Moving to Lithuania from Ireland

Irish citizens can live in Lithuania by right, under the free movement arrangements between the EU, EEA and Switzerland. A couple who both hold Irish passports do not need to qualify through a work, income or investment route, though registration and other local rules still apply. Check the official requirements before you move.

If one of you holds a different passport, that partner's position can differ. For people without a right of residence, our residency index rates Lithuania 60/100 (possible, with conditions). Lithuania has no passive-income or retiree visa, so realistic long-term routes are employment (incl. EU Blue Card), study, family reunification, or a self-employment/business residence permit, with permanent residence available after five years.

For short visits, Irish passport holders can visit visa-free, according to the passport-index dataset. Short-stay entry covers visits; living there takes a residence permit or a right of residence.

Ranked by our match model for a typical couple who both hold Irish passports, using the preset answers of our best places to live list. Your own answers would change the order. We pick the cities, up to five, by how often English Wikipedia readers looked them up over the past year.

1. 1

   1. Kaunas

   70% match

   Est. cost

   €2,886/mo

   Avg temp

   9°C

   Safety index

   69/100

2. 2

   2. Klaipėda

   69% match

   Est. cost

   €2,826/mo

   Avg temp

   9°C

   Safety index

   69/100

3. 3

   3. Vilnius

   69% match

   Est. cost

   €2,959/mo

   Avg temp

   8°C

   Safety index

   69/100

Our estimate for a couple living centrally runs from €2,826 a month in Klaipėda to €2,959 in Vilnius. For comparison, we estimate €4,127 a month in Dublin. Use these figures to compare places rather than to set a budget.

Lithuania is in our low to medium tax tier (moderate personal income tax); Ireland is in our high tax tier (high personal income tax). Tiers describe each country's own income tax. They do not cover tax you may still owe in Ireland after you leave, or the treaty between the two countries, so check both with a tax adviser before you move.

• Best places to live in Eastern Europe

• Moving to Lithuania from the US
• Moving to Lithuania from the UK
• Moving to Lithuania from Canada
• Moving to Lithuania from Australia
• Moving to Lithuania from New Zealand

Every country and origin we cover

Every figure here comes from the datasets behind our city and country pages:

• Short-stay entry: the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT license), which records the entry rule for short visits on each passport.
• Residency index, routes and thresholds: the OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed against published immigration rules, figures as of June 2026. It is a summary, not legal advice.
• City ranking: our match model, the one behind the quiz, run with a typical couple's preset answers and both partners holding Irish passports. It ranks up to five of the country's best-known cities: of the cities in our quiz (100,000 people or more, capitals and a few towns movers seek out, such as Faro), the five most read about on English Wikipedia over the past year. It folds suburbs into their main city and leaves out countries with a residency index under 40 and areas under a US State Department Level 4 advisory, as our best-cities lists do.
• Costs: our cost model, a country-level cost-of-living index scaled for city size, from our city dataset (last rebuilt June 2026).
• For Lithuania, the cost index and the safety score are country-level estimates from World Bank indicators, calibrated to our reference tables; our Lithuania country page names each indicator and year. Source: The World Bank (World Development Indicators, Worldwide Governance Indicators), CC BY 4.0.
• Tax tiers: three coarse bands we assign by hand from each country's top marginal personal income tax rate and overall tax reputation.