Lithuanian minister proposes to ban self-employment for foreign students

Lithuania’s interior minister has proposed banning foreign students from working under self-employment certificates, arguing that some use student visas primarily as a way to obtain temporary residence permits rather than pursue their education.

Tanjid, a student from Bangladesh in his second year at Vilnius College, says he balances work and studies in Lithuania.

“I know my class schedule – I have one or two lectures a day, so it’s easy to fit everything in,” he says.

However, finding work under an employment contract while pursuing a bachelor’s degree is difficult, he adds.

“I worked full time in a warehouse over the summer, but once classes started, it became difficult to balance everything, so I quit. But I came here to study – that’s what I’m focused on, and I work only to support myself,” he says.

According to the Migration Department, more than 230,000 foreigners currently hold temporary residence permits in Lithuania. Only about 5%, or 12,000 came to the country to study. The largest groups of international students come from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Morocco and Belarus.

Interior Minister Martynas Katelynas argues some students seek to enter Lithuania primarily to work, rather than study. He said foreign students exploit the system by attending classes only when necessary to maintain their residence status.

He said employers and universities also benefit from the current arrangement, as higher enrolment brings additional funding to educational institutions.

“The lecturers themselves say that migrants come only to take exams and ask for passing grades so that their residence permits based on studies are not revoked,” Katelynas said.

The minister wants to eliminate the option for foreign students to work under self-employment certificates (individuali veikla), which offer a more flexible arrangement than standard employment contracts.

He said European Union directives prevent Lithuania from banning foreign students from working altogether, but that regulating self-employment falls within national competence.

Last year, the Migration Department inspected higher education institutions and found cases in which students were absent from classes they were scheduled to attend. The department also found that institutions had failed to report when foreign students took academic leave, which could have triggered the revocation of their residence permits.

Katelynas declined to name the institutions involved, saying they were mostly colleges.

Eugenijus Gentvilas, a member of parliament from the Liberal Movement faction, questioned whether restrictions on foreign students were justified when the number of international students remained relatively small compared with the overall immigrant population.

“Please tell us which higher education institutions, which colleges, failed to learn from the observations made,” Gentvilas said. “Talking about restricting the number of foreign students when there are 12,000 of them among 220,000 migrants sounds excessively harsh toward other higher education institutions, which are being asked to internationalise their studies.”

Migration Department Director Indrė Gasperė said institutions are now more responsive to reporting requirements.

“Any change concerning a student must be reported to the Migration Department: if the student has discontinued their studies or is not earning enough credits,” she said. “Failure to report this information carries a fine under the Code of Administrative Offenses. Universities are listening to us.”

Universities also say the situation has improved.

At the private Kazimieras Simonavičius University, about two-thirds of students are foreign nationals. University representative Edgaras Genys said attendance had improved and cases of abuse had declined after rules were tightened.

“In previous years, the rules were more liberal and the admission criteria were somewhat lower, so such things could happen,” he said.

However, Genys warned that restricting employment options could make Lithuania less attractive to international students choosing where to study.

The Conference of Rectors of Lithuanian Universities also opposes the proposed restrictions.

“We would not want our students to be disadvantaged compared with students in other countries,” representative Alvidas Šarlauskas said. “Spending half the week on additional work alongside one’s studies is reasonable.”

Katelynas insists foreign students would still be able to work under standard employment contracts if the proposed restriction on self-employment is introduced. In practice, however, that would be near-impossible, since employers are generally reluctant to offer contracts to student and part-time employees.