By decision of the Migration Department, a foreign national was banned from entering the Republic of Lithuania and other Schengen Area countries for five years from the date of the decision. However, in court, we successfully proved that the entry and residence ban was unfounded and disproportionate.
On May 14, 2025, the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania annulled the five-year ban imposed by the Migration Department on our client’s entry and residence in the Schengen Area, accepting the arguments presented in our appeal. The court clarified that a decision to prohibit a third-country national from entering the Republic of Lithuania for a certain period should not automatically lead to the issuance of a warning in the second-generation Schengen Information System (SIS II). Before entering such a warning, competent authorities are obliged to assess whether the case is adequate, relevant, and sufficiently serious to justify the alert, taking into account its impact on the individual’s rights and providing substantiated reasoning.
The court agreed with our argument that the Migration Department’s decision lacked justification regarding the proportionality of the SIS II alert. It did not include an individualized assessment of the applicant, taking into account personal circumstances—such as family or economic ties—and the consequences of the entry and residence ban. As a result, the ban on entering and residing in Schengen Area countries was annulled.
In this case, the client was represented by Vis Legis attorney Jelena Cvirko.