Romania is the easiest of the eastern European origins to document and the hardest to leave cleanly. Your apostille is free, it can be done at any prefecture, and the cazier judiciar arrives in days. Then the Fiscal Code asks for a questionnaire thirty days before you fly and, if you cannot prove where you landed, keeps taxing your worldwide income for the year you left and three more. Georgia's half of the application is identical on every passport. Yours turns on that proof.
Can you enter Georgia, and for how long?
Yes, for one full year at a time. Romania 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.
Nothing has to be arranged before you fly, then. Land, assemble the file here and submit it at a Public Service Hall. Filing through a Georgian mission in Romania 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 itself. 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 however many times you reset it.
Which route actually fits a Romanian applicant
Georgia's routes, thresholds and government fees do not move with your passport. What moves for a Romanian is a deadline in each direction: a six-month clock on the certificate, and a thirty-day clock in front of the flight.
The property route at $150,000 and the investment route ask for no home-country criminal record certificate. For a Romanian that removes the six-month expiry from the middle of the schedule, which matters more than the fee saved, because the apostille was free anyway.
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 work residence permit application submitted before the labour permit has been granted produces a refusal instead of a queue position. Romanian PFAs and SRL owners invoicing Bucharest or Cluj clients from a Tbilisi flat are inside that sequence too once they want the card, though the permit itself turns on who pays you and Romanian clients engage nothing.
The IT residence permit suits a large share of the Romanian cohort here, at $25,000 of annual income, two years of experience and a three-year term. Its condition of 183 days a year in Georgia is the single most useful feature of the route for a Romanian, and the reason is in the tax section below rather than in the immigration rules.
Your document chain, and the six-month clock
The certificate. The certificat de cazier judiciar is issued by the Romanian Police, in person at a police unit or through the online service. Under Law 290/2004 it is issued within a maximum of three days of the request and is valid for six months from the date of issue. Georgia publishes no fixed validity window of its own, so a reviewing officer applies a judgement about whether the document is current. Read the two together and the binding constraint is the printed Romanian date, which is why the certificate is the last thing you order rather than the first.
The apostille, and which office. Competence splits by the nature of the document. The prefect's institution apostilles official administrative documents issued by central or local public administration, which covers the cazier judiciar, civil status certificates and study documents. Court judgments, documents from judicial bailiffs and trade register documents go to the tribunal, and notarial acts to the chamber of notaries. Two details make the Romanian chain unusually kind. The apostille has been free of charge since Law 1 of 2017 took effect on 1 February 2017. And while the general rule ties you to the prefecture for your domicile, cazier judiciar and civil status certificates are an express exception and may be apostilled at any prefecture in the country.
Translation happens in Georgia, on the paper original, after the apostille is attached. A translation prepared in Romania is itself a Romanian document needing its own authentication. What gets rejected at the counter 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 Romania does when you leave
This is the section the guide exists for, and it is the part Romanians most often discover a year late.
The questionnaire, thirty days out. A Romanian tax resident with domicile in Romania who is leaving for one or more periods abroad totalling more than 183 days in any twelve consecutive months has to complete the departure questionnaire for establishing the tax residence of an individual and file it with the competent authority thirty days before departure. ANAF's published guidance on establishing individual tax residence sets out the procedure and the supporting documents. It is a filing duty, not a request for permission, and it is the document that starts the clock on everything else.
The three-year tail, and the exception that removes it. Under article 230 of the Fiscal Code, a Romanian resident with domicile in Romania who establishes residence in a state with which Romania has no double taxation convention remains liable to Romanian tax on income from any source, inside and outside Romania, for the calendar year in which the change occurs and for the following three calendar years. Individuals who prove they are resident in a state with which Romania does have a convention are expressly excepted, and the convention applies to them instead.
Romania has a convention with Georgia, so the tail does not have to bite. But read the exception again: it turns on proving residence, not on having moved. A Georgian residence card proves immigration status and nothing about tax, so the document that actually discharges the point is a Georgian tax residence certificate, issued only once you satisfy Georgia's own test of 183 days in a rolling twelve-month window. That is why the IT permit's presence condition is an asset rather than a cost, and why the distance between holding a permit and being tax resident is the most expensive misunderstanding available to a Romanian reader.
The treaty position and the citizenship endgame
Georgia's Ministry of Finance publishes 58 double tax treaties in force and records the Romanian one as in force since 15 May 1999, with published withholding ceilings of 8 per cent on dividends, 10 per cent on interest and 5 per cent on royalties, and a nine-month permanent establishment threshold. It allocates taxing rights and breaks ties, and how relief is actually claimed sits in the treaty network guide.
Citizenship runs the other way from the tax question. Romanian law does not withdraw citizenship from someone who acquires another one, so Bucharest puts nothing in your path. Georgia does: it does not generally permit dual citizenship and expects renunciation, with an exception by presidential decree on state-interest grounds. The dual citizenship position therefore decides the endgame on day one, and permanent residence at ten years, which asks nothing of your Romanian passport, is the destination that works.
Timeline, cost and the verdict
Count backwards from three dates. 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. Then check that the whole sequence still fits inside the six months on your cazier, and order the certificate late if it does not. Georgian government fees are the same on every passport, and the full cost breakdown by route covers the state fees alongside ours. The counting rule is in the 40-day rule.
Straightforward on the Georgian side, with the real work at the Romanian end. The document chain is cheap, quick and forgiving. The tax exit is neither, and it is the one part of this that a residence permit does not fix by itself. Anyone with Romanian property, dividends or a PFA still invoicing after departure should take Romanian advice before they file the questionnaire, not after, and should treat the Georgian tax residence certificate as part of the plan rather than an afterthought. The comparison across nationalities shows how differently that side of the move behaves from one passport to the next.
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
Key takeaways
- Romanian citizens enter Georgia visa-free for one full year, verified against the Georgian visa-free ordinance on 1 August 2026.
- The certificat de cazier judiciar is issued within three days and valid six months from issue, so order it last rather than first.
- Apostilles are free since 1 February 2017, and the cazier and civil status certificates may be apostilled at any prefecture.
- Court judgments and bailiff documents go to the tribunal, and notarial acts to the chamber of notaries.
- Leaving for more than 183 days in any twelve months means filing the ANAF departure questionnaire thirty days before you go.
- Without proof of residence in a treaty state, Romania taxes worldwide income for the year of the change plus three more calendar years.
- Romania has a treaty with Georgia, in force since 15 May 1999, so the exception is available. It runs on proof, and the proof is a Georgian tax residence certificate.
- Since 1 March 2026 the Special Labour Permit comes before the work or IT residence permit, PFAs included.
Frequently asked questions
Can Romanian citizens enter Georgia without a visa?
Yes, for one full year at a time, and the period resets when you leave and return. Romania 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.
How long is a Romanian cazier judiciar valid?
Six months from the date of issue, under Law 290/2004. The certificate itself is issued within a maximum of three days of the request. Georgia publishes no fixed validity window, so the Romanian date is normally the binding one and the certificate should be ordered once the rest of the file is nearly assembled.
Who apostilles a Romanian document for Georgia?
It depends on the document. The prefect's institution apostilles official administrative documents, which covers the cazier judiciar, civil status certificates and study documents. Court judgments, bailiff documents and trade register documents go to the tribunal, and notarial acts to the chamber of notaries.
Does a Romanian apostille cost anything?
No. Apostilles on official administrative documents have been free of charge since Law 1 of 2017 took effect on 1 February 2017. There is also a useful exception to the territorial rule: cazier judiciar and civil status certificates may be apostilled at any prefect's institution rather than only the one for your domicile.
Do I have to tell ANAF I am moving to Georgia?
Yes. A Romanian tax resident with domicile in Romania who will be abroad for more than 183 days in any twelve consecutive months must complete the departure questionnaire for establishing individual tax residence and file it thirty days before leaving. It is an obligation rather than a request, and it is what starts the residence analysis.
Will Romania keep taxing me after I move to Georgia?
Not if you can prove Georgian residence. Article 230 of the Fiscal Code keeps a departing Romanian liable on worldwide income for the year of the change plus the following three calendar years where the destination has no convention with Romania. Those who prove residence in a treaty state are excepted, and Romania has a treaty with Georgia.
Is there a Romanian tax treaty with Georgia?
Yes, in force since 15 May 1999 according to Georgia's Ministry of Finance, which lists 58 treaties in total. Its published ceilings are 8 per cent on dividends, 10 per cent on interest and 5 per cent on royalties. The treaty is also what makes the exception to Romania's three-year rule available to you.
Does a Georgian residence permit prove I am tax resident in Georgia?
No, and this is the trap. A residence card is an immigration document. Georgian tax residence is a separate test based on 183 days in a rolling twelve-month period, and the document that evidences it is a tax residence certificate issued by the Georgian authorities. That certificate, not the card, is what answers ANAF.
Can a Romanian 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 Romanian 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 Romanian citizen become Georgian and keep Romanian nationality?
Romania would allow it, because Romanian law does not withdraw citizenship from someone who acquires another. Georgia is the obstacle, since it does not generally permit dual citizenship and expects renunciation, with exceptions by presidential decree on state-interest grounds. Permanent residence after ten years carries no renunciation and is the realistic destination. </content>
