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The Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania (SACL) is hearing an administrative case against the decision of the Migration Department, which annulled the decision of the territorial division of the Department to accept an application for a temporary residence permit in the Republic of Lithuania of an alien holding the citizenship of Canada and Russia. According to the Migration Department, despite the fact that the alien in question entered the Republic of Lithuania under a visa-free regime as a Canadian citizen, the regulations laid down in the Law on Restrictive Measures, which is temporarily in force, are applicable due to his Russian citizenship. According to the provisions of this Law, Russian citizens applying for a temporary residence permit in the Republic of Lithuania must present a valid visa or residence permit. Since such documents were not submitted with the application for a temporary residence permit in the Republic of Lithuania, the Migration Department takes the position that the foreigner had no right to submit such an application. According to the alien, the national legislation in force for the time being applicable to him violates the provisions of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union and its Member States ('IEPA').
After examining the rules laid down in the IEPA, the referring judge had doubts as to whether the alien could rely on the provisions of that agreement before a national court. Furthermore, the Chamber of Judges doubted whether the provisions of Regulation 2018/1806, which establishes the lists of third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders of the Member State concerned and those whose nationals are exempted from that requirement, do not preclude, for the purpose of submitting an application for a temporary residence permit for temporary residence in the Republic of Lithuania, the requirement of a valid visa or a residence permit for a foreign national who is not only a citizen of Russia, but also of Canada, a country the nationals of which are covered by the visa waiver regime provided for in the Regulation. Accordingly, the Chamber asked the Court of Justice to clarify:

1. Is Article 30.6 of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union and its Member States to be interpreted as precluding a person who holds Canadian, Israeli and Russian citizenship from relying on the provisions of that agreement in an appeal to a national court against a temporary residence permit in the Republic of Lithuania in circumstances such as those of the present case?

2. Is Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1806 of the European Parliament and of the Council listing the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders of Member States and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement, read in conjunction with Annex II, must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation which is provisionally applicable, under which a Russian national seeking to apply for a temporary residence permit in the Republic of Lithuania is subject to a requirement to present a valid visa or residence permit, notwithstanding the fact that such a person entered the Republic of Lithuania under a visa waiver as a national of a State listed in Annex II to Regulation 2018/1806, while at the same time raising the question of the compatibility of those provisions of Regulation 2018/1806 with the IEPS in circumstances such as those of the present case.

Administrative Case No eA-1670-575/2024.