Quick answer: Truck driver jobs in Lithuania are real, but there is no special driver visa and an African licence is not enough on its own. You need an EU-recognised C or CE licence, a code 95 qualification, an employer who sponsors your permit, and a place within Lithuania’s quota rules.

Last checked: October 2026

We are writing this because we keep getting messages from people in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe who have been offered a “Lithuania driver visa” for a fee. Before we go further, one honest point: Pumpkin Abroad does not recruit drivers and has no driver vacancies. What we can do is explain how the system works, so you can tell a genuine offer from a trap.

Why Lithuania needs truck drivers

Road haulage is one of Lithuania’s biggest industries. Lithuanian-registered trucks carry goods across the whole of Europe, and for years the sector has relied on drivers from outside the EU, mostly from Belarus, Ukraine and Central Asia. Linava, the National Road Carriers Association, has repeatedly told the government that its members cannot find enough drivers.

The numbers are large. According to Trans.info (May 2026), Lithuanian firms hired more than 25,000 third-country drivers in 2025 and almost 7,000 in the first quarter of 2026. Employers registered about 3,000 heavy goods vehicle driver vacancies in that quarter, against roughly 1,200 jobseekers. Most foreign drivers so far have come from Belarus, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Tajikistan, India, Kyrgyzstan and the Philippines, not from Africa.

The problem is also European. Linava cites a worldwide shortage of about 3.6 million truck drivers, with drivers under 25 making up only 6.5% of the profession and around 3.4 million drivers expected to retire in the next five years.

The Linava and Ghana talks

In June 2026, Linava held talks with Ghanaian representatives about training Ghanaians as drivers and placing them with Lithuanian transport companies. According to Trans.info’s report on the meeting, those present on 23 June 2026 included Linava’s vice-president, a Ghanaian presidential representative and Lithuania’s honorary consul in Ghana.

The plan, as described, includes:

Initial and periodic professional (code 95) training in English at the Linava Training Centre.
Work to allow the final code 95 exam to be taken in English.
Assessing candidates’ skills before they travel.
Strict selection, legal migration procedures, social protection and pay in line with EU market levels.
A possible three-way cooperation agreement if the talks succeed.

Read that carefully. These were talks about a possible programme, not an open recruitment drive. At the time of the report, no agreement had been signed and no number of places was announced. Anyone telling you they are “the official agent for the Lithuania Ghana driver programme” should be treated with suspicion until you can confirm it with Linava or the Lithuanian honorary consulate directly.

Licences you need for truck driver jobs in Lithuania

This is where most people’s plans fall apart. A Lithuanian haulier needs you to drive legally anywhere in the EU, which means meeting EU rules, not only your home country’s rules.

Category C or CE

Category C covers rigid trucks over 3.5 tonnes. Category CE covers a truck with a heavy trailer, which is what most international long-haul work uses. Most international jobs ask for CE plus some real experience.

Code 95 (Certificate of Professional Competence)

Under EU law, professional truck drivers working for an EU company must hold a Certificate of Professional Competence, shown as code 95 on an EU licence or on a driver qualification card. Getting it means initial qualification training (the EU sets this at 140 hours for the accelerated route or 280 hours for the full route) and an exam. After that you need 35 hours of periodic training every five years.

Exchanging your African licence

Some employers will arrange code 95 training in Lithuania. One large Vilnius haulier, for example, advertises roles for drivers who hold a CE licence and want to obtain an EU code 95 locally, and says it helps with the work visa or residence permit. Read every requirement in the advert, though: the same company still asks for previous heavy truck experience.

Whether you can swap your licence for a Lithuanian one depends on the issuing country and the category. Lithuania’s licensing authority, Regitra, handles exchanges of licences issued outside the EU. In practice, many non-EU holders must pass Lithuanian theory and practical tests for the categories they want, and heavy categories are treated more strictly than a car licence. Check Regitra’s page for your country before you pay anyone anything.

Third-country drivers working for EU hauliers on international routes also usually need a driver attestation, a document the employer obtains to show you are lawfully employed. It is the employer’s job, not yours, and you should never pay a middleman for it.

Requirement	What it is	Who arranges it
C or CE licence	Heavy vehicle (CE with trailer)	You, via Regitra exchange or tests
Code 95 / qualification card	EU professional competence	You, often with employer support
Work permit or decision on labour need	Permission to work for a named employer	Employer, via Užimtumo tarnyba
National D visa or temporary residence permit	Right to live in Lithuania	You, with employer documents, via migracija.lt
Driver attestation	Proof of lawful employment on EU international routes	Employer

The work permit route and the quota

Non-EU drivers come to Lithuania as ordinary foreign workers. The employer offers you a contract, deals with the Employment Service (Užimtumo tarnyba) where needed, and you then apply for a national D visa or a temporary residence permit for work through the Migration Department. We explain the full process in our guide to the Lithuania work permit.

The catch is the annual quota. For 2026, Lithuania set 24,706 places for foreign workers in occupations covered by the quota, and that quota was used up on 7 September 2026. Once it is exhausted, employers can generally only hire non-EU workers if they pay at least 1.2 times the average gross salary (€2,893.68 a month), or €2,411.40 for some high-value shortage roles.

A driver’s base salary is usually well below those thresholds, so in practice hiring of new non-EU drivers can slow down or stop until the next year’s quota opens. Whether heavy goods vehicle drivers are on the 2026 shortage occupations list also affects how quickly a permit moves. If someone promises you a guaranteed start date in late 2026 regardless of the quota, ask them to explain exactly how.

How pay works: salary plus daily allowances

Pay for international drivers in Lithuania is split into two parts, and this confuses many newcomers:

Base salary. This is the taxed part written in your contract. For many drivers it sits close to the national minimum wage, which is €1,153 gross a month in 2026.
Daily allowances (dienpinigiai). These cover your costs while you are abroad. They are paid per day on trips and the rates depend on the countries you drive through.

Official data shows why this matters. Trans.info, citing Sodra (Lithuania’s social insurance fund), reported that the average long-haul driver’s insured income was close to €1,750 a month in March 2026, yet almost one in five people in the sector were officially paid the minimum wage or less. Recruits are often promised around €2,600 a month, and unions say the reality often falls short, sometimes because of deductions from wages or allowances for alleged fuel “overuse” or minor damage.

Advertised “monthly pay” figures usually combine both. That matters, because your pension, sick pay and loan applications are based mostly on the base salary, not the allowances. EU Mobility Package rules also mean that on some routes drivers must be paid at least the host country’s minimum wage, and genuine expense payments cannot be counted towards that.

Ask any employer for a written breakdown: gross base salary, the daily allowance rate, how many days a month you are expected to be on the road, and what happens to your pay during rest periods at home. Do not rely on a single figure from WhatsApp or TikTok.

What the job is actually like

Most Lithuanian international haulage means long trips, often driving between Western European countries for weeks at a time. It suits some people well, but you should know what you are signing up for.

Weeks away. Under the Mobility Package, employers must organise your return home (or to the employer’s base) regularly, generally within four weeks.
Strict hours. EU rules limit daily driving to 9 hours (up to 10 hours twice a week), weekly driving to 56 hours and 90 hours over two weeks, with a 45-minute break after 4.5 hours. A tachograph records everything. See the European Commission’s rules on driving time and rest.
Rest in the cab, mostly. Shorter weekly rests may be taken in the truck, but the regular weekly rest must not be taken in the cab.
Winter and loneliness. Northern European winters are hard on the road, and you will spend a lot of time alone. Many drivers say this is harder than the driving itself.
Fines and responsibility. Roadside checks are frequent, and infringements cost money and can affect your record.

Scams: the “Lithuania driver visa” trap

The driver shortage has created a market for fraudsters and for exploitative middlemen. Trans.info reported in 2026 that prospective drivers often pay intermediaries €3,000–5,000, frequently with borrowed money, and that this debt can leave them dependent on their employer. Lithuania’s Migration Department has said that 158 companies have lost the right to recruit from abroad because of violations.

The pattern we hear about again and again goes like this: an agent advertises “Lithuania truck driver jobs, visa sponsorship, no experience needed”, asks for a “processing fee” or “work permit fee”, sends a fake contract or invitation letter, and then disappears or keeps asking for more money.

Warning signs:

They sell a “driver visa”. No such visa category exists in Lithuania.
They say your licence from home is enough to drive in the EU straight away.
They ask you to pay for the work permit, the driver attestation or a “job reservation”. These are employer processes.
They cannot name the Lithuanian company, its company code and a contact you can check yourself.
They pressure you to pay quickly “before the quota closes”.
Payment goes to a personal account, mobile money or crypto.

How to protect yourself:

Look up the employer in the Lithuanian Register of Legal Entities and check it actually runs trucks.
Contact the company directly using details from its own website, not those given by the agent.
Remember that only the Migration Department decides visas and residence permits. Nobody can guarantee one.
Get every promise in writing and never hand over your original passport.

Our guide on how to check if an agent is genuine applies to work agents too, and we have written more about common tricks in scammers are a real thing.

Is it worth it for you?

If you already hold a heavy vehicle licence, have solid experience, and are prepared to retrain, sit exams and spend long weeks on the road, truck driver jobs in Lithuania can be a legitimate path into the EU labour market. Linava’s interest in Ghana shows that the door may open wider for Africans in future.

If you have no heavy vehicle experience, or you are being asked to pay a large fee upfront, slow down. It may make more sense to look at other work routes first, which we discuss in our European work visa guide and on our career guidance page.

FOUNDER NOTE: One big red flag to watch out for is an agent withholding information about the employer. That’s basics such as name, company code or physical address. But even this info needs to be verified, and when in doubt, we can do that for you.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get truck driver jobs in Lithuania with a Nigerian or Ghanaian licence?

Not on its own. You will need a licence recognised in the EU, usually through Regitra’s exchange process or by passing Lithuanian tests, plus code 95. Check Regitra’s current rules for your country.

Is there a special visa for truck drivers in Lithuania?

No. Drivers use the normal work route: an employer, a work permit or decision where required, and then a national D visa or temporary residence permit, the latter being the most common path now.

Do I have to pay an agent to get a driving job in Lithuania?

You should not pay anyone for a job offer, a work permit or a driver attestation. Genuine employers handle those themselves. You may pay official state fees and your own training if you choose a course.

Is Linava recruiting drivers from Ghana now?

As of the June 2026 report, Linava was in talks about a possible training and recruitment programme. Check Linava’s own announcements for any official update.

How much do truck drivers earn in Lithuania?

Pay is usually a base salary plus daily allowances for days abroad. Ask for a written breakdown of both, and compare offers on the base salary as well as the total.

If you are weighing up working in Lithuania and want an honest second opinion on an offer or a work permit route, book a free consultation with us. We cannot find you a driving job, but we can help you understand the process and spot the red flags before you pay anyone.

Truck Driver Jobs in Lithuania for Africans: How It Really Works