# Lithuania — records retrieval dossier

> EasyPassport knowledge base for citizenship-by-descent record retrieval. **General
> guidance to confirm on the official pages listed under Sources — not legal
> advice.** Fees, URLs, offices, and processing times change; verify before quoting.

## Vital records (birth / marriage / death)

- **Holding office:** Split by era. PRE-1940 civil/vital records (the era that matters for pre-1940 descent) are held by the Lithuanian State Historical Archives (Lietuvos valstybės istorijos archyvas, LVIA), Mindaugo g. 8, LT-03107 Vilnius — this archive holds the metric (church) books that served as civil registration before 1940. POST-1940 records are held by the local civil registry office (civilinės metrikacijos skyrius) and the Centre of Registers (Registrų centras), and since 2017 are issued as 'civil-status extracts' rather than certificates.
- **How to request:** For pre-1940 records: submit LVIA's dedicated application form (separate forms exist for birth, marriage, and death) in person, by post, or by email to istorijos.archyvas@archyvai.lt. A copy of the requester's ID must be attached for postal/email requests; an authorized representative must also attach proof of identity + authorization. Post-1940 extracts are requested at any civil registry office, a Lithuanian consular post, or via the Centre of Registers. The MFA explicitly directs descent applicants to LVIA for pre-1940 birth/marriage/death records.
- **Online portal:** https://lvia.archyvai.lrv.lt/en/application-forms/
- **Who may request:** Anyone may request pre-1940 metric records at LVIA (these are historical archival records). For POST-1940 civil-registry extracts of a RELATIVE (spouse, parent, grandparent, great-grandparent), the extract is issued only with that person's consent or, if deceased, on proof of death — and the requester must additionally submit documents evidencing kinship (birth/marriage certificates). A person's own post-1940 record is available to them from age 16.
- **Cost:** LVIA archival search is fee-based per the State Archives price list (Office of the Chief Archivist Order No. VE-30 of 8 July 2022, amended by Order No. VE-23 of 9 Dec 2025; https://lvia.archyvai.lrv.lt/en/services/Pricelist/); exact euro amounts vary by service tier and were not read line-by-line. Separate from record cost, the Migration Department state fee is EUR 120 to examine a reinstatement application and EUR 50 for the 'certificate confirming the right to reinstate citizenship'.
- **Timeline:** LVIA offers tiered processing: standard/by order of precedence (roughly a month), an expedited 10-working-day option, and a 5-working-day option (the tiered/expedited framing is reported by a Lithuanian migration law firm summarizing LVIA practice, not read verbatim off the LVIA price order). Migration Department processing timelines for the citizenship decision itself are not published as a guarantee.
- **Language:** Requests to LVIA should be made in Lithuanian; the official application forms are Lithuanian (English-language email correspondence is accepted in practice). Records themselves are in the language of the era: Latin/Polish (Catholic), Russian/Cyrillic (1795–1918 Russian-Empire civil-religious registration), Hebrew/Yiddish (Jewish), German (Klaipėda/Memel).
- **Notes:** Key boundary: 1940 is the practical civil-registration cutoff for the descent era. Metric (parish/religious-community) books were the civil registration mechanism before 1940 and are concentrated at LVIA; books survive back to the 16th century for some parishes but coverage is uneven. Since 1 Jan 2017 Lithuania issues civil-status 'extracts' (išrašai) instead of the old certificates for post-1940 events.

## Historical & church records (before civil registration)

- **Parish / church:** Church/parish metric books (Roman Catholic 'RKB', plus Jewish, Orthodox, Old Believer, Evangelical Lutheran, Evangelical Reformed, Muslim, Karaite communities) for the pre-1940 period are physically held at the Lithuanian State Historical Archives (LVIA), Mindaugo g. 8, Vilnius. Catholic and Jewish record sets are the best preserved; Orthodox, Old Believer, Lutheran, Reformed, Muslim and Karaite books survive only sparsely. Digitized scans of many of these books are online (free) at the national portal epaveldas.lt (the archives' Digital Reading Room) — but online coverage is partial; absence online does not mean the book does not exist.
- **National / state archive:** There are THREE distinct national archives, split by record type, and choosing the right one is critical: (1) Lithuanian State Historical Archives / LVIA (lvia.archyvai.lrv.lt) — pre-1940 vital/metric/church records; (2) Lithuanian Central State Archives / LCVA (lcva.archyvai.lrv.lt, lcva@archyvai.lt) — interwar 1918–1940 state records, incl. the citizenship/internal-passport files that DIRECTLY prove an ancestor held Lithuanian citizenship before 15 June 1940; (3) Lithuanian Special Archives / LYA (lya.archyvai.lrv.lt, lya@archyvai.lt) — Soviet-era repression/exile/deportation records used to prove forced removal before 11 March 1990.
- **Notes:** Digitized scans: epaveldas.lt hosts free scans of many parish metric books (run under the Lithuanian archives/Martynas Mažvydas National Library). Third-party indexes worth cross-referencing: JewishGen Lithuania (LitvakSIG) vital-records and internal-passport databases, and FamilySearch's Lithuania church/civil-registration wiki. LVIA holds books dating even to the 16th century, but not all are extant.

## Apostille / legalization

- **Competent authority:** Lithuanian Chamber of Notaries (Lietuvos notarų rūmai) — the designated Hague Art. 6 Competent Authority. Since 18 January 2016 the apostille on Lithuanian public documents is issued by NOTARIES (any Lithuanian notary), NOT by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The MFA Consular Department is a competent authority ONLY for documents received from Lithuanian diplomatic missions/consular posts abroad.
- **URL:** https://www.hcch.net/en/states/authorities/details3/?aid=330
- **Process:** Take the Lithuanian public document (e.g. an LVIA/LCVA archival certificate, a civil-registry extract) to any Lithuanian notary, who affixes the apostille — EUR 15.00 per apostille. Chamber of Notaries: Olimpiečių g. 4, Vilnius, +3705 261 4757, rumai@notarai.lt, notarurumai.lt (notary directory at notarurumai.lt/notary/by-employees). For a Lithuanian document issued via a Lithuanian consulate abroad, the MFA Consular Department (J. Tumo-Vaižganto g. 2, LT-01108 Vilnius, kod@urm.lt) apostilles it at EUR 20.00. FOREIGN documents used in the Lithuanian application (e.g. a US birth or naturalization certificate) are apostilled by the ISSUING country's authority — for US state documents, the Secretary of State of the issuing state; for US federal documents, the US Department of State.
- **Cost:** EUR 15.00 per apostille via a notary (Lithuanian documents); EUR 20.00 via the MFA Consular Department (only for documents from Lithuanian diplomatic/consular posts).
- **Notes:** Lithuania is a Hague Apostille Convention party (Convention #12; in force for Lithuania since 2001) — so an apostille, not consular legalization, is the chain. THE ERROR-PRONE FACT: many guides still say the MFA issues the apostille; that has been WRONG since 18 Jan 2016 — Lithuanian-issued documents are apostilled by notaries. Notary-certified copies of foreign documents (except those issued in Lithuania) must themselves additionally carry an apostille.

> **Apostille authority — verification (✓ confirmed against HCCH, 2026-07):** No corrections — the researched authority holds.

## Translation

- **Requirement:** Mandatory. Every foreign document submitted to the Migration Department (via the MIGRIS system) — EXCEPT passports — must be translated into Lithuanian, and the translation must be 'official' (certified). This covers foreign birth, marriage, death and naturalization certificates.
- **Notes:** Lithuania does not operate a state 'sworn translator' registry in the civil-law sense of some countries; in practice an 'official' translation means the translation is done by a professional translator/translation bureau and the translator's signature is certified by a notary (or the translation is prepared/certified through a consular post). The sequence matters: the foreign document should be apostilled FIRST, then translated (so the apostille text is included in the certified translation). Confirm the exact certification form the reviewing Migration Department officer or consulate will accept, as practice is applied case-by-case.

## Emigration & naturalization (the chain-break)

- **Emigrant / exit records:** Interwar emigration/identity records are at the Lithuanian Central State Archives (LCVA): the Lithuania internal-passport system (every citizen aged 17+ held an internal passport, 1919–1940) and citizenship/passport files are the primary exit-era proof and are indexed by JewishGen/LitvakSIG. For the earlier mass-emigration wave (c. 1868–1915, under the Russian Empire), the relevant metric and residency records are at LVIA. LCVA is also where the MFA says to request confirmation that an ancestor held Lithuanian citizenship before 15 June 1940 when no family document survives (lcva@archyvai.lt, forms at lcva.archyvai.lrv.lt/en/application-forms/).
- **Destination naturalization:** IMPORTANT — the chain-break logic is INVERTED versus countries like Italy: for Lithuanian reinstatement, evidence that the ancestor NATURALIZED ABROAD is REQUIRED PROOF, not a disqualifier. The MFA explicitly lists a 'U.S. naturalization certificate ... issued prior to 11 March 1990' as acceptable proof that the person left/was exiled from Lithuania before 11 March 1990 — which is precisely the condition that lets the applicant and descendants hold DUAL citizenship on reinstatement. A descendant checks the ancestor's foreign naturalization via the destination country's records (in the US: the USCIS Genealogy Program and NARA/naturalization court records). The critical timing question is whether the departure/naturalization occurred BEFORE 11 March 1990 (dual citizenship allowed) versus after (generally requires renouncing the other citizenship).
- **Notes:** Two hard date fences: (a) the ancestor must have held citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania before 15 June 1940 — but note the Republic was founded 16 Feb 1918, so someone who emigrated before 1918 may never have held Lithuanian (as opposed to Russian-Empire) citizenship, breaking the claim; (b) the pre-11-March-1990 departure/exile condition governs whether dual citizenship is permitted. The MFA also stresses that being BORN in Lithuania, by itself, does NOT establish that the ancestor was a Lithuanian citizen — a citizenship-bearing document is required.

## Gotchas

- Three different archives, split by record type — routing a request to the wrong one wastes weeks: LVIA (pre-1940 vital/church records), LCVA (interwar 1918–1940 citizenship & internal-passport proof), LYA (Soviet exile/repression proof). A descent case typically needs BOTH LVIA (vitals) and LCVA (the citizenship-proof document).
- 'Born in Lithuania' is NOT proof of citizenship — the Migration Department/MFA explicitly warn that birth in the territory alone does not establish the ancestor was a citizen; you need a citizenship-bearing document (interwar passport, service/employment record, or an LCVA-issued citizenship confirmation).
- Shifting interwar borders put records in other countries' archives: the Vilnius region was under Poland (1920–1939), Klaipėda/Memel was German/Prussian, and border areas are now in Belarus, Poland or the Kaliningrad (Russia) region — so an ancestor's 'Lithuanian' town records may sit in a Polish, Belarusian or Russian archive, not in Lithuania.
- Language and script drift: Russian/Cyrillic for 1795–1918 civil-religious registration, Polish/Latin for Catholic parishes, Hebrew/Yiddish for Jewish records, German for Klaipėda — patronymics and phonetic re-spellings (plus Americanized surname changes at emigration) make name-matching hard; you must supply documents evidencing any name change.
- Not all metric books survived: Catholic and Jewish books are well preserved, but Orthodox, Old Believer, Lutheran, Reformed, Muslim and Karaite books survive only sparsely — a missing record may reflect wartime loss, not researcher error.
- epaveldas.lt has many free scans but is INCOMPLETE — a book not visible online may still exist physically at LVIA; do not conclude a record is lost because it is not on the portal.
- Apostille misconception: since 18 Jan 2016 Lithuanian public documents are apostilled by NOTARIES (EUR 15), not the MFA — older guides that send you to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are outdated (the MFA only apostilles documents originating from Lithuanian consulates abroad).
- Applications are submitted only through the MIGRIS online system (www.migracija.lt) since 15 Nov 2021, and originals must be presented in person at a consulate within 4 months after the Migration Department's preliminary review — you cannot book the consular visit until the Department signals the uploaded documents are deficiency-free.

## Sources

- [Consulate General of Lithuania (MFA official) — Lithuanian citizenship reinstatement: required documents, translation, apostille, archive routing](https://la.mfa.lt/en/consular-information/consular-issues/lithuanian-citizenship/128)
- [Migration Department (migracija.lrv.lt) — state fees for citizenship services (EUR 120 reinstatement; EUR 50 certificate)](https://migracija.lrv.lt/en/services/state-fees-for-services/citizenship-of-the-republic-of-lithuania/)
- [HCCH — Lithuania Competent Authority (Apostille): Chamber of Notaries (EUR 15, notaries since 18 Jan 2016) + MFA Consular Dept (EUR 20)](https://www.hcch.net/en/states/authorities/details3/?aid=330)
- [Lithuanian State Historical Archives (LVIA) — home / contacts (Mindaugo g. 8, Vilnius; istorijos.archyvas@archyvai.lt)](https://lvia.archyvai.lrv.lt/en/)
- [LVIA — application forms for documents confirming birth/marriage/death; request channels + fee-basis (price-list order VE-30/VE-23)](https://lvia.archyvai.lrv.lt/en/application-forms/)
- [HCCH — full list of Apostille Convention (#12) authorities (Lithuania listed)](https://www.hcch.net/en/instruments/conventions/authorities1/?cid=41)
- [Migration Law Center (migration.lt) — birth-certificate retrieval mechanics: pre-1940 at LVIA, post-2017 extracts, relative-consent rules, processing tiers](https://www.migration.lt/search-and-order-of-birth-certificates-in-lithuania)
- [JewishGen / LitvakSIG — Lithuania Internal Passports database (1919–1940 internal-passport exit-era records at LCVA)](https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/lithuania/internalpassports.htm)

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General guidance, not legal advice. EasyPassport is a document-organization tool, not a law firm. Confirm your own case with the relevant authority or a qualified professional.