Lithuanian contractors and façade companies ask for the same crews: drywall and ceiling installers for fit-out, ETICS crews for the renovation wave, carpenters and formwork crews for structures. The Philippines has all three in depth — the Gulf fit-out industry was built on Filipino drywall and ceiling crews — and plasterers and bricklayers have featured on the Employment Service shortage list.
In Makati a drywall installer builds a partition section to a drawing and boards and joints it; a façade worker fixes boards and embeds mesh on a test panel; a carpenter assembles a formwork element. We select crews — a lead hand plus five to eight — rather than individuals, because that is how they work and how they stay. Safety induction in English starts before departure; Lithuanian site vocabulary follows.
Where a trade is on the Employment Service shortage list no labour-market decision is needed; where it is not, the vacancy is registered and the decision follows within seven working days. Operative pay rarely reaches the €2,893.68 above-quota line, so construction crews are filed under the 2027 quota: tests and contracts in November–December, applications in the first days of January, arrivals for the spring season.
The constraint is the annual quota. All 24,706 permits for 2026 were used by early September; until the 2027 quota opens on 1 January a work-based permit is issued only at €2,893.68 gross a month or more (1.2 × the average wage of €2,411.40), or at €2,411.40 for professions on the national list of high-value-added shortage professions. In 2026 the quota lasted until September; employers whose files are ready in the first days of January get their permits, the rest wait.
Pay must be at least the statutory minimum — €1,153 gross a month in 2026 — or the collective-agreement or market rate for the role, and the employer registers the employment with Sodra before the first working day; above the exhausted quota the €2,893.68 / €2,411.40 lines apply instead.
Housing is the retention variable on construction: a crew housed together near the site, with transport arranged, stays; a crew split across hostels does not. We put the housing arrangement in the offer and brief the crew on it before they sign.
Recruitment runs through our own DMW-licensed agency, Prime Search Manpower Agency Inc. in Makati (licence DMW-027-LB-11182024): your company is accredited at the Migrant Workers Office in Prague, which has jurisdiction for Lithuania, the job order is registered with the DMW, and every worker leaves Manila with a verified contract, medical clearance, pre-departure orientation and an Overseas Employment Certificate. The Philippine ban on direct hiring applies; the employer is always your company, directly — the Lithuanian permit is issued to the worker for employment with you, not with an agency.
Everything here is subject to the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens as amended, the annual quota resolution, the Employment Service shortage list and the Migration Department's practice in force.
Only within the rules for posting workers from Lithuania and with the Lithuanian permit valid; cross-border work is planned case by case and never assumed.
Yes — Filipino foremen and site supervisors with Gulf experience and English; they are usually filed at salaries that clear the above-quota line and can come before the crew.
Not required for the permit; English carries the first months and we brief the crew on Lithuanian safety terms. Lead hands with Russian or English are chosen where the site needs them.
General information for employers, not legal or migration advice. Rules change; we re-verify before each hire.