Before you start

If your child has just been taken, read our guide on international child abduction first. It explains when a removal counts as wrongful and when return can be refused. This page is about the practical side: what happens once you decide to act.

One point matters above all: time. The longer you wait, the harder the case. If more than a year passes before the case starts, the other parent can argue that the child has settled in Lithuania.

Step 1: The application

You have two ways to start:

Through a Central Authority. You contact the Central Authority in the country where your child lived, or directly the Lithuanian one. It checks the application, sends it on, helps find the child and first tries to arrange a voluntary return.

Directly to the court. You, usually through a Lithuanian lawyer, file the application with the Vilnius Regional Court (Vilniaus apygardos teismas). It is the only court in Lithuania that hears these cases.

Many parents do both: the Central Authority route runs in parallel while a lawyer prepares the court case.

What the application needs

  • who you are, who the child is and who took the child;
  • the child’s date of birth;
  • why the removal or retention was wrongful, usually because you share parental responsibility under the law of your country;
  • where the child is now, as far as you know;
  • an address in Lithuania or an email address where court documents can be sent to you, if you live abroad and have no representative here.

Documents worth attaching

Birth certificate, any court decisions or agreements about the child, proof of where the child lived (school, doctor, tenancy), and anything showing how and when the child left: messages, tickets, a return date that was not kept. Documents from abroad will need Lithuanian translations; see documents from abroad.

Step 2: Urgent measures

At the start, the court can protect the situation while the case runs:

A travel ban

The court can prohibit the other parent from leaving Lithuania and prohibit taking the child out of the country without its permission. This stops the child from being moved again.

Contact during the case

The court can consider whether you should see or speak to your child while the case is going on. Losing contact for weeks makes everything harder, so it is worth asking. Propose something concrete, such as regular video calls at fixed times or supervised meetings, rather than asking for contact in general terms.

Step 3: The court process

The court notifies the other parent and asks the Lithuanian child protection service for information about the child’s situation.

Along the way:

  • Mediation. The court will invite both parents to consider mediation, as early as possible, if it suits the case. A mediated agreement can cover the return and what happens after it.
  • The child’s views. A child who is able to form views is given a real opportunity to express them, directly or through a specialist.
  • Your right to be heard. The court cannot refuse return without giving you the opportunity to be heard.
  • Safety arrangements. If the other parent says return would put the child at serious risk, the court will look at whether protective arrangements in your country can deal with that risk. Evidence of such arrangements can be decisive.

Step 4: The decision and appeal

In cases between EU Member States, the court must decide within six weeks of the case starting, unless exceptional circumstances make this impossible.

Either parent can appeal to the Court of Appeal of Lithuania. The deadline for appealing is short, so the appeal must be prepared quickly. The appeal court also works to a six-week target. Its decision is final: there is no further appeal to the Supreme Court in return cases.

The court can also declare a return order enforceable straight away, even if it is appealed, where the child’s interests require a quick return.

Step 5: Making the return happen

Ideally, the other parent complies and the return is arranged calmly, with dates and travel agreed.

If they do not, the order is enforced by a bailiff (antstolis). The bailiff acts together with the child protection service and, where needed, the police and a psychologist, and must protect the child’s rights throughout. If the order is still not followed, the bailiff can ask the court for permission to take the child by force, which is a last resort.

If a return order has not been enforced within six weeks of starting enforcement, you or the Central Authority can ask for an explanation of the delay.

A realistic timeline

Every case is different, but in an EU case a typical path looks like this:

  • week 0–1: application filed, urgent travel ban requested;
  • weeks 1–6: the court gathers information, mediation is offered, the child and both parents are heard, the decision is given;
  • following weeks: if either parent appeals, the Court of Appeal should decide within six weeks once the appeal is ready;
  • then: return, either voluntarily or through enforcement.

Delays happen, for example when the child cannot be found, documents need translating or experts are involved. Having documents ready and translated from the start is the best way to keep the case on track.

After the return

A return order does not say who the child should live with. Once the child is back, residence, contact and maintenance are decided by the courts of the country where the child lives, in the usual way.

If return is refused because of serious risk or the child’s objection, the courts of your country can still examine custody. If they then decide the child should come back, that decision can be enforced in Lithuania.