Check your passport expiry date before you read any further, because it may decide your whole plan. Since September 2023 a Belarusian mission abroad cannot issue, exchange or renew a passport, and it cannot certify the power of attorney that would let somebody collect your birth certificate for you. Georgia will grant you a residence permit on the same terms it grants anyone else. Whether you can assemble the file from Tbilisi is a separate question, and it is answered in Minsk.
Can you enter, and for how long?
Yes, for a year at a time. Belarus is item 14 on the annex to the government resolution carrying Georgia's visa-free list, which grants entry and stay for one full year and resets when you leave and return. We checked that list on 1 August 2026, after its most recent amendment in February of that year.
Two conditions attach regardless of nationality. Every visitor must hold insurance with at least GEL 30,000 of cover from 2026, and the 365-day visa-free stay is presence rather than status. The second is the one people get wrong, because a year of resets leaves you exactly where you started and accrues nothing toward permanent residence.
Decree No. 278 comes before everything else
Presidential Decree No. 278, signed on 4 September 2023 and in force from 6 September 2023, removed a set of functions from Belarusian diplomatic and consular posts. Two of them determine how you plan an application from Tbilisi.
Passports are issued in Belarus. A mission abroad can no longer issue, exchange or renew one. A Georgian residence permit is granted against a valid travel document and the card is issued to match it, so a passport expiring in the next eighteen months is a problem to solve before the permit rather than after it. Sequence it first, and if you are on a route that will need renewing, read what a renewal actually requires before you assume the second application is easier than the first.
Powers of attorney are signed in Belarus. A mission cannot certify one, so a representative who is going to collect your criminal record certificate, birth certificate or diploma has to be appointed by an instrument executed before a notary inside the country. In practice that means either travelling or having appointed someone already. There is no consular workaround and it is not worth spending weeks looking for one.
Everything below assumes you have decided how those two steps will happen. If you have not, that decision is the project, and the rest is administration.
Your document chain
Belarus has been a party to the Apostille Convention since 31 May 1992, so a single stamp does the work and there is no consular legalisation chain. The routing is different from Russia and Ukraine, where the interior ministry stamps its own paper.
The Hague Conference listing of Belarus's competent authorities puts almost everything an immigration file needs at one counter.
| Document | Who apostilles it |
|---|---|
| Criminal record certificate from an MVD information centre | Ministry of Foreign Affairs |
| Birth, marriage and divorce certificates | Ministry of Foreign Affairs |
| Court documents, notarial acts, notarial archives | Ministry of Justice, or the regional justice administration |
| Diplomas and academic transcripts | Ministry of Education |
| State archive records | Department of Archives and Records Management |
The criminal record certificate itself is issued by the information centre of the internal affairs directorate for the region or for Minsk city, not by a national office, so it comes from wherever you were registered. What each country calls that document and who issues it is collected in the guide to police clearance procedures by country, and the sequencing rule is the same everywhere: order it late enough that it is still fresh on the day you file, because there is no published validity period and a reviewing officer applies judgement.
Once the apostille is attached, the original travels to Georgia and the translation is produced and notarised here. Nothing translated abroad is usable without its own authentication, so the order of operations is apostille, ship, translate, and never the reverse. The Public Service Development Agency publishes only two routes, apostille and legalisation, with no exemption list for regional agreements, so do not assume an older arrangement between former Soviet states does the job.
The main route for freelancers, remote workers and employees. Since March 2026 it runs on top of a Special Labour Permit.
See what it costs, from $450
Which route fits
Most Belarusians in Georgia arrive with a job or a client list rather than capital, which puts them on the work route. Since 1 March 2026 that runs in two stages: the Special Labour Permit is a separate approval from a separate authority, and it comes before the work residence permit rather than alongside it. Filing in the wrong order produces a refusal.
For freelancers the qualifying test is turnover of GEL 50,000 or income of at least five times the subsistence minimum, and the subsistence figure is revised, so calculate against whatever is current on the day you file rather than a number from a page. The mechanics are in the self-employed labour permit route.
Anyone with two years of experience and $25,000 of documented annual income should look at the IT residence permit instead, because it runs three years rather than one and cuts the renewal cycle out of the next three years of your life. It carries a 183-day presence condition, which is a real commitment rather than a formality.
The property route at $150,000 is the one to consider if Decree No. 278 has made your documents genuinely unobtainable: it asks for no criminal record certificate and no labour permit, so the file is short.
Banking, honestly
The same sanctions architecture that constrains Russian nationals constrains Belarusian ones, and for the same structural reason rather than anything about you.
Several Belarusian banks are excluded from international payment messaging, and from March 2022 the international card schemes restricted cards issued by sanctioned Belarusian institutions from working outside the country. Georgian banks hold correspondent relationships in dollars and euros and are exposed to secondary sanctions risk through them, so they apply enhanced due diligence to Belarusian nationals and treat account opening as a commercial decision made case by case.
A residence permit improves your file. It does not create an entitlement, and anyone telling you a permit guarantees an account is selling something. We do not publish which institution is doing what this quarter because it changes and we cannot verify it honestly. Plan the money before the paperwork.
What Belarus does when you leave
There is no exit tax and no departure clearance to obtain. Belarusian tax residency turns on days spent in the country during a calendar year, so a genuine move out ends it in the ordinary way.
The useful difference from the Russian case is the treaty. Georgia and Belarus have had a double tax treaty in force since 24 November 2015, and it appears on the Georgian Ministry of Finance list of agreements. That gives you tie-breaker rules if both systems treat you as resident in the same year, which is exactly the situation a mid-year move creates. It is worth knowing that a residence permit and tax residence are separate tests and that holding the first does not produce the second.
On citizenship, both ends say no. Belarus does not recognise dual nationality and treats a citizen holding another passport as Belarusian only, and Georgia does not generally permit dual citizenship either, expecting renunciation with an exception granted by presidential decree on state-interest grounds. The dual citizenship position closes the naturalisation endgame for most readers, so permanent residence after ten years of continuous temporary residence is the destination worth planning towards.
Timeline and cost
Government fees are GEL 300 to GEL 600 by processing track plus GEL 60 for the card, with the labour permit adding GEL 200 on a 30-day decision or GEL 400 on the faster one. Our fee is $450 on the work and IT routes, $570 on property, and $765 for the labour permit and work residence permit handled together.
The schedule is set by the document you are least able to obtain. Under the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons the application has to be filed 40 calendar days before your lawful stay ends, the labour permit decision sits in front of that, and a passport renewal that requires a trip to Belarus sits in front of everything. Three months is the minimum sensible runway and the 40-day rule is unforgiving about the rest.
The verdict
Works with conditions, and the conditions are almost entirely about document access rather than eligibility. On the Georgian side a Belarusian applicant is unremarkable: visa-free entry, a single apostille, a treaty in place, and the same fees as everyone else. The friction is that two of the steps a file depends on can only happen inside Belarus, and one of them is your passport. Decide how that will be handled first. Everything after it is ordinary.
Key takeaways
- Belarusian citizens enter Georgia visa-free for 365 days, confirmed against the government list on 1 August 2026.
- Decree No. 278 means passports and powers of attorney are issued only inside Belarus. Sequence the passport before the permit.
- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs apostilles the criminal record certificate and civil registry documents. Only courts, notaries, education and archives go elsewhere.
- The criminal record certificate comes from the MVD information centre for your region, not from a single national office.
- Banking friction is a sanctions problem. A residence permit does not create a right to a Georgian account.
- Georgia and Belarus have a double tax treaty in force since 24 November 2015, so dual residence has a tie-breaker.
- Neither country permits dual citizenship, so permanent residence rather than naturalisation is the realistic endgame.
Frequently asked questions
Do Belarusian citizens need a visa for Georgia?
No. Belarus appears on the annex to the government resolution listing visa-exempt countries, with entry and stay permitted for one full year at a time. We checked that on 1 August 2026. The period resets on re-entry, and every visitor must hold insurance with a minimum of GEL 30,000 in cover.
Can I renew my Belarusian passport in Georgia?
No. Since Decree No. 278 took effect on 6 September 2023, Belarusian diplomatic and consular posts cannot issue, exchange or renew passports, and that has to be done inside Belarus. Because a Georgian residence permit is granted against a valid travel document, an expiring passport is the first problem to solve rather than the last.
Who apostilles a Belarusian police certificate?
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Belarus routes almost everything through the foreign ministry, with only court documents, notarial acts, educational certificates and state archive records handled by the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Education and the archives department respectively. The certificate itself comes from the internal affairs information centre for your region.
Can someone collect my documents in Belarus on my behalf?
Only under a power of attorney executed before a notary inside Belarus. Since Decree No. 278, missions abroad cannot certify one, so an instrument signed in Tbilisi will not be accepted for retrieving a birth certificate, a criminal record certificate or a diploma. This is the single most common reason a Belarusian file stalls.
Is there a tax treaty between Georgia and Belarus?
Yes, in force since 24 November 2015 and listed by the Georgian Ministry of Finance. It supplies tie-breaker rules where both countries treat you as tax resident in the same period, which is the normal situation in the year you move. Holding a Georgian residence permit does not by itself make you Georgian tax resident.
Can a Belarusian citizen open a bank account in Georgia?
Sometimes, and the permit is not what decides it. Georgian banks carry secondary sanctions exposure through their own correspondent relationships and apply enhanced due diligence to Belarusian nationals as a result, so account opening is a commercial decision taken case by case. Treat it as a separate project from the residence permit and start it early.
Do Belarusians need a work permit in Georgia?
In three situations, and nationality makes no difference to any of them. A Georgian employer taking on foreign staff needs one, an Individual Entrepreneur with Georgian clients needs one, and it is a prerequisite to the work and IT residence permits, so those two applications run in sequence. Remote work for clients outside Georgia engages none of them. An employer hiring foreign staff without a permit faces GEL 2,000, with a separate GEL 2,000 on the worker.
Which Georgian residence permit is easiest for a Belarusian applicant?
The property route, if you have the capital, because it requires no criminal record certificate and no labour permit and therefore avoids the documents that Decree No. 278 makes hard to obtain. It costs $150,000 in real estate, up from $100,000 on 1 March 2026. For everyone else the work route is the common answer.
Can Belarusians get Georgian citizenship?
Only by renouncing Belarusian citizenship, which Belarus itself makes a formal process. Georgian naturalisation requires ten years of continuous residence and exams in language, history and law, and Georgia does not generally permit dual citizenship. Both positions point the same way, so permanent residence is the sensible target.
How long does the process take for a Belarusian applicant?
Three months is the minimum from a standing start, and longer if a passport renewal or a power of attorney requires a trip home. The apostille itself is quick, the labour permit decision takes up to 30 calendar days, and the residence permit application must be filed 40 calendar days before your lawful stay expires. Count backwards from that date.
