You searched for a Georgian digital nomad visa. There is no such thing, and there never quite was. What Georgia has is a 365-day visa-free stay that gets described as one, and a set of residence permits built for people who are settling rather than passing through. Here is what remote workers in Georgia actually apply for, which for a lot of readers is nothing, and how to tell whether you are the exception.
There is no Georgian digital nomad visa
Georgian law defines a fixed set of residence permit categories, and none of them is a nomad, freelancer or remote worker permit. The categories sit in the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons, and the procedure for each is in the the procedural rules on granting residence permits. You can read both end to end and find no such thing.
This matters more than a terminology quibble. Arrive expecting to apply for a nomad visa and you will spend your first months hunting an application that does not exist, when the honest answer is that your 365 days of lawful stay are the only clock running.
What happened to Remotely from Georgia
Some of the confusion traces to a real programme. During the pandemic, Georgia ran a scheme called Remotely from Georgia that let remote workers apply to enter while general travel was restricted, on conditions attached to that period.
It was an entry mechanism for a closed-border moment, not a residence permit category, and it is not a current route into Georgia. Nothing about it survives as a permit you can apply for today, and it never created a status that accrued toward anything.
What people actually mean when they search for it
Three different people type this query and need three different answers. The six-month visitor, working remotely from Tbilisi for a while and then leaving, needs no permit at all and mostly needs to be told so, plus the insurance rule that genuinely does apply. The person who has been here a year, who is tired of resetting the clock at the border and wants something that lasts, needs the order of operations and a date to count backwards from. The person who is moving, who wants a bank that behaves and status that accumulates, needs a permit route chosen on evidence they already hold.
The rest of this post is those three answers in order.
Route one: the 365-day visa-free year
Citizens of roughly 95 countries enter Georgia with no visa and may stay 365 days on a single entry. It is the most generous visitor entitlement in the region and it is why the nomad reputation exists at all.
What it grants is presence, and if your income comes from clients or an employer outside Georgia, presence is all you need. It does carry a condition since 2026: every visitor must hold insurance covering at least GEL 30,000, roughly $11,500, and what counts as a qualifying policy is worth reading before you fly rather than at the border.
The year resets on exit and re-entry, which is why people run this arrangement for years rather than months. What it costs you is not legality. It is a status that accumulates nothing toward permanent residence, banking that stays awkward, and a border officer's discretion sitting between you and the next 365 days.
Route two: the IT residence permit
This is the closest thing Georgia has to a route designed for people who work remotely in technology, and it is what we would look at first for a reader who has decided they want a card.
The requirements, all of which have to be met together:
| Condition | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Annual income | $25,000 |
| Professional experience | 2 years |
| Permit term | 3 years |
| Presence in Georgia | 183 days per year |
| Special Labour Permit | Required first |
| Government fee | ~$190 for a 90-day decision, ~$285 for 60 days |
Two things in that table deserve more attention than they get.
The three-year term is the real prize. Every route outside investment renews annually, which means an annual document refresh, an annual filing deadline and an annual chance to miss one. Three years is three times fewer opportunities to lose your status to a calendar.
The 183-day presence condition is the catch, and it points directly at the person searching for a nomad visa. A permit requiring you to be physically in Georgia for more than half of every year is not a nomad instrument. It is a residence permit for someone who has decided to live in Georgia and happens to work in technology. If your plan is three months here and three months in Lisbon, the two are in conflict, and the conflict surfaces at renewal rather than at application.
What counts as qualifying IT work, and how income and experience are evidenced, is the substance of the IT residence permit requirements. We handle these through the IT residence permit service, and our first question is always whether the 183 days work for you, because everything else is easier than that.
Route three: the work residence permit as a self-employed person
If your work is not IT, or you cannot evidence $25,000 and two years, and you want a residence card anyway, the ordinary work residence permit is the route. Freelancers and consultants apply on a self-employed basis rather than through an employer. Nothing pushes you here if your clients are abroad and you are content resetting the year. This is what you file when you have decided you want the card.
The qualifying test sits at the labour permit stage, and there are two ways through it: annual turnover of GEL 50,000, roughly $19,000, or income of at least five times the subsistence minimum. Most freelancers genuinely earning a living clear one of them, and registering as an Individual Entrepreneur is usually how the evidence gets produced. Both routes are set out in the guide to applying as a self-employed person.
The permit runs six to twelve months initially and then annually, so the renewal calendar becomes part of your life in a way the IT permit's three years avoids.
Where the labour permit fits, and where it does not
Since 1 March 2026, under a government resolution of 20 February 2026, Georgia has run a Special Labour Permit through the Employment Promotion State Agency. It reaches three situations: a Georgian employer taking on non-Georgian staff, an Individual Entrepreneur invoicing Georgian clients, and an application for a work or IT residence permit.
Apply that to a nomad's facts. You are in an apartment in Vera. Your employer is in Amsterdam. Your salary lands in a Dutch bank. You have never invoiced a Georgian entity. No Georgian company employs you, no Georgian client pays you, and if visa-free entry suits you then you are not applying for a residence permit either. None of the three is engaged and there is nothing to file. The worked examples of which situations the rule reaches run through the harder variations one at a time.
Where it does reach this page's readers is the third trigger. Ask for the IT residence permit or a work residence permit and the labour permit becomes a prerequisite rather than a parallel filing, and an application without it is refused rather than queued. That sequence is the only reason most remote workers ever meet the permit at all, and it is a consequence of wanting the card rather than of working.
The second trigger is the one to watch if your client list changes. A remote worker who starts taking Georgian clients through an Individual Entrepreneur is inside the requirement, and where a mixed book of Georgian and foreign clients falls is worth settling on your own invoices rather than on a rule of thumb.
Investment residence permit holders and permanent residents are exempt from the prerequisite outright. Diplomatic and consular staff, accredited foreign journalists, refugees and asylum seekers sit outside the regime under separate rules. Fees and the decision timetable are in the guide to the Special Labour Permit.
The enforcement side sits with employers. A Georgian company with unpermitted foreign staff faces GEL 2,000 on the company and GEL 2,000 on the worker, doubled on a repeat, and those are statutory lari amounts that do not move with the exchange rate. Companies that already had foreign nationals on the payroll before 1 March 2026 have until 1 January 2027 to regularise them, and since a decision takes up to 30 calendar days and every affected employer shares that date, filing well before the deadline is the difference between a routine application and a queue.
What changed in March 2026, in one paragraph
Before 1 March 2026, the work and IT residence permits were single applications. Since that date they sit on top of a Special Labour Permit granted first by a different agency, which means two files, two clocks and one fixed order. For a remote worker invoicing clients abroad the arrangement that built Georgia's reputation is untouched: arrive visa-free, register an Individual Entrepreneur if the tax rate suits you, work, and reset the year on exit. What changed is the route into a residence card, not the right to sit in Tbilisi and do your job. The property threshold moved from $100,000 to $150,000 on the same day, so treat any lower figure as out of date too.
The 1% Individual Entrepreneur regime is a tax status, not an immigration status. Registering as an IE gives you a favourable rate on turnover and gives you no right to be in Georgia. That costs you nothing for as long as visa-free entry covers your stay. It starts costing you the day you want status that accumulates, because an IE certificate has never counted a single day toward one.
Which route is actually yours
| If you are | The route | Labour permit | Term |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visiting for under a year, working for foreign clients | Visa-free stay, no residence permit needed | No | 365 days |
| An IT professional with $25,000 income and 2 years' experience | IT residence permit | Yes, granted first | 3 years |
| Self-employed with foreign clients who wants a residence card | Work residence permit | Yes, granted first | 6 to 12 months, then annual |
| Self-employed with Georgian clients | Labour permit either way, residence permit only if you want one | Yes | 6 to 12 months, then annual |
| Holding Georgian property worth $150,000 | Property residence permit | No | 1 year, renewable |
| Holding a $300,000 qualifying investment | Investment residence permit | Exempt | 5 years |
The property row is the one people misread, usually in the direction of buying something they did not need. A $150,000 apartment buys a residence card with no labour permit anywhere in the file, and if you were only ever going to write code for clients abroad, it buys a card you could have gone without. What it genuinely buys is status that accumulates and a bank that stops treating you as a tourist. The investment row is the only outright exemption on the table, and $300,000 is the price of it.
Cost, and the order to do things in
Government fees only. Professional fees, apostilles and certified translations are separate.
| Item | Standard | Expedited |
|---|---|---|
| Special Labour Permit | GEL 200, about $75, 30 calendar days | GEL 400, about $155, 10 working days |
| IT residence permit decision | ~$190, 90 days | ~$285, 60 days |
| Work residence permit decision | ~$115, 30th calendar day | ~$230, 10th calendar day |
| Residence card issuance | ~$23 | ~$23 |
If you are going for a work or IT residence permit, the order is fixed and getting it wrong costs a cycle. Labour permit first, from the Employment Promotion State Agency. Then the residence permit, filed at a Public Service Hall with the labour permit in the file, on the timetable published by the Public Service Development Agency. Entry conditions for people applying from outside Georgia are published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Then the deadline that ties it together. A residence permit application must be filed at least 40 calendar days before your lawful stay expires, and for a visa-free arrival that stay ends on day 365. Counting back through a 30-day labour permit decision and an apostilled criminal record certificate that can take eight weeks, the sensible start point is month nine of your first year, not month eleven.
One more separation worth making now rather than in April. A year in Georgia can make you a Georgian tax resident on the 183-day test whether or not you hold a permit, and tax residency and immigration status are different questions that share no paperwork. How the 1% regime sits alongside the permits is in the guide to the 1% tax and residence permits, and the full set of categories, if none of the three above fits, is in the residence permit routes.
A three-year permit for IT professionals earning $25,000+ a year, with two years of experience behind them. Longer than any other work route.
See what it costs, from $450
Key takeaways
- Georgia has no digital nomad visa and no equivalent permit category. Remotely from Georgia was a pandemic-era entry scheme, not a current route.
- The 365-day visa-free stay is what people mean by the phrase, and for work paid from outside Georgia it is sufficient on its own.
- The Special Labour Permit reaches Georgian employers hiring foreign staff, Individual Entrepreneurs with Georgian clients, and work and IT residence permit applicants. Remote work for a foreign employer is none of those.
- A residence permit is elective. People take one for banking, for status that accumulates, and to stop resetting the year at the border.
- If you do want the work or IT permit, the labour permit is granted first and the residence permit application is refused without it.
- The IT residence permit is the closest route: $25,000 income, two years' experience, a three-year term, and 183 days a year in Georgia.
- That presence condition conflicts with an actual nomad lifestyle, and the conflict shows up at renewal.
- The 1% Individual Entrepreneur regime is a tax status, not an immigration status.
- Employers with foreign staff on the payroll before 1 March 2026 have until 1 January 2027 to regularise them.
Frequently asked questions
Does Georgia have a digital nomad visa?
No. There is no nomad, freelancer or remote worker category in Georgian residence permit law and no application to submit. What exists is a 365-day visa-free stay for citizens of roughly 95 countries, plus the ordinary permit categories. The closest purpose-built route for remote professionals is the IT residence permit.
What happened to the Remotely from Georgia programme?
It was a pandemic-era entry scheme that let remote workers travel to Georgia while general movement was restricted, on conditions tied to that period. It was never a residence permit category and it is not a current route into the country.
Can I work remotely from Georgia on visa-free entry?
Yes, if the money comes from outside Georgia. Visa-free status covers your presence, and the Special Labour Permit attaches to Georgian employers, to Individual Entrepreneurs with Georgian clients and to work and IT residence permit applications. A foreign employer paying into a foreign account is none of those, so there is nothing to file.
What is the closest thing to a digital nomad visa in Georgia?
The IT residence permit, which runs three years and is aimed at technology professionals who can evidence $25,000 of annual income and two years of experience. It requires a Special Labour Permit to be granted first and it carries a 183-day annual presence condition. For non-IT freelancers who want a card, the equivalent is a self-employed work residence permit.
Who qualifies for the Georgian IT residence permit?
Applicants who can evidence at least $25,000 of annual income and two years of relevant professional experience, and who will be present in Georgia for at least 183 days a year. A Special Labour Permit has to be granted before the residence permit application is filed. The permit runs three years, longer than every route except investment.
Do I need a Special Labour Permit if my clients are all abroad?
No, not unless you want a work or IT residence permit, in which case it is the first step of that application. Client nationality is what the requirement turns on, and clients outside Georgia do not engage it. Sitting in Tbilisi working for a company in Amsterdam needs no permit and no residence card.
How long can a digital nomad stay in Georgia?
Up to 365 days on a single visa-free entry if your nationality is on the list, and the period resets on exit and re-entry. Working for foreign clients throughout is fine and requires nothing further. Beyond that, the reasons to take a residence permit are banking, status that accumulates toward permanent residence, and not having to leave the country to restart the clock.
Does the Georgian IT residence permit require me to live in Georgia?
Yes, at least 183 days a year. That condition is what separates the permit from the lifestyle most people picture when they search for a nomad visa. If your plan is to keep moving between countries every few months, the two are in conflict, and it surfaces when you come to renew.
Is the 1% tax regime a residence route for digital nomads?
No. Registering as an Individual Entrepreneur on the small business regime is a tax arrangement. It grants no right to be in Georgia and accumulates nothing toward permanent residence, which is fine while visa-free entry covers your stay and a problem when you want something durable. It is also useful evidence in a labour permit application, which is a different thing again.
What is the fine for working in Georgia without a permit?
Where the permit was required and absent, GEL 2,000 on the individual and a separate GEL 2,000 on whoever pays them, both doubled for a repeat. In practice that means Georgian companies with unpermitted foreign staff. Those figures are statutory and denominated in lari, and the larger exposure is that unauthorised employment undermines the basis of any permit built on it.
Which residence permit should a freelancer in Georgia apply for?
An IT professional meeting the income and experience thresholds applies for the IT residence permit; everyone else who wants a card applies for a work residence permit on a self-employed basis. Either way the Special Labour Permit is granted first, qualifying on GEL 50,000 of annual turnover or income of at least five times the subsistence minimum. A freelancer with foreign clients who is happy on visa-free entry applies for neither.
