
In 2023, Belarusians received 281,279 first residence permits in the EU countries – 7.5% of the total number of permits issued last year, according to new data from Eurostat.
In total, in 2023, EU countries issued more than 3.7 million first residence permits (4.7% more than in 2022). Belarusians are in the second place after Ukrainians in the number of permits received. Indian citizens are in the third place.
Of all the first residence permits received by Belarusians last year, 52.3% were issued on the basis of work, 2.6% — for education, 2.6% — for family reunification, 42.5% — for other reasons (including on the basis of international protection).
Of the total number of primary residence permits received by Belarusians last year, 90.9% of them were issued by Poland, 5.8% by Lithuania, 0.7% by Germany, 2.7% by other EU countries.
The citizens of Belarus were in the top 5 citizens of the countries to whom Poland, Lithuania and Latvia issued the first residence permits last year:
Belarusians received 130.67 thousand rubles in Poland.The residence permits based on work and 117.45 thousand — for other reasons. In Lithuania, 13.47 thousand permits were issued on the basis of work, 758 – for other reasons.
In 2022, Belarusians received a little more than 300 thousand first residence permits in the EU, in 2021 — more than 149 thousand, in 2020 – 63.5 thousand.