Resolution of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania on the Procedure for Implementing the Republic of Lithuania Law on Citizenship

1. The Republic of Lithuania Law on Citizenship shall enter into force on 11 December 1991.

2. To establish that documents confirming citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania which persons had until 15 June 1940 shall be their domestic or foreign passports of the Republic of Lithuania retained by them, their birth certificates, as well as archival or other documents confirming the fact.

The persons whose parents or one of the parents are Lithuanians and if these persons or their parents (one of the parents) in Lithuania or other states have not enjoyed any rights related to other nationality, as well as if in the states which citizenship they have acquired they are not considered as persons of other nationality, shall be qualified as persons of Lithuanian origin.

A person who has left for residence for other states, save the former Soviet Union and the states occupied by it, shall be qualified as a person who has left Lithuania.

Intending to be reinstated in citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania in accordance with part three of Article 18 of the Law on Citizenship, the persons, exiled from Lithuania, along with the application for reinstatement in citizenship, shall present the documents confirming the fact of exile and the persons who have been in prison or convicted of resistance to the occupational regimes, shall present the documents confirming the fact of conviction or imprisonment.

The persons and their family members applying for reinstatement in citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania in accordance with part three of Article 18 of the Law on Citizenship, shall indicate in the application for reinstatement in citizenship, whether they have been repatriated from Lithuania, and shall present the respective proofs. The departure for the ethnic motherland or settlement in the ethnic motherland shall be qualified as repatriation.

In accordance with part one of Article 17 of the Law on Citizenship, the persons shall submit applications for citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania, for reinstatement in citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania or applications for the issuance of documents confirming retention of citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania, to the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Lithuania, diplomatic (consular) institutions of the Republic of Lithuania abroad or to chairman of the board of area communities of the World Lithuanian community who may certify the application of a person and documents attached to the application. These certified documents may be submitted and used only while resolving question on citizenship.

Children who have been found (who reside) on the territory of the Republic of Lithuania whose parents are unknown, dead or deprived of parents' rights and who are under trusteeship of relevant institutions or of relatives shall be equal to the children mentioned in Article 11 of the Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania.

3. A citizen of the Republic of Lithuania who has come for residence to Lithuania shall approach the migration service of the police commissariat of the city, district at the place of residence, presenting a passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania and documents certifying that he has purchased as a property or rented without time-limit a dwelling in Lithuania or that he is a family member of the owner or of the tenant.

A person who has documents confirming the retention of the right to citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania and who has come for residence to Lithuania together with family members, shall approach the migration service of the police commissariat of the city, district at the place of residence, presenting the document confirming the retention of citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania and a passport of a citizen of another state or equivalent documents, as well as documents certifying that he has purchased as a property or rented without time limit a dwelling in Lithuania or that he is a family member of the owner or of the tenant.

A citizen of a foreign state or a stateless person, save the persons mentioned in part two of paragraph 3, who resides in a foreign state and who has legally come for residence to Lithuania, shall approach the migration service of the police commissariat of the city, district at the place of residence, presenting a passport of a citizen of a foreign state or an equivalent document, as well as documents, certifying that he has purchased as a property or rented without time limit a dwelling in Lithuania or that he is a family member of the owner or of the tenant.

The documents shall be checked by the migration services, and they shall inscribe the place of residence of a person into the passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania or into a permit for permanent residence in the Republic of Lithuania.

To establish that a person is qualified as a permanent resident in Lithuania if the person has legally come to Lithuania and:

has purchased as a property or rented without time limit a dwelling in Lithuania or is a family member of the owner or of the tenant, as well as in the passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania or in an equivalent document there is an inscription of the place of residence of the person;

not less than for one year has been employed in Lithuania under a labour contract or has had other taxable occupation in Lithuania, has got legal pension in Lithuania or has been staying in Lithuania as a dependant of other persons or has had other legal source to live on;

not less than for one year has been paying on the territory of Latvia an income tax or other taxes established by the laws of the Republic of Lithuania or has been exempted from taxation in the manner established by the law;

not less than for one year has been paying for social insurance (save pensioners who do not work).

The documents certifying permanent residence in Lithuania shall be submitted by the person to the relevant state institutions.

4. To establish that persons who are citizens of the Republic of Lithuania under this Law and serve in the army of another state (except persons conscripted by force), or are employed as officers of state power or state governing bodies of another state, must terminate said service within the period up to 1 March 1992 or may apply to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania for permission to temporarily continue their service.

After the expiration of the term, or upon being refused permission, the person shall be recognised as having severed actual links with the Republic of Lithuania, and shall lose citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania in the manner established by this Law.

5. To explain that the persons who after June 15,1940 serve in the illegally present in Lithuania military forces, in the structures of internal troops (save the persons enrolled to the system of internal affairs of the Republic of Lithuania in accordance with the Resolution No. 398 of September 30, 1991 of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania), of security and other law enforcement and repressive structures of the Soviet Union, may not be qualified as permanently residing or working in Lithuania.

The persons mentioned in part 1 of this paragraph who terminated prior to March 1, 1992, the aforementioned services and who obtained prior to November 4, 1991 a Citizen of the Republic of Lithuania Certification Card or a Certification Testifying to the (Person's) Decision to Acquire Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania (who acquired citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania in accordance with the former Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania (Bul. 1989, No. 33-444), may be issued a passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania. The passports may be also issued to family members of these persons who obtained prior to November 4, 1991 a Citizen of the Republic of Lithuania Certification Card or a Certification Testifying to the (Person's) Decision to Acquire Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania.

6. To establish that the registration of foreigners who are legally permanently residing in Lithuania, and who have passports of the USSR, shall be performed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania. Said persons must apply, not later than by 1 July 1992, to agencies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania for persons to reside permanently in Lithuania. The permits must be issued within one month from the day of application.

The said persons must have their internal passports of the USSR changed for foreign passport of their (respective) states by 1 July 1993.

7. To state that with respect to persons specified in Article 1 of the Republic of Lithuania Law on Citizenship, citizenship of the Soviet Union shall be invalid.

8. A person who has been illegally or groundlessly granted the documents on citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania, may not be issued a passport of citizen of the Republic of Lithuania till the resolution of question on his citizenship in accordance with the Law on citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania.

Recognition of a Citizen of the Republic of Lithuania Certification Card or a Certification Testifying to the (Person's) Decision to acquire Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania as invalid, shall entail the consequences only in regard to documents on citizenship.

A Citizen of the Republic of Lithuania Certification Card or a Certification Testifying to the (Person's) Decision to acquire Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania or a passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania that have been issued illegally and groundlessly, shall be withdrawn by the migration services of the Ministry of Interior.

The persons who have been groundlessly issued a Citizen of the Republic of Lithuania Certification Card or a Certification Testifying to the (Person's) Decision to acquire Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania or a passport of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania, shall be obliged to return these documents to the migration services of the Ministry of Interior.

A citizen of the Republic of Lithuania who has got a passport of a citizen of other state or other document confirming citizenship of that state, after he has been issued documents on citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania, shall be obliged within ten days to inform about that in writing the migration service (of city, region) at the place of residence in Lithuania or the Department on migration under the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Lithuania or the diplomatic (consular) institution of the Republic of Lithuania abroad.

A citizen of the Republic of Lithuania who has got a passport of a citizen of other state or other document confirming citizenship of that state, after he has been issued documents of citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania shall lose citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania since the date he has been issued a passport of a citizen of other state or another document confirming citizenship of that state.

9. Persons specified in paragraphs 1 and 2 of part 1 of Article 1 of this Law, who have not signed the Pledge which is to be signed upon being issued a Citizen of the Republic of Lithuania Certification Card of a Certification Testifying to the (Person's) Decision to Acquire Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania shall be issued passports of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania or any other citizenship document only after said persons have signed the Pledge.

Upon issuing said persons with citizenship documents, passport agencies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs must require (the persons present) and check documents proving that the persons meet the requirements set forth in paragraphs 1 and 2 of part 1 of Article 1 of this Law.

10. From the day of entry into force of the Republic of Lithuania Law on Citizenship, passport agencies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania must cease the issuance of internal passports of the USSR.

To establish that during the period until the passports of the Republic of Lithuania are issued, citizens of the Republic of Lithuania shall use a Citizen of the Republic of Lithuania Certification Card or a Certification Testifying to the (Person's) Decision to Acquire Citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania, and their current passports.

11. To commission the Government of the Republic of Lithuania to determine the documents confirming the right to citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania by 1 March 1992.

12. Priority in issuing passports of a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania shall be given to persons who are 16 years of age and receive a passport for the first time, to political prisoners, deportees, and participants in the resistance movement, as well as to persons who by 17 September 1991 had returned their passports of the USSR to passport agencies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or submitted applications concerning their refusal of the passports of the USSR.

13. This Resolution shall enter into force on 11 December 1991.