If you need this permit and no Georgian company employs you, nobody applies for it but you. There is no employer to produce turnover figures, no HR department to assemble the file, and no company whose accounts carry the burden of proof. Two situations put a self-employed foreign national here: an Individual Entrepreneur invoicing Georgian clients, and anyone whose next step is a work or IT residence permit. The good news is that the self-employed route has two qualifying tests rather than one, and most established freelancers already meet at least one of them without changing anything.
Who the self-employed route is for
The route covers everyone who needs a permit and has no Georgian employer to apply on their behalf. Two sets of people are in that position:
- Individual Entrepreneurs with Georgian clients. If Georgian companies or Georgian individuals pay your invoices, the permit is engaged and the application is yours to make.
- Anyone applying for a work or IT residence permit. The labour permit is a prerequisite for both, so it is filed and granted first whether or not a single client of yours is Georgian.
Who is not on that list matters as much. An Individual Entrepreneur invoicing only clients abroad does not engage the permit, and neither does someone employed by a foreign company working from a flat in Tbilisi. A foreign payslip is not a trigger and a Georgian address is not one either. Where your client list sits on both sides of the line, or a particular client is genuinely hard to place, settle it before you file rather than after, and which arrangements the permit reaches is the question to answer first. It decides whether you are reading this page for an application you have to make or for a residence permit you have chosen to pursue.
For everyone who is in, the dividing line is who produces the evidence. If a Georgian company employs you, the application runs on its turnover and its filings. If nobody Georgian employs you, everything in the file is yours to produce, which is the practical difference between the two halves of the Special Labour Permit regime.
The two qualifying tests
You qualify on either test. Not both.
| Test | What it requires | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Turnover | GEL 50,000 annual turnover, roughly $19,000 | Established freelancers with a trading history and filings that show it |
| Income | Income of at least five times the subsistence minimum | People below the turnover figure but earning steadily and able to document it |
The turnover figure is the same GEL 50,000 an employer has to show per foreign employee, which is not a coincidence and is worth remembering, because the number appears twice in this regime with two different owners. Yours is proved from your own records rather than a company's.
The second test is the one that keeps the route open for people with real incomes and modest gross receipts. A consultant billing GEL 40,000 a year fails the turnover test and can still qualify comfortably on the multiple.
Two cautions on that second test. First, the rule fixes the multiple, five, and not the amount. The subsistence minimum is a published statistical figure that is revised, so the lari total the multiple produces moves without the rule changing at all. Calculate it against the figure current on the day you file rather than one you found in an article. Second, treat that total as a floor and not a target: a file clearing a threshold by a rounding error invites the scrutiny that gets applications refused.
Individual Entrepreneur registration as evidence
Individual Entrepreneur registration is how most foreign freelancers in Georgia turn their income into something the state can already see.
That is the whole reason it matters here. An IE files with the Revenue Service, so turnover and declared income sit in government records at rs.ge rather than in a folder assembled for the occasion. Numbers the tax authority already holds make a materially stronger file than bank statements alone, and reconciliation between the two is what refusals most often turn on.
Registration itself is a separate exercise, handled through the business registry rather than through immigration, and our sister firm deals with that side. Treat it as a prerequisite you may need before the file is buildable, not as part of the permit application.
Three things to be clear about, because all three get muddled:
IE registration is evidence, not permission. It documents what you earn. It settles nothing on the immigration side in either direction: it does not authorise work that needs a permit, and it does not create a requirement where none exists. An Individual Entrepreneur billing Georgian clients without a labour permit is trading without authorisation whatever their tax status looks like. One billing only clients abroad is not.
The 1% small business regime is a tax status. It is attractive, it is legitimate, and it has no bearing on your right to work here. How the 1% regime and work authorisation interlock is a question worth understanding properly, because the two are routinely described as though one delivers the other.
Registering today does not produce a history today. An IE registered last week has no filings, no declared turnover and nothing for the turnover test to look at. If your evidence depends on the registration, the registration needed to happen months before the application, which is the timing trap in the next section.
Your first trading year is the hard case
Neither test is easy to satisfy from a standing start. The turnover test wants a year of receipts. The income test wants documented, continuing income rather than a promising first quarter.
There is relief in the regime for new businesses, but it is not aimed at you. Decree No. 317 of 9 July 2026 lets a Georgian company less than three months old hire up to three foreign nationals on a first application without meeting the turnover test, and the permits it issues run six months rather than the usual term. That concession belongs to the company as an employer, so the start-up relief and its six-month trade-off only helps you if you were planning to incorporate and employ yourself. It is a different application from this one.
Someone in their first months of self-employment here has three realistic options: document income earned before arriving, if it is genuinely documentable; qualify on the income multiple rather than the turnover figure; or structure the work through a Georgian company and apply as its employee.
If the permit is only in your path because you want a residence card, there is a fourth option, and it costs nothing. Wait. The visa-free year runs while your trading history builds, and a file with two years of filings behind it is a different application from one built in month four.
What goes in the file
The evidence is the application. The form is not the difficult part and never has been.
| What it shows | Typical documents |
|---|---|
| That the income exists | Bank statements, Revenue Service declarations, filings for the current period |
| That the income is yours and continuing | Client contracts, invoices, payment records over a period rather than a month |
| What the activity actually is | A description of the work that matches the classification applied for |
| Who you are and that you are lawfully here | Passport, current immigration status, address details |
The exact list is set by the agency and it can ask for more. Two things decide the outcome more than the length of the file: whether the numbers reconcile across sources, and whether the described activity matches what you demonstrably do. Declared turnover, banked receipts and invoiced work that tell three slightly different stories is what produces a request for clarification.
Fees, timing and what comes next
| Item | Fee | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| Special Labour Permit, standard | GEL 200, around $75 | 30 calendar days |
| Special Labour Permit, expedited | GEL 400, around $155 | 10 working days |
Those amounts are fixed in lari by the resolution, so the lari figure is the law and the dollar conversion drifts with the rate.
If a residence permit is what you are heading for, approval is not the end of the sequence, it is the start of one. The labour permit is a prerequisite for the work residence permit, which is filed separately with the Public Service Development Agency and carries its own government fees of GEL 300 to 600 by processing track, around $115 to $230, plus GEL 60 for the card itself. Residence permit fees are set out in the procedural rules on granting residence permits.
The two applications have to happen in that order and both run against your lawful stay. Georgian law requires the residence permit application 40 calendar days before your current stay expires, and a late one is refused review rather than delayed, so the 40-day count now has a 30-day labour permit decision inside it. From a standing start, the trigger point for a self-employed work route is roughly three months before expiry, not 40 days. If you are applying for the labour permit alone, none of that arithmetic binds you, because the deadline it is measured against belongs to the residence permit. The 1 January 2027 date is an employer's deadline for regularising foreign staff already on a Georgian payroll, so check who the transition window actually covers before treating it as your own.
Government authorisation for labour activity in Georgia. Required to employ foreign staff, to trade as an IE with Georgian clients, or to apply for a work or IT residence permit.
See what it costs, from $450
Should you apply yourself?
Some people should, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise.
Apply yourself if you have been a registered Individual Entrepreneur for two years or more, your turnover is comfortably clear of GEL 50,000 rather than near it, you do one recognisable kind of work for a stable set of clients, your filings and your bank records agree, and you have several months of lawful stay in hand. That file mostly assembles itself, and the government fee is the only unavoidable cost.
Do not apply yourself if your income sits close to either threshold, you are in your first year of trading, your work spans several activities or currencies in a way that is hard to classify, your declared and banked income need explaining, your lawful stay runs out inside three months, or you have already been refused once. A refusal costs the fee plus a full decision cycle, and against a 40-day rule that month is the expensive part.
Our complete self-employed package is $1,070 and covers the labour permit and the residence permit behind it, the evidence work and the sequencing between them, because the two agencies involved run separate timetables and do not share a file. The labour permit filing on its own is the smaller half of that.
If you work in IT, check the alternative before committing to this route. The IT residence permit runs on $25,000 of annual income and two years of experience, gives a three-year term, and carries a 183-day annual presence condition this route does not impose. Both sit under the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons, and both need the labour permit underneath first.
Key takeaways
- The self-employed route is for Individual Entrepreneurs with Georgian clients, and for anyone filing ahead of a work or IT residence permit. Invoicing only clients abroad engages neither permit.
- Self-employed applicants qualify on GEL 50,000 of turnover or income of at least five times the subsistence minimum. Either one, not both.
- The rule fixes the multiple, not the amount. Calculate the second test against the subsistence minimum current on the day you file.
- Individual Entrepreneur registration documents your income for the file. It does not authorise work by itself.
- The 1% small business regime is a tax status with no immigration effect.
- A first trading year is the hard case, and the start-up relief in Decree No. 317 belongs to employers rather than to the self-employed.
- Government fee is GEL 200 for 30 calendar days or GEL 400 for ten working days.
- Where a residence permit is the goal, the labour permit comes first and both applications run against your lawful stay.
Frequently asked questions
Can a freelancer get a Special Labour Permit in Georgia?
Yes, through the self-employed route. You qualify on either GEL 50,000 of annual turnover or income of at least five times the subsistence minimum, and you produce the evidence yourself because there is no Georgian employer to do it. Whether you need one at all depends on your clients: Georgian clients engage the permit, clients abroad do not.
What income do I need for a self-employed labour permit in Georgia?
Either GEL 50,000 of turnover, around $19,000, or income of at least five times the subsistence minimum. The second test exists for people whose gross receipts fall short of the turnover figure but whose income is steady and documented. The subsistence minimum is revised, so the lari amount that multiple produces changes over time.
Do I need to register as an Individual Entrepreneur to get a Georgian labour permit?
Not as a legal precondition, but it is how most self-employed applicants make their income provable. Registration puts your turnover and declarations into Revenue Service records, which is stronger evidence than bank statements alone. Registration only helps once it has produced a filing history, so doing it the week before you apply achieves very little.
Does Individual Entrepreneur registration let me work legally in Georgia?
It settles nothing on the immigration side by itself. Individual Entrepreneur status is a tax and business registration, so an IE billing Georgian clients still needs a Special Labour Permit and is trading without authorisation until it is granted. An IE billing only clients abroad needs no labour permit and no residence permit, and the registration is the whole of the paperwork.
How much does a self-employed Special Labour Permit cost in Georgia?
The government fee is GEL 200, around $75, for a decision within 30 calendar days, or GEL 400, around $155, for ten working days. That is the fee for the labour permit alone. A residence permit, if you go on to apply for one, carries separate fees of GEL 300 to 600 by track plus GEL 60 for the card.
How long does a self-employed labour permit take in Georgia?
Up to 30 calendar days from a complete application, or ten working days on the expedited fee. Where a residence permit follows, its application cannot be filed until the labour permit is granted, so this sits at the front of a sequence rather than running in parallel with it. Budget around three months for the whole chain from a standing start.
Can I apply for a Georgian Special Labour Permit myself?
Yes, and it is a reasonable choice if you have a long Individual Entrepreneur history, turnover clearly above the threshold and time in hand. It is a poor choice if your income sits near either test, your first year is still in progress, or your lawful stay expires within three months, because a refusal costs a full decision cycle as well as the fee.
Does the 1% small business tax regime affect my Georgian labour permit?
No. The 1% regime is a tax treatment applied to Individual Entrepreneur turnover and it carries no immigration consequence in either direction. It does not exempt you from the labour permit, and it does not disqualify you from one. The turnover it reports can be useful evidence for the qualifying test.
What happens after my Georgian labour permit is approved?
If a residence permit is the point of it, approval opens a short window in which to file for that permit or a D1 visa, and it should be treated as the start of the next application rather than the finish of this one. The residence permit goes to the Public Service Development Agency with the labour permit as a supporting document, and it must still respect the 40-day rule.
Can I get a Georgian labour permit in my first year of freelancing?
It is the hardest version of this application, because neither qualifying test has anything to look at yet. The workable options are documenting income earned before you arrived, qualifying on the income multiple rather than turnover, or working through a Georgian company and applying as its employee. If the permit is only in your path because you want a residence card, waiting a year while the filings accumulate is the cheapest of the four.
Do remote employees of foreign companies use the self-employed route in Georgia?
Only where they want a residence permit. Working from Georgia for an employer abroad with no Georgian entity does not engage the labour permit by itself, so there is nothing to file and nothing to hold. Where a work or IT residence permit is the goal, the labour permit is a prerequisite and the application is made on your own income and activity, because no Georgian company is able to file it for you.
