Table of Contents
Why This Page Exists
This site covers immigration, tax, banking and insurance, and people make consequential decisions on it โ whether to accept a job offer, which insurance policy will satisfy a residence permit application, how much money to show at a migration appointment. Getting those wrong costs a refused application, a missed deadline, or a policy that does not cover what someone assumed.
So it is reasonable to ask where our information comes from, how it is checked, and who pays for the site. This page answers all three.
How We Source Information
Everything factual here should be traceable to a primary source:
| Topic | Primary source we use |
|---|---|
| Immigration, permits, visas | Migration Department (Migracijos departamentas) |
| Income tax, VAT, tax returns | State Tax Inspectorate (VMI) |
| Social contributions, pensions | Sodra |
| Health insurance, PSD coverage | National Health Insurance Fund |
| Personal codes, population register | Centre of Registers |
| Higher education, diploma recognition | studyin.lt, SKVC, universities directly |
| Licensed insurers | Lithuanian Insurers Association register |
| Bank and fintech terms | The provider's own published terms and pricing |
Where a figure is disputed between sources, we say so on the page rather than quietly picking one.
The rule we hold ourselves to. If we cannot verify a number against a primary source, we do not publish the number. A guide that is confidently wrong is worse than one that is honestly incomplete.
What We Do When We Don't Know
Three things, in order of preference:
Find the primary source and cite it. Usually possible.
State the uncertainty explicitly and point you at the authority to confirm with. That phrasing recurs across the site; it is a flag, not padding.
Leave it out
If we can do neither of the above, the section does not get written.
What we never do is fill a gap with a plausible-sounding estimate. On an immigration or tax page an invented number is worse than a blank space, because a blank space prompts you to check and a number does not.
How We Make Money
HowToLithuania.com is free to read and reader-supported. We earn money in two ways:
Affiliate commissions
One programme, and it isn't the one you'd expect.
- Book links go to Amazon โ as an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases
- Our links to banks, fintechs and insurers earn us nothing today. They carry no tracking and no commission
- That may change. If we sign an affiliate agreement, this page and the disclosure on every affected page change with it, before the first link does
- It would never cost you more โ the price is the same either way
Referral partnerships
- We connect readers with immigration specialists
- We may receive a fee for a successful introduction
- The service is free to you
- We only work with licensed practitioners
That is it. We do not sell your personal data, publish sponsored articles disguised as guides, or accept payment to change a ranking or a review.
Commercial Separation
The risk with a reader-supported site is that money quietly shapes the advice. That is mostly theoretical for us today, because the commercial links here earn nothing โ but these are the rules we intend to still be following on the day that changes.
- Rankings are set before commercial terms are considered. We decide what's genuinely best for a given reader, then attach links โ not the reverse.
- We recommend products that pay us nothing when they're the right answer. Several pages on this site tell readers that the state option, a free alternative, or doing nothing is better than the commercial product.
- Every recommendation lists its downsides. A comparison with no criticism in it is an advertisement. Drawbacks are listed for every option we cover, including the ones we recommend.
- We tell you when you can stop buying. Our insurance guides explain that getting a job may move you onto employer-funded state health cover, letting you cancel a private policy โ including ones we link to.
- A partner cannot buy a better review. There is no price for this.
The test we apply. Before publishing a recommendation we ask: would we give this advice to a friend moving here, if there were no commission attached? If not, the recommendation changes. Not the disclosure โ the recommendation.
How We Decide What to Recommend
Our criteria, roughly in the order we weigh them โ a weighting, not a sequence.
| Criterion | What it means |
|---|---|
| Does it actually solve the reader's problem? | The best bank account for a newly arrived non-EU student is a different product from the best one for a settled professional, so we segment by situation rather than crowning a winner. |
| Is it accessible to the reader? | An account you cannot open without a residence permit is useless before you have one. Availability beats features. |
| Total cost, including the invisible parts | Exchange-rate markups and conditional fees often matter more than headline prices. |
| Is it legitimate and licensed? | We only cover regulated providers. |
| Does it work in English? | Our readers largely don't speak Lithuanian yet. |
How Often We Update
Every page carries a "last updated" date reflecting when the content was reviewed, not when a template changed.
| How Often We Update | Detail |
|---|---|
| Tax and contribution rates | Reviewed annually, and whenever rates change mid-year |
| Immigration rules and fees | Reviewed regularly; these change without much notice |
| Product comparisons | Reviewed periodically, since terms change quietly |
| Anything a reader flags | Checked promptly |
If a page looks out of date, tell us and we will check it.
Corrections
We will get things wrong, and when we do we want to know quickly and fix it visibly.
- Report it via our contact page, with the page and, if you have it, the source showing the correct position.
- We check it against the primary source rather than taking your word or our own previous work.
- We correct it and update the date. For anything material, we note what changed.
- We don't quietly delete errors. If something was wrong in a way that could have affected a decision, we say so.
If you are a provider we have covered. If we have described your product inaccurately, tell us and we will correct it, commercial relationship or not. What we will not do is remove accurate criticism because you would prefer it were not there.
Our Position on AI
We use AI tools for research, drafting and structure โ the same way we would use a search engine or a spellchecker. What that does not mean:
- We do not publish unverified AI-generated facts. Language models are confidently wrong about tax rates and immigration rules, the exact failure this site cannot afford.
- Every figure is checked against a primary source by a human before publication.
- Editorial judgement โ what to recommend, warn about or leave out โ is ours.
The verification standard is the same however a draft was produced.
What We Are Not
We are not lawyers, tax advisers, immigration consultants or financial advisers
This site is general information, not advice about your specific situation. Immigration and tax outcomes depend on individual circumstances in ways a general guide cannot account for. For anything consequential or unusual, get professional advice โ and always confirm current requirements with the relevant Lithuanian authority before acting.
We also are not the government. Where an official source exists โ the Migration Department, VMI, Sodra, studyin.lt โ it is authoritative and we are not; where they disagree with us, they are right. What we try to be is the practical layer: what the official page means, what order to do things in, what it costs, and what people get wrong.