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Legal status of foreign nationals: Lithuania's more favourable procedure for granting asylum to a child of a person who has already been granted asylum is compatible with the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

In its ruling of 22 April 2026, the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania (SACL) held that the Migration Department had unlawfully failed to apply the provisions of the Description of the Procedure for Granting and Withdrawing Asylum in the Republic of Lithuania (the Procedure), which establish more favourable conditions for granting asylum to family members of persons who have already been granted asylum in Lithuania.

In its appeal, the Migration Department argued that, in light of a judgment of the CJEU, paragraph 109 of the Procedure was incompatible with Article 3 of Directive 2011/95/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 (the Qualification Directive). It therefore maintained that the Department was required to disapply that provision.

SACL observed that Article 3 of the Qualification Directive expressly allows Member States to introduce or retain more favourable standards for determining who qualifies as a refugee or as a person eligible for subsidiary protection.

Paragraph 109 of the Procedure provides that, at the request of a foreign national who has been granted asylum, a child born during that person's period of lawful protection in Lithuania is granted the same form of asylum as the parent, without carrying out the examination referred to in paragraph 97 of the Procedure.

Having examined the consistent case-law of the CJEU on derivative rights to international protection, SACL noted that the automatic granting of derivative refugee status to family members of a person who has already been recognised as a refugee under the system established by the Qualification Directive is not regarded by the CJEU as inherently incompatible with the system of international protection. The CJEU has expressly recognised that Member States may adopt national legislation granting refugee status, as a derivative right, to family members of recognised refugees where such legislation is consistent with the Directive.

Lithuania has exercised that option by introducing the more favourable provisions contained in paragraph 109 of the Procedure. Consequently, the CJEU judgment relied upon by the Migration Department was not relevant to the present dispute and could not justify disregarding the applicable provisions of national law.

According to SACL, both the Qualification Directive and the national Procedure establish a child protection standard under which the effective application of the law is inseparable from the principle of the best interests of the child. In the present case, allowing the applicant to benefit from a derivative right to asylum would ensure compliance with that principle while safeguarding family unity, promoting the child's welfare and social development, and guaranteeing the child's physical and psychological security.

In these circumstances, SACL dismissed the Migration Department's appeal and upheld the judgment of the court of first instance.

Administrative case No. eA-1900-822/2026