The Czech document chain has one counterintuitive step and it costs people a fortnight. The Rejstřík trestů is a Ministry of Justice body, so applicants post their criminal record extract to the Ministry of Justice for an apostille, and the ministry sends it back. Its international civil department stamps court documents and nothing else. Georgia's half of the application is identical on every passport. Yours differs in which ministry gets which piece of paper, in a two-step for anything from a registry office, and in when your Czech tax residence actually ends.
Can you enter Georgia, and for how long?
Yes, for one full year at a time. The Czech Republic 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 Georgian border officers apply rather than any summary of it.
So nothing has to be arranged before you fly. Land, assemble the file here and submit it at a Public Service Hall. Filing through a Georgian mission in Czechia is possible and slower, and it removes your ability to correct a queried document at the counter the same week.
Two conditions ride on the entry. Since 2026 every visitor needs travel or health insurance carrying 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, which is the point the Czech cohort here misses most often.
Which route actually fits a Czech applicant
Georgia's routes, thresholds and government fees do not move with your passport. What moves is how many buildings your file has to pass through, and for a Czech that number depends entirely on which route you pick.
The property route at $150,000 and the investment route ask for no home-country criminal record certificate. For a Czech that removes the extract, the ministry question and the courier in one decision.
Everyone else lands on the work or IT routes, and since 1 March 2026 both sit behind a second permit. The Special Labour Permit is a prerequisite rather than a parallel filing, so a residence permit application submitted before the labour permit has been granted produces a refusal instead of a queue position. This is where the established Czech nomad pattern matters. Working from Georgia on a živnostenský list for Prague clients, invoicing in euros and never touching a Georgian company, engages no labour permit at all: the permit turns on who pays you and on whether you want a residence card. Georgian clients change that answer, and the penalties for hiring without authorisation fall on the employer and the worker separately.
The IT residence permit suits a good share of Czech arrivals, at $25,000 of annual income, two years of experience and a three-year term. Read its condition of 183 days a year in Georgia before you choose it, because it is exactly the number that also decides whether you are still Czech tax resident.
Your document chain, and which ministry gets what
The Ministry of Justice will not touch your criminal record extract. Its own page on verifying documents for use abroad states that the international civil department attaches an apostille only to Czech public documents issued or certified by courts, and where relevant judicial executors. The same page says the department does not issue criminal record extracts and points applicants to the Rejstřík trestů on Legerova in Prague, with the apostille to follow from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The register is a justice-sector body, the extract is not a court document, and the two facts pull in opposite directions.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs handles the rest. Its legalisation department publishes a fee of CZK 600 for higher verification or apostille of a Czech document, and asks that anything requiring a preceding certification arrives already carrying it. Your extract needs none, so it is a single errand.
A registry document is two errands. For a rodný list, oddací list or úmrtní list the chain runs through the regional authority first: the published procedure for verifying a registry document for use abroad has the krajský úřad, which holds the signature specimens of the registrars in its region, verify the document before the ministry apostilles it. A Czech family application is therefore sequenced rather than parallel, and starting it a week before you need it is how people miss a filing date.
Translation happens in Georgia, on the paper original, after the apostille is attached. A translation produced in Czechia is itself a Czech document needing its own authentication. What actually gets rejected is set out in the full apostille sequence, the police certificate procedures by country and the rules on certified translation. Give your name exactly as your passport spells it, because everything downstream inherits that spelling.
What Czechia does when you leave
Czechia's grip is not a departure charge. Nothing in the Czech income tax rules turns a change of residence into a disposal for an individual, so there is no bill to plan for on the way out. What there is instead is a date, and the date is decided by facts rather than by a counter.
You are Czech tax resident if you have a bydliště in Czechia, meaning a home in circumstances from which an intention to stay permanently can be inferred, or if you are habitually present for at least 183 days in the calendar year, counting each started day. Cancelling your trvalý pobyt is a registration act and it satisfies neither test on its own. Keeping the Prague flat, the family and the Czech clients while spending most of the year in Tbilisi is the shape that produces two tax residences at once, and then the treaty has to break the tie.
That makes the difference between holding a permit and being tax resident more than academic for a Czech reader. Georgia's own test is 183 days in a rolling twelve-month window, and if you intend to rely on it you will eventually need a Georgian tax residence certificate rather than a residence card, because a card proves immigration status and nothing else.
The treaty position and the citizenship endgame
Georgia's Ministry of Finance publishes 58 double tax treaties in force and the Czech Republic is on that list, with published withholding ceilings of 5 or 10 per cent on dividends, 8 per cent on interest and up to 10 per cent on royalties, and a six-month permanent establishment threshold. The Czech treaty is one of those covered by the multilateral instrument, and the ministry publishes a synthesised text alongside the original. Read the synthesised version, because the original alone no longer tells you what the treaty says. How relief is claimed sits in the treaty network guide.
Citizenship is a straight question here and the answer is Georgian rather than Czech. The Czech citizenship act of 2013, in force since 1 January 2014, permits multiple nationality and dropped the old requirement to give up a previous citizenship. Georgia is the obstacle: it does not generally permit dual citizenship and expects renunciation, with an exception by presidential decree on state-interest grounds. So the dual citizenship position decides the endgame, and permanent residence at ten years, which asks you to give up nothing, is the destination that actually works.
Timeline, cost and the verdict
Count backwards. Georgian law requires the application to be filed at least 40 calendar days before your lawful stay expires, and anything filed 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 Czech applicant sending only the criminal record extract, the trigger point is roughly two months out; add a fortnight if a registry document is in the file, because of the regional authority step. Georgian government fees are the same on every passport, and the full cost breakdown by route sets out the state fees alongside ours. The counting rule is in the 40-day rule.
The verdict is straightforward, with one routing error waiting for you and one habit to break. The routing error is the Ministry of Justice. The habit is treating a year of visa-free stay as a working year, which it has not been since March 2026 and which the comparison across nationalities shows is the most common opening mistake in this cluster.
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
Key takeaways
- Czech citizens enter Georgia visa-free for one full year, verified against the Georgian visa-free ordinance on 1 August 2026.
- The Ministry of Justice apostilles only documents issued or certified by courts and judicial executors, and states that it does not handle criminal record extracts.
- The výpis z rejstříku trestů is apostilled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at CZK 600 per Czech document.
- A birth or marriage certificate needs higher verification by the regional authority before the ministry will apostille it, which adds an office and a week.
- The property and investment routes need no criminal record extract, which removes the ministry question entirely.
- Since 1 March 2026 the Special Labour Permit comes before the work or IT residence permit, including for anyone invoicing Czech clients on a živnostenský list.
- Czech tax residence turns on a permanent home or 183 days of habitual presence, not on cancelling your trvalý pobyt.
- Czech law has permitted multiple nationality since 1 January 2014, so the only barrier to a Georgian passport is the Georgian rule.
Frequently asked questions
Can Czech citizens enter Georgia without a visa?
Yes, for one full year at a time, and the period resets when you leave and return. The Czech Republic is on the list annexed to the Georgian ordinance on visa-free entry, checked on 1 August 2026. Every visitor also needs travel or health insurance carrying at least GEL 30,000 of cover, which has applied since 2026.
Which police certificate does Georgia want from a Czech applicant?
The výpis z rejstříku trestů, apostilled. Obtain it from the Rejstřík trestů in Prague, then take or send it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the apostille. Give your name exactly as your passport spells it, because the apostille and the Georgian translation both inherit that spelling.
Does the Czech Ministry of Justice apostille a criminal record extract?
No, and this is the step that costs people time. The ministry's international civil department apostilles Czech public documents issued or certified by courts, and where relevant judicial executors. Its published guidance says it does not handle criminal record extracts and directs applicants to the Rejstřík trestů and then to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
How much does a Czech apostille cost?
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes CZK 600 for higher verification or an apostille on a Czech document. That is per document, so a family application with several certificates multiplies it. Budget for the regional authority step on anything issued by a registry office as well.
Who apostilles a Czech birth or marriage certificate for Georgia?
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but not first. A registry document has to be verified by the regional authority that holds the signature specimens of the registrars in its region, and only then does the ministry attach the apostille. Sending it straight to Prague produces a return trip.
Is there a Czech tax treaty with Georgia?
Yes. Georgia's Ministry of Finance lists 58 treaties in force and the Czech Republic is among them. It is also one of the treaties amended by the multilateral instrument, and the ministry publishes a synthesised text. Read the synthesised version rather than the original convention on its own.
Does Czechia charge an exit tax when I move to Georgia?
No departure charge arises on an individual changing residence. The Czech question is when your residence ends, which depends on whether you keep a permanent home in Czechia and how many days you spend there. Anyone holding shares in a Czech company or a substantial portfolio should still put the specifics to a Czech adviser before leaving.
Does cancelling my trvalý pobyt end my Czech tax residence?
No. You remain Czech tax resident if you have a home in Czechia in circumstances suggesting you intend to stay there permanently, or if you are habitually present for at least 183 days in the calendar year. Deregistration is an address matter. The evidence that decides it is where your home and your days actually are.
Can a Czech citizen work remotely from Georgia without a permit?
Yes. The Special Labour Permit follows who pays you rather than where you sit, so invoicing a Czech company 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 Czech citizen become Georgian and keep Czech nationality?
Czechia would allow it. The citizenship act in force since 1 January 2014 permits multiple nationality and no longer requires an applicant to renounce a previous citizenship. Georgia is the obstacle, because it does not generally permit dual citizenship and expects renunciation, with exceptions by presidential decree. Permanent residence after ten years is the realistic destination. </content>
