VR arrived in Lithuania on 25 April 2022, with the assistance of Freedom House Foundation. He requested asylum in Lithuania after his visa for special humanitarian reasons had expired. In his asylum request, the applicant argued that he had a well-founded fear of being persecuted for his political beliefs. The decision on his request for asylum was postponed by the Migration Department under the Ministry of the Interior until the third quarter of 2023. VR appealed against this written decision of 13 April 2023, before the Vilnius Administrative Court, which pronounced a decision on 27 June 2023, allowing his appeal and ordering the Migration Department to pronounce a decision as soon as possible. The Migration Department appealed before the Supreme Administrative Court against the judgment of the Vilnius Administrative Court.

The Supreme Administrative Court dismissed the appeal and ruled that the Migration Department’s arguments concerning the migration crisis at the border with Belarus and the mass influx of persons displaced from Ukraine were not sufficient to justify the delays beyond 6 months to provide an administrative decision on asylum requests.

The court also noted that the applicant was provided with information about the progress of the examination of his request for asylum, but the letter also expressed the Migration Department’s will to extend the deadline for the examination of the applicant's request, postponing the decision for an unspecified period of time. Therefore, the court rejected the Migration Department’s arguments that the letter was informative and therefore the court could not cancel it.

The court further noted that although the recast Asylum Procedures Directive provides for the possibility of extending the deadline for examining an asylum application beyond the 6 months, the legislator in Lithuania has established more favorable conditions for asylum applicants, without providing for the possibility of extending this deadline.