Lietuvių A2

Working in trade and services: when you need the language certificate

5 min read

A shop assistant serving a customer at the till in a small store, a folder of documents on the counter.

If you sell goods or provide services to residents in Lithuania, the basic (A1) category applies to you for the first two years, and only after that the first (A2) category. These rules have applied since 1 January 2026; they were added to the category description by resolution No. 827 of 26 November 2025.

The practical consequence is simple: for this group the first (A2) category becomes relevant at the earliest from 1 January 2028 — but the two-year clock runs separately for every person.

What the two years are counted from

Not from the day you start a job, and not from the start of a calendar year. The two years are counted from the day the foreigner is first issued a document confirming or granting the right to reside in the Republic of Lithuania.

The same provision covers holders of a seasonal work permit.

Stage Which category What it means in practice
the first two years from the first residence document basic (A1) an A1-level certificate is required
after those two years first (A2) an A2-level certificate is required

In both cases the exam is the same one — a single banded paper with A1 and A2 tasks returning one of three results. So it is worth preparing up to A2 straight away: there is no separate A1 exam, and the two-year boundary arrives on its own.

Who the first (A2) category covers immediately

The two-year concession is aimed specifically at people selling goods and providing services to residents. The general rule for the first category is broader and covers employees whose job involves dealing with people and/or completing standard document forms — in services, production, trade, transport and other sectors.

The description lists the examples: drivers, cloakroom attendants, waiters, shop assistants.

If you are not sure which group you fall into, that is not a question a website can settle reliably: it depends on your actual duties, and the definitive answer comes from the body that administers the exam.

Whose duty is it — the employer's or yours

This part is new and often missed. The description places the duty to make sure that employees serving the public directly hold the certificate on the employer. For self-employed sellers and service providers, the duty is their own.

In practice that means an employee will usually hear about the requirement from their employer — while a self-employed person will hear about it from nobody.

How to register and what it costs

For work purposes you register on the category route — on the e-services site of the body that administers the exam, eksternams.nsa.smm.lt, not through the migration system.

  • registration opens 30 calendar days before the exam and closes 7 days before it;
  • payment is due within 24 hours of the registration being confirmed, otherwise the registration is cancelled;
  • one attempt cost 49 EUR in 2025 and 52 EUR in 2026; each attempt is paid for separately.

The whole registration sequence is covered separately in registering for the exam.

When to start

The real window is narrower than it looks: registration lasts about three weeks, exams run several times a year to a published schedule, and results are announced within 12–15 working days. Between deciding to sit the exam and holding the certificate there are months, not days.

So there is no point waiting for the end of the two-year period — start preparing at least a few months earlier.

Who this requirement does not cover

  • Temporary protection. For foreigners granted temporary protection in Lithuania, the state-language proficiency categories do not apply to taking up employment or working for themselves. This exception does not extend to the exams sat for permanent residence or citizenship.
  • A certificate you already hold. A person who has already obtained a state-language category by passing this exam, and who produces the document confirming it, does not sit the exam.
  • Education. Some people are deemed to have obtained a category through their education — for example those who completed secondary education in a national-minority language before 1991, provided Lithuanian was taught.

All the exemptions, with their conditions, are collected in who does not have to sit the exam.

What this article does not claim

  • We do not say how many re-sits are allowed on the category route. We have no reliable source on re-sits there, so we will claim neither a limit nor the absence of one.
  • We do not list which specific job title belongs to which category, beyond the examples given in the description itself.
  • We name no penalties for not holding the certificate — we did not find them in the description and we will not invent them.

You can check your own level in the sample exam papers and practise writing and speaking in the training section. Short answers about the whole exam are on the FAQ page.

Sources

Last verified: 28 September 2026.

"Lietuvių A2" is an independent exam-preparation website. We are not an examination centre and not a legal practice; we are not affiliated with any institution that organises or recognises the state language exam. This text is informational and is not legal advice. The requirements change — the rules were amended by the resolution of 26 November 2025 with effect from 1 January 2026. Check your own case with the body that administers the exam before acting.

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