“Sooner or later, the institutions themselves collect the information that is important about the foreigner who arrived. But it takes time”, LNKa said.
According to her, Lithuania is not a popular “destination state”. However, there are isolated cases where important biographical details are hidden. Then there is a reason to cancel the residence permit in the country.
“There are other states that are much friendlier, where they can come in large numbers. But we can see that this year more Russians came to Lithuania than last year. (…) Although that increase is small, it is there. Are you exploiting loopholes? Yes, a lot of such single complex cases where a long investigation was required. Then he stated that the foreigner did not provide us with any information, or the specific information was misleading, incomplete, or inaccurate.
And upon further investigation, he found that this was a very important piece of information that he had purposely withheld, precisely in order to notice his past. Then there was a reason to cancel the residence permit”, said the head of the Migration Department, E. Gudzinskaitė.
The amendments establish additional requirements for the submission of additional documents or information for all categories of foreigners who apply for visas, residence permits in the Republic of Lithuania or the issuance of a residence permit card for a family member of a European Union citizen.
Failure to provide the requested information or untruthful provision of data intended for the Migration Department to assess the effectiveness of the risk of illegal migration and to make decisions on the issuance or cancellation of documents.
In addition, other measures are planned, in cooperation with other state institutions and institutions, the control of the presence and life of foreigners in Lithuania will be strengthened.
Watch the entire LNK interview with E. Gudzinskaite here: