You write software, you are tired of annual renewals, and someone told you Georgia has a three-year permit for people like you. They are right, and the conditions are tighter than the pitch suggests: $25,000 of documented income, two years of experience, and half of every year physically in the country. Get one of those wrong and the standard work route was the better application. Here is who this permit suits, who it does not, and what it costs.
A three-year card, and why that is the whole point
The IT residence permit is a separate category of Georgian temporary residence permit, issued for three years at a time and extendable after that. Every other work-based route runs on shorter terms, typically six to twelve months, which means a renewal file every year and a fresh chance to miss a deadline every year. Three years removes four of those cycles from the next decade, and it changes what a landlord or a bank will discuss with you, because a card that expires in 2029 is a different conversation from one that expires next spring.
The permit is open to employees of a Georgian company, to self-employed technical professionals, and to staff of an international company registered in Georgia. The categories of temporary residence permit and the grounds for granting each sit in the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons.
One thing it is not: a nomad visa. Georgia does not operate anything under that name, and the difference between visa-free stay and a formal permit matters most to exactly the people who assume it does not.
The four conditions
| Condition | What is required | What proves it |
|---|---|---|
| Income | At least $25,000 a year | Contracts, invoices, bank statements, tax filings |
| Experience | At least two years in IT | Employment history, references, portfolio |
| Presence | At least 183 days a year in Georgia | Entry and exit records, and your actual plans |
| Work authorisation | A valid Special Labour Permit | The permit itself, granted before you file |
All four are conditions rather than preferences, and none is negotiable at the counter. The presence condition decides whether this route is right for you at all; the labour permit is the one people find out about late. The usual baseline applies underneath: valid passport, criminal record certificate, health insurance, a registered address in Georgia.
What counts as IT work
Software development is the clear case. A developer with contracts describing software delivery has the easiest file on this route.
Beyond that the boundary is drawn by the authority assessing your application rather than by the job title on your business card. Data engineering, infrastructure and DevOps, technical product roles, quality assurance and IT-adjacent design are assessed on the substance of the work and the strength of the evidence. There is no published exhaustive list of qualifying occupations that we can point you at, and we are not going to invent one.
Ambiguous titles are therefore won or lost on documents. If your role is "Product Manager" or "Consultant" or "Head of Operations", the title does nothing for you. A contract describing technical deliverables, a portfolio of technical output and a reference describing what you actually build will carry the application. A senior-sounding title that describes no technical work will not, and switching to the standard work route after a refusal costs you both fees.
The 183-day condition is the real filter
You must be physically present in Georgia for at least 183 days in each year of the permit. Not 183 days once, at the start. Each year.
That single line disqualifies a large share of the people who otherwise qualify comfortably on income and experience. If the plan was a permit for optionality, a legal foothold while you continue to live somewhere else, this is the wrong category. The permit is designed for people who are relocating, and the presence condition is how it enforces that.
It also cuts the other way. 183 days is the same threshold that makes you a Georgian tax resident, so if you are going to be here half the year anyway, the permit and Georgian tax residency arrive together rather than fighting each other. If you are not, the two pull apart and you hold a permit whose central condition you are quietly failing.
They remain separate tests run by separate agencies, and the difference between a residence permit and tax residency is worth being precise about before you build anything on either. The tax side is administered by the Revenue Service, not by the migration authorities, and neither tells the other what it decided.
The Special Labour Permit comes first
Since 1 March 2026 the Special Labour Permit has been a prerequisite document for this category, granted before the residence permit is filed. The exemptions from that prerequisite are narrow: investment residence permit holders, permanent residents, diplomatic and consular staff, accredited foreign journalists, refugees and asylum seekers. An IT residence permit is a residence category. It is not work authorisation, and it never was.
The sequence is fixed:
- Special Labour Permit first. Applied for at the Employment Promotion State Agency. Up to 30 calendar days for a decision, or ten working days on the higher fee. Government fee GEL 200 (about $75) or GEL 400 (about $155).
- Then the IT residence permit. Filed at a Public Service Hall with the labour permit as a supporting document. 90 days for a decision, or 60 on the higher fee.
Filed the other way round, the residence permit application is refused rather than held: a refusal on your record, a lost fee, and, if your lawful stay is running down, a lost window. The employer turnover evidence and the fines for working without authorisation are set out separately. If you are already on the payroll of a Georgian employer that has not yet put you on a permit, that employer is inside a transition window closing on 1 January 2027.
IT permit or standard work permit?
Plenty of people who qualify for the IT route would be better served by the standard one. We say this at consultations more often than we recommend the IT permit.
| IT residence permit | Work residence permit | |
|---|---|---|
| Term | 3 years | Typically 6 to 12 months |
| Income floor | $25,000 a year | No equivalent fixed floor |
| Experience floor | 2 years in IT | None specified |
| Presence condition | 183 days a year | None |
| Special Labour Permit | Required | Required |
| Government fee | GEL 500 to GEL 750 ($190 to $285) | GEL 300 to GEL 600 ($115 to $230) |
| Decision | 60 to 90 days | Materially faster |
Read that as a decision rather than a ranking. The IT permit wins on term and loses on everything else: it costs more, it takes longer, it asks for evidence the standard route does not, and it attaches a presence condition the standard route does not have.
Choose the IT route if you are genuinely moving to Georgia, you will clear 183 days a year without effort, and the three-year term is worth the slower decision and the heavier file.
Choose the standard work route if you will be in and out of the country, if your income is real but not documented to $25,000 in a form an official will accept, if your work is technical but hard to evidence as such, or if you need a decision quickly because your lawful stay is short.
There is no penalty for starting on the standard route and moving to the IT category at a later renewal, and where the evidence is still thin that is usually the better sequence.
What it costs
| Item | Fee | Set in law at |
|---|---|---|
| IT residence permit, 90-day decision | about $190 | GEL 500 |
| IT residence permit, 60-day decision | about $285 | GEL 750 |
| Special Labour Permit, 30 calendar days | about $75 | GEL 200 |
| Special Labour Permit, 10 working days | about $155 | GEL 400 |
| Residence card issuance | about $23 | GEL 60 |
The lari figures are the law. The dollar figures are conversions at the prevailing rate and they drift, so if you are budgeting to the last dollar, budget from the lari column.
Our fee for the IT residence permit application is $450, with the labour permit handled as separate work and expedited handling about $115 on top. The government fees are the small part of the total and the evidence work is the large part, which is the correct way round for a route decided on evidence.
Timing, and the deadline that governs all of it
From a standing start, budget four to five months: one to two weeks assembling evidence, up to 30 days for the labour permit, then 60 to 90 days for the residence permit decision. That runway collides with the rule governing every residence permit application in Georgia, because applications filed inside the last 40 days of your lawful stay are refused review rather than processed late.
Work backwards and the arithmetic is uncomfortable. The labour permit has to be granted before the residence permit can be filed, and the residence permit has to be filed 40 days before your stay runs out, so the labour permit application needs to go in roughly two and a half months before your stay expires rather than two weeks before. People on a 365-day visa-free entitlement often start in month eleven. That is too late, and the procedural rules on granting residence permits do not care why.
The evidence that decides it
An IT application is not refused because someone dislikes your job. It is refused because the file does not prove what it claims. The recurring weak points are income documentation that does not reconcile across sources, an experience history with unexplained gaps, and a description of the work that does not read as technical to someone who is not a developer. That last one is the most fixable: the person assessing your file will not infer that "Series B fintech, IC5, platform team" means you write software.
Documents produced outside Georgia generally need apostille or consular legalisation and certified translation, and that chain is usually the longest item in the timeline rather than the government's decision. The master document checklist by route sets out what each track needs. Applications are filed at a Public Service Hall and decided by the Public Service Development Agency.
Family, and the ten-year horizon
Family members join through family reunification on the same basis as any other temporary resident, and the three-year term matters here more than anywhere else: a family of four on annual permits is four renewal files a year, and on a three-year cycle it is not.
Years on an IT permit also count toward the ten years of continuous temporary residence required for permanent residence in Georgia. A gap between one permit ending and the next being granted resets that count rather than pausing it, so three-year terms give you three chances to break the chain in a decade instead of ten.
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
- The IT residence permit runs three years at a time, against six to twelve months on the standard work route.
- It requires $25,000 of documented annual income and two years of professional IT experience.
- It requires 183 days a year of physical presence in Georgia, every year, which is the condition that decides who this route suits.
- Since 1 March 2026 a Special Labour Permit is required first. The IT category carries no exemption.
- Government fees are GEL 500 or GEL 750 for the permit, plus GEL 200 or GEL 400 for the labour permit.
- Budget four to five months end to end, and file the labour permit well before the 40-day residence permit deadline.
- Ambiguous job titles are carried by evidence of technical output, not by seniority.
Frequently asked questions
What are the requirements for a Georgian IT residence permit?
At least two years of professional IT experience, at least $25,000 of documented annual income, and at least 183 days a year of physical presence in Georgia. Since 1 March 2026 you also need a Special Labour Permit, granted before the residence permit application is filed. The usual baseline of passport, criminal record certificate, insurance and registered address applies on top.
How long does a Georgian IT residence permit last?
Three years at a time, and it is extendable. That is the longest term of any Georgian work-based residence route, where six to twelve month terms are typical, and it is the main reason to choose this category over the standard work permit.
How much does a Georgian IT residence permit cost?
The government fee is GEL 500, about $190, for a decision within 90 days, or GEL 750, about $285, for 60 days. The Special Labour Permit adds GEL 200 or GEL 400, about $75 or $155. Our fee for the residence permit application is $450, with the labour permit quoted separately.
Do I really have to spend 183 days a year in Georgia on an IT permit?
Yes, and it applies every year of the permit rather than once at the start. It is the condition that most often makes this the wrong route for someone who otherwise qualifies. If you will be living mainly elsewhere, the standard work residence permit carries no presence condition.
Does the IT residence permit exempt me from the Special Labour Permit?
No. The exempt categories are investment residence permit holders, permanent residents, diplomatic and consular staff, accredited foreign journalists, refugees and asylum seekers. The IT permit is a residence category, not work authorisation, and a residence permit filed without a valid labour permit is refused rather than queued.
What jobs count as IT work for the Georgian IT residence permit?
Software development is the clear case. Data, infrastructure, DevOps, technical product roles and adjacent technical work are assessed on the substance of the evidence rather than the job title, and there is no published exhaustive list. If your title is ambiguous, contracts and portfolio material describing technical output carry the application.
Is the Georgian IT residence permit better than the work residence permit?
Only if you are genuinely relocating. It wins on term, three years against six to twelve months, and loses on fee, decision time, evidence burden and the 183-day condition. For someone in and out of Georgia, or whose income is hard to document to $25,000, the standard work route is the better application.
How long does the Georgian IT residence permit take to process?
The decision takes 90 days, or 60 on the higher fee, and the Special Labour Permit takes up to 30 calendar days before that. With evidence preparation, four to five months from a standing start is realistic, and the application must be filed 40 calendar days before your lawful stay expires.
Can my family join me on a Georgian IT residence permit?
Yes, through family reunification, on the same basis as any other temporary resident. The three-year term makes this less administratively painful than annual renewals, because a family on one-year permits generates a renewal file per person per year.
Does time on an IT residence permit count toward permanent residence?
Yes. Years held on an IT residence permit count toward the ten years of continuous temporary residence required for permanent residence. The three-year term helps beyond the arithmetic, because a gap between permits resets the count rather than pausing it.
Is the Georgian IT residence permit a digital nomad visa?
No. Georgia does not operate a digital nomad visa, and the IT residence permit is a formal residence category with income, experience and presence conditions attached. People wanting to work remotely from Georgia without relocating are usually thinking about visa-free entry, which is a different thing with different limits.
