School

Steps

1. Sort out your residence and declare your address (sheet LT-SEJOUR-TOUS-001): the IOM states that a foreign child must have a national visa or a residence permit to be admitted; for children of EU citizens, the list of documents is set by the school's owner, generally the municipality, within the ministry's general admission criteria (Eurydice): ask your municipality; enrolment is often done online.
2. Nursery (darželis, from birth to age 6, optional): in the larger cities (Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai, Marijampolė), applications are centralised online. Sign up early: groups fill up in advance. From age 3, the municipality must offer a place if you ask for one.
3. Pre-primary year: compulsory in the calendar year of age 6 (at age 5 at the earliest if you request it); a place in a public establishment is guaranteed.
4. School: preferably choose the school closest to your home. In Vilnius, apply online at svietimas.vilnius.lt (with a residence permit) or by email to savivaldybe@vilnius.lt (with a D visa). For online procedures, a login through a Lithuanian bank is often needed; otherwise the municipality's education department or the school will help you.
5. Child's level: a school committee compares their foreign schooling with the Lithuanian curriculum and may propose tests.
6. If they do not speak Lithuanian, they can attend a catch-up class before joining a regular class.
7. French or international school: contact the school directly (each school has its own procedure and calendar).

Documents

• Identity documents of both parents and of the child (Go Vilnius).
• Report cards or school attendance certificate, translated (IOM).
• Child's annual medical certificate, to be requested early.
• For nursery: medical certificate and municipality form.

Costs and timelines

• Public school: free; supplies, exercise books and canteen are at your expense (EURES, Go Vilnius). Free lunch with no income condition in pre-primary and 1st year since 1 September 2020; for other pupils, subject to the family's income (Eurydice, page updated in March 2024). Today, free lunch with no income condition covers pre-primary, 1st and 2nd year (Ministry of Social Security and Labour; the IOM confirms 1st and 2nd year). The government has approved extending it to the 3rd year from September 2027 and to the 4th from September 2028; the Seimas began examining the amendment to the law on 20/10/2026, so these dates have not yet been voted.
• Municipal nursery: 20 hours per week funded by the State or the municipality; meals and materials about €50 to €60 per month (IOM); Go Vilnius states about €120 per month in Vilnius. Private nursery: €120 to €500 per month; Vilnius pays a compensation of €120 per month and the Klaipėda region €250 (IOM, undated amounts; each private nursery and each municipality sets its own: ask for them before enrolling).
• Private schools: from a few hundred to several thousand euros per year, plus meals and services (Go Vilnius). Fees of the Lycée international français de Vilnius: on lifv.lt.
• Calendar: main admission in Vilnius from 1 March to 31 May; applications possible all year if places remain. The school year starts on 1 September; the autumn, Christmas, winter and Easter holidays (17 school days at most in total) are set by each school head, and summer generally runs from June to 1 September (Eurydice): ask your school for the calendar.
• Recognition of a higher education diploma: through the Studijų kokybės vertinimo centras (SKVC, the higher education quality assessment centre, which is the Lithuanian ENIC-NARIC centre according to the ENIC-NARIC networks' website; website: skvc.lrv.lt) or an authorised institution; free of charge, in principle within one month of a complete application (IOM).

Common pitfalls

• Waiting until you arrive to look for a nursery. Places go quickly in the larger cities: sign up as soon as you have your address.
• Forgetting the medical certificate. It is required for nursery and school.
• Thinking the year of age 6 is optional. Pre-primary is compulsory.
• Looking for a public school in English or French. In Vilnius, public education is in Lithuanian, Russian and Polish (sometimes in Ukrainian, Belarusian or Hebrew): for English or French, Go Vilnius says you need a private school. The IOM writes that most schools in the country teach in Lithuanian and that a few offer English, Polish, Russian, Belarusian, German or French: ask your municipality what exists near you.
• Confusing academic and professional recognition. For a regulated profession, it is the authority of that profession that decides; for the others, it is the employer.

What changes by country of origin

• EU and EEA citizens: access to public school on the same terms as Lithuanians; the documents to provide are set by the municipality (Eurydice): ask for the list with your residence certificate in hand. Priority goes to children who live in the school's catchment area.
• Swiss citizens: same conditions as EU citizens (free movement).
• British citizens (Scots included): the child needs a national visa or a residence permit (IOM). The Lycée international français and the English-language schools (Vilnius International School, British School of Vilnius, Australian International School in Vilnius, cited by the IOM) remain accessible under their own rules.
• French citizens: the Lycée international français de Vilnius, under Lithuanian law and under agreement with the AEFE, takes children from 1.5 to 18 years old up to the baccalauréat; school grants are possible for a French child attending an approved school, means-tested, with registration of the child and the applicant parent in the register of French nationals living abroad; this is not an entitlement and the file is reviewed every year (French embassy). If you cannot enrol your child at the lycée, the CNED full-year course is reserved, according to the embassy, for pupils enrolled in the French system the previous year who meet one of the conditions it lists (for example, an impossibility of local enrolment), with the favourable opinion of the cultural counsellor; the supplementary option, to be followed in addition to a Lithuanian school, is requested directly from the CNED without that opinion. CNED pupils can sit the brevet and the baccalauréat at the Vilnius lycée.