If somebody has told you that Canadian documents need stamping by a Georgian embassy before Tbilisi will look at them, they are describing a system Canada left on 11 January 2024. Your paperwork is now one certificate, not a chain. What has not got easier is the Canadian exit: a deemed disposition on the day you cease residence, and no tax treaty with Georgia to referee anything afterwards. Here is the whole sequence, in order.
Can you enter Georgia, and for how long?
Yes, for one full year at a time. Canada appears on the list annexed to the Georgian ordinance approving visa-free entry, which sets the permitted stay at one full year and was last amended on 24 February 2026. We read that text on 1 August 2026, and it is the instrument border officers apply rather than any summary of it.
So nothing has to be arranged before you fly. Land, live here lawfully for a year, assemble your file and submit it at a Public Service Hall. Applying through a Georgian mission in Canada is possible and slower, and it removes the ability to fix a queried document in person.
Two conditions attach. Every visitor from 2026 must hold travel or health insurance with at least GEL 30,000 of cover, checked at the border under the 2026 insurance rule. And the year of visa-free stay is presence rather than status, so it accrues nothing toward permanent residence however many times you reset it.
Your document chain got shorter on 11 January 2024
This is the single most useful thing on this page. Canada acceded to the Hague Apostille Convention with effect from 11 January 2024, recorded on the Hague Conference status table. Georgia has been a contracting party since 2007. Between two contracting parties there is no consular legalisation: one apostille, from one competent authority, and the document is usable in Tbilisi.
Before that date a Canadian document went to Global Affairs Canada for authentication and then to a Georgian diplomatic mission for legalisation, which took months rather than weeks. If the instructions in front of you end at an embassy, they were written for the old system and following them wastes a courier leg and a fee.
The catch in the new system is that Canada has six competent authorities rather than one, and Global Affairs Canada sets out the split. Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan apostille documents issued or notarised in their own province. Global Affairs Canada covers documents issued by the Government of Canada, and everything from Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and the three territories.
Two routing rules cause most of the wasted trips. A document notarised in Alberta, Ontario or Saskatchewan goes to that province regardless of where the underlying record was issued. In British Columbia and Quebec the provincial authority can only handle a notarised document if the original came from that province. A Canadian born in Halifax and married in Toronto is therefore running two separate errands at two different counters.
The police certificate, and which one Georgia means
The criminal record document is the RCMP certified criminal record check, the fingerprint-based product, not a name-based check from a municipal police service. It is a federal record, so its apostille comes from Global Affairs Canada rather than from any province, and it takes an accredited fingerprinting agency to start it. If you are already in Georgia, arranging fingerprints abroad and having them submitted is the step that adds weeks, so start it before you need it.
Two routes skip this entirely. Neither the property route at $150,000 nor the investment route requires a home-country criminal record certificate, which for a Canadian removes both the fingerprinting exercise and the federal apostille queue in one decision. The full apostille sequence and the police certificate procedures by country cover what actually gets rejected once the paper reaches the counter.
Translation happens here, after the apostille, on the paper original. A translation prepared in Canada is itself a foreign document and needs authenticating in its own right.
Which route actually fits a Canadian
Georgia's routes, thresholds and government fees are identical on every passport. What differs is what your own country has just done to your balance sheet.
Canadians frequently arrive shortly after a deemed disposition, which means realised capital and a fresh tax basis. That is why the residence permit by property route fits this cohort more often than it fits others: it converts capital you have already been taxed on into a permit with no employment condition, no criminal record requirement and no labour permit dependency.
If you have income rather than capital, the work and IT routes both now sit behind a second permit. Since 1 March 2026 the Special Labour Permit is a prerequisite rather than a parallel filing, and a residence permit filed before it is granted is refused rather than queued. Canadians consulting for Canadian clients from Tbilisi are inside that sequence too once they want the card, though foreign clients on their own engage no permit at all. The IT residence permit covers technology workers at $25,000 of annual income and two years of experience, on a three-year term, with a 183-days-a-year presence condition attached.
What Canada does when you leave
More than any other country in this set except Australia. Ceasing to be a Canadian resident is a taxable event in itself.
On the day you cease residence you are treated as having disposed of most of your property at fair market value and immediately reacquired it, and the resulting gain is taxable in that year. The CRA guidance for emigrants sets out the mechanics: Form T1243 reports the deemed disposition, and Form T1161 lists all your property, inside and outside Canada, where the total fair market value of what you owned on departure exceeded CAD 25,000. Some property is outside the deemed disposition, including Canadian real property and registered plans such as an RRSP.
The relief that people miss is that you can elect to defer paying the tax on the deemed disposition until you actually sell, without interest, and security may be required for larger amounts. That election turns a cash-flow problem into a paperwork problem, and it has to be made rather than assumed.
The date that all of this hangs on is not the date your Georgian permit is issued. It is the date you cease to be a Canadian resident, which the CRA decides on residential ties: your home, your spouse or common-law partner, your dependants, and then secondary ties such as bank accounts and memberships. A Georgian residence permit is evidence in that assessment, not the trigger for it. Keeping a Toronto condominium available to you while telling the CRA you left is the argument nobody wins.
No treaty, and what that actually means
Georgia has 58 double tax treaties in force and Canada is not on the list, which the Georgian Ministry of Finance publishes in full. Canada's own in-force list does not include Georgia either. Both sides agree there is nothing.
The practical effect is narrow but sharp. A treaty does two jobs: it allocates taxing rights over particular kinds of income, and it breaks ties when two countries both claim you as resident. Without one, there is no tie-breaker. If the CRA concludes your residential ties never really ended, and Georgia concludes you are tax resident here on the day count, nothing external resolves that and relief depends on domestic foreign tax credits in the Canadian system.
That is an argument for severing ties cleanly and documenting it, rather than for leaving the question open. Georgia's own test is 183 days in a rolling twelve-month window, and it operates whether or not you hold a permit, which is why a residence permit and tax residency are separate questions with separate answers. What the treaty network does cover, for the countries that are in it, is in the treaty guide.
Timeline and cost, realistically
Count backwards. Georgian law requires the application to be filed at least 40 calendar days before your lawful stay expires, and anything inside that window is refused review rather than assessed. On a work or IT route the labour permit decision sits in front of that again.
For a Canadian on a route that needs the RCMP check, the realistic trigger is three to four months out, because fingerprinting, the federal check, the Global Affairs apostille and two courier legs all have to fit. On the property route it is much shorter, and that difference is worth weighing rather than assuming. Government fees do not change with nationality, and the full cost breakdown by route covers the state fees alongside ours. The counting rule itself is in the 40-day rule.
The verdict
Works with conditions, and the conditions are all Canadian. Georgia is easy: visa-free entry for a year, a document chain that got substantially shorter in 2024, and no nationality-based obstacle on any route.
The work is on the way out. Get the departure date right, decide about the deferral election before you file rather than after, and understand that with no treaty in place, an ambiguous exit from Canadian residence has no external referee. Georgian permanent residence after ten years is the sensible destination, since Canada permits dual citizenship but Georgia generally does not, and naturalisation here would mean giving up the Canadian passport.
Buy qualifying Georgian property and get a renewable one-year residence permit. No job, no business, and no criminal record certificate on the published document list.
See what it costs, from $570
Key takeaways
- Canadians enter Georgia visa-free for one full year, verified against the Georgian visa-free ordinance on 1 August 2026.
- Canada joined the Apostille Convention on 11 January 2024, so one certificate replaced the old consular legalisation chain.
- Federal documents, including the RCMP check, are apostilled by Global Affairs Canada. Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan apostille their own.
- The property and investment routes need no criminal record certificate, which removes fingerprinting and the federal queue from the schedule.
- Ceasing Canadian residence triggers a deemed disposition of most property at market value, reported on Form T1243, with an election available to defer payment.
- Form T1161 is required where the total fair market value of property owned on departure exceeded CAD 25,000.
- There is no Canada and Georgia tax treaty, so no tie-breaker exists if both authorities claim you as resident.
Frequently asked questions
Can Canadian citizens enter Georgia without a visa?
Yes, for one full year at a time, resettable on re-entry. Canada is on the list annexed to the Georgian ordinance on visa-free entry, which we checked on 1 August 2026. Every visitor also needs travel or health insurance carrying at least GEL 30,000 of cover, a requirement that applies from 2026 at the border.
Do Canadian documents still need consular legalisation for Georgia?
No, and this is the change that catches people out. Canada became a party to the Apostille Convention on 11 January 2024, and Georgia has been one since 2007, so a single apostille is enough. Any instruction telling you to finish at a Georgian embassy describes the pre-2024 system and adds weeks for nothing.
Who issues an apostille on a Canadian document?
It depends on the document. Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan issue apostilles for documents issued or notarised in their province. Global Affairs Canada handles federal documents, including the RCMP criminal record check, plus everything from the remaining provinces and the three territories.
Which police check does Georgia want from a Canadian?
The RCMP certified criminal record check, the fingerprint-based product, apostilled by Global Affairs Canada. A name-based check from a local police service is a different document and is generally not accepted. Arranging fingerprints from abroad is the step that adds the most time, so start it before anything else on the work or IT routes.
Is there a Canada and Georgia tax treaty?
No. Georgia lists 58 treaties in force and Canada is not among them, and Canada's own in-force list does not include Georgia. Without a treaty there is no tie-breaker article, so if both revenue authorities consider you resident, relief depends on domestic foreign tax credits rather than on any agreed allocation.
What is Canadian departure tax and does moving to Georgia trigger it?
Ceasing Canadian residence triggers a deemed disposition of most property at fair market value on that date, with the gain taxable in that year. Moving to Georgia does not trigger it by itself; severing your residential ties does. Canadian real property and registered plans such as an RRSP sit outside the deemed disposition.
Can I defer the Canadian departure tax?
Yes. You can elect to defer payment of the tax arising on the deemed disposition until you actually dispose of the property, without interest, and the CRA may require security for larger amounts. The election has to be made, not assumed, so decide about it before the return is filed rather than after.
Which Georgian residence permit is best for a Canadian?
Frequently the property route at $150,000, because it needs no RCMP check and suits someone who has just realised capital on a deemed disposition. If you have income instead, the IT permit fits technology workers at $25,000 a year with two years of experience, and the work permit covers everyone else. Both income routes need a Special Labour Permit first.
Can a Canadian work remotely from Georgia without a permit?
Yes. The Special Labour Permit follows who pays you rather than where you sit, so consulting for a Vancouver client from Tbilisi does not engage it. The permit is required in three situations: employing foreign staff in Georgia, trading as an Individual Entrepreneur with Georgian clients, and applying for a work or IT residence permit. If you want the residence card, the labour permit comes first whoever your clients are.
Can a Canadian get Georgian citizenship?
After ten years of continuous residence and exams in Georgian language, history and law, but almost nobody should plan for it. Georgia does not generally permit dual citizenship and expects renunciation, and Canada allowing dual nationality does not change the Georgian requirement. Permanent residence carries no renunciation and is the realistic destination.
