A company incorporated last month has no turnover, and the labour permit regime asks for turnover. Without a way round that, no start-up in Georgia could hire a single foreign national, including its own founders. Decree No. 317 provides the way round, and it is genuinely useful. It is also a loan rather than a gift: the permits it produces run six months, and the renewal is judged on the test you were excused from. Here is the relief, its three conditions, and how to plan the six months you are actually being given.
What the relief is, and why it exists
Since 1 March 2026 a Georgian company employing a non-Georgian national needs a Special Labour Permit for that person, and the company applies rather than the worker. The application rests on the employer's ability to carry a foreign hire, which the rules measure as annual turnover per foreign employee.
That works for an established business and it is impossible for a new one. A company registered eight weeks ago has no annual turnover to show, no filing history for the Revenue Service to confirm, and no way to reach a threshold designed for trading companies. Applied literally, the rule would have prevented every technology start-up, every newly incorporated subsidiary and every founder-led company in Georgia from employing a foreign national at all, including the founders themselves.
Decree No. 317 of 9 July 2026 fixes that, under the procedural rules on granting residence permits. A qualifying new company can obtain labour permits for foreign staff without meeting the turnover test.
Read it as a bridge across the first months of trading rather than as an exemption from the regime. Everything else in the Special Labour Permit sequence continues to apply, and the bridge has a far end.
The three conditions
All three, together. Failing any one of them puts you back on the ordinary test.
| Condition | The test | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Company age | Less than three months old | Counted from registration, so the incorporation date is a planning decision |
| Number of foreign hires | No more than three foreign nationals | A cap on the concession, not on the company |
| Application history | A first application | The relief is available once, not annually |
Company age is the condition that most often fails, and it fails quietly. Founders incorporate, spend a couple of months finding an office, opening banking and hiring, and reach the labour permit application after the window has closed. The clock runs from registration, not from the point at which the company felt ready.
The cap of three is on foreign nationals, not on total headcount. A company can hire as many Georgian staff as it likes. Deciding which three foreign roles are worth the concession is a real allocation problem for a founding team, because the relief is not there to be topped up later.
A first application means what it says. The relief is a one-time bridge over the start of trading. A company that used it, let the permits lapse and came back a year later is not making a first application.
The six-month catch
This is the part that turns a helpful concession into a planning constraint, and it is the reason this post exists as its own page.
Permits granted under the relief run six months, rather than the term the same permit would carry on the ordinary route. At the end of those six months the renewal is assessed on the ordinary rules: GEL 50,000 of annual turnover, roughly $19,000, per foreign employee, or GEL 35,000 for educational and medical institutions.
So the trade is explicit. The state advances you six months of foreign hiring against turnover you do not yet have, and then asks for the turnover. A company that used the full cap of three foreign hires is being measured against three times the figure at renewal, which is a materially harder target than the one it skipped.
That is a reasonable bargain if you plan for it. It is an unpleasant surprise if you do not, because the renewal lands at the same moment as everything else a six-month-old company is dealing with: the first real cash-flow crunch, the first tax filings that matter, and possibly a fundraise.
The renewal has to be filed and decided before the permit expires, and a decision takes up to 30 calendar days. Your real deadline for having credible turnover evidence is around month four or five, not month six.
Planning the renewal backwards from day one
Treat the grant date as the start of a countdown rather than the end of a task. Working backwards from the six-month expiry:
| Point in the six months | What has to be true |
|---|---|
| Month 1 | Permits granted. Revenue Service registration and bookkeeping in place from the first invoice |
| Months 2 to 4 | Real trading, invoiced and declared, so that turnover exists in state records rather than in a spreadsheet |
| Month 4 to 5 | Renewal evidence assembled, reconciled against filings, and the application filed |
| Month 5 to 6 | Decision, up to 30 calendar days. The employee's residence permit sequenced behind it |
Three things make the difference between companies that clear this and companies that do not.
Declare from the first invoice. Turnover the state cannot see is not evidence. Everything at renewal turns on whether your figures reconcile with what the Revenue Service already holds, and a company that catches up on filings in month five has nothing to reconcile against. Bookkeeping and tax registration are a founder problem from week one, and our sister firm at register-company.ge handles that side, including the 1% small business regime where it applies.
Do not spend the cap early. Three foreign hires means three times the turnover requirement at renewal. Hiring two now and one later, or hiring one and contracting the others, is a smaller cliff.
Watch both expiry dates. The labour permit and the residence permit sitting on top of it are issued by different agencies on different schedules, and the expiry printed on each document is the only date that governs it. Read them both rather than assuming they align, and count the 40-day residence permit deadline from the earlier of the two.
If the renewal is refused, the company loses the hire and the employee's residence permit loses its foundation. The recurring causes, and what can still be done, are in why labour permits get refused.
What the relief does not do
It waives one piece of evidence. It changes nothing else, and every item below still applies exactly as it would for an established employer.
- The labour permit is still required. The relief removes the turnover test, not the permit. Working before it is granted is unauthorised work.
- The application is still the employer's, with the same role description, the same employment contract and the same classification of the work. The rest of the employer's obligations sit in the employer guide to hiring foreign staff.
- The employee still needs a residence permit, filed after the labour permit is granted, inside the window the approval notice states. Hires arriving from abroad need a D1 visa instead, applied for at a Georgian mission.
- The employee's own documents are unchanged. Passport, apostilled criminal record certificate, photograph, insurance and a Georgian address, and the apostille is still the slowest item in the whole processing timeline.
- The fines are unchanged. GEL 2,000 on the worker and a separate GEL 2,000 on the company, doubled on a repeat.
The government fee is also unchanged: GEL 200 for a decision within 30 calendar days, or GEL 400 for ten working days.
Incorporation timing decides more than founders expect
Because the age test runs from registration, the order in which you do things in your first quarter has consequences that are hard to reverse.
The pattern that works is to incorporate when you are ready to hire, not when you first decide to have a company. A founding team that registers the entity in January, raises money through the spring and tries to hire in May has spent the concession on nothing. A team that registers in May and files labour permits in June has three months of relief and a full six-month permit ahead of it.
The pattern that fails is treating incorporation as an administrative first step to get out of the way. Under this regime the incorporation date is a substantive decision, and it is the one thing in this post you cannot fix later.
There is a version of the same question for founders themselves. A founder employed by the Georgian company needs a permit like any other hire, and the alternative structure, registering as an Individual Entrepreneur and invoicing the company, puts the application on your own turnover or income instead. That is a different route with different evidence rather than a way out of the requirement, because the company is a Georgian client. That comparison sits in the guide to the self-employed labour permit, and it is worth making deliberately, because how Individual Entrepreneur status and the work permit interlock surprises people who assume tax registration is authorisation.
When the relief is the wrong tool
Three situations where reaching for it makes things worse.
The company will not realistically hit the turnover figure in six months. Then the relief buys a hire you will lose, plus a foreign national whose residence permit loses its basis on the same day. Better to structure differently at the start than to unwind it at month six.
You need more than three foreign hires from the outset. The cap is not negotiable, and building a team of five around a concession that covers three means two people are unauthorised or waiting.
The applicant is exempt anyway. Holders of the $300,000 investment residence permit and permanent residents are outside the labour permit regime entirely. Where a founder is in either category, none of this arithmetic applies to them.
What we do
We file Special Labour Permit applications under the start-up relief and, more usefully, we tell you before you file whether the six-month version is the right instrument for your company or a deferral of a problem. Where it is right, we schedule the renewal from the grant date rather than from the expiry date, and run the work residence permit for each hire into the window the approval opens.
Category rules and fee schedules on the residence permit side are published by the Public Service Development Agency, and the underlying obligations sit in the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons. Where a permit does have to be renewed on ordinary evidence, the sequencing is the same as any other residence permit renewal, only compressed.
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
- Decree No. 317 lets a new Georgian company hire foreign staff without demonstrating turnover.
- Three conditions apply together: less than three months old, no more than three foreign nationals, and a first application.
- Permits issued under the relief run six months only.
- The renewal is assessed on ordinary rules, at GEL 50,000 of turnover per foreign employee or GEL 35,000 for educational and medical institutions.
- Because a decision takes up to 30 calendar days, credible turnover evidence is needed by month four or five, not month six.
- Using all three hires means being measured against three times the turnover figure at renewal.
- The relief waives the evidence, not the permit, the residence permit, the documents or the fines.
- The incorporation date starts the three-month clock, so it is a planning decision rather than an administrative one.
Frequently asked questions
What is the start-up exemption for the Georgian labour permit?
It is relief under Decree No. 317 of 9 July 2026 allowing a newly formed Georgian company to obtain Special Labour Permits for foreign staff without demonstrating the turnover the rules normally require. It applies where the company is less than three months old, is hiring no more than three foreign nationals, and is making a first application.
How long is a Georgian labour permit issued under the start-up relief?
Six months, rather than the term the same permit would carry on the ordinary route. The renewal after those six months is assessed on the normal rules, so the company has to have generated the turnover it was excused from showing at the start.
How many foreign employees can a new Georgian company hire under the relief?
Up to three. The cap counts foreign nationals only, so there is no limit on Georgian staff. Because each foreign employee adds to the turnover the company must show at renewal, using all three places makes the six-month deadline materially harder.
What turnover does the company need at renewal?
The ordinary figure: GEL 50,000, roughly $19,000, of annual turnover per foreign employee, or GEL 35,000 for educational and medical institutions. A company that hired three foreign nationals under the relief is measured against three times the per-employee figure when it renews.
Does the start-up relief mean my employees do not need a labour permit?
No. The relief waives the turnover evidence, not the permit itself. Every foreign employee still needs a granted Special Labour Permit before they perform any paid work, and working before it is issued is unauthorised work carrying GEL 2,000 on the individual and a separate GEL 2,000 on the company.
When does the three-month clock start for a Georgian company?
At registration. That makes the incorporation date a substantive planning decision rather than an administrative formality, because a company that registers early and hires late can find the window has already closed before it makes its first application.
Can we use the start-up relief twice?
No. It is available on a first application. A company that used the relief, let the permits lapse and applied again later is not making a first application, and the ordinary turnover test applies to it.
What happens if we cannot meet the turnover test at renewal?
The renewal is refused, the employee loses authorisation to work, and the residence permit resting on it loses its basis. That is why the honest question before using the relief is whether the company will realistically reach the figure within six months rather than whether it qualifies today.
Do employees still need a residence permit under the start-up relief?
Yes. The labour permit and the residence permit are separate applications to separate agencies, and the relief affects only the first. The residence permit is filed after the labour permit is granted, inside the window stated on the approval notice, and hires arriving from abroad apply for a D1 visa instead.
How much does a labour permit cost under the start-up relief?
The same as any other: GEL 200, around $75, for a decision within 30 calendar days, or GEL 400, around $155, for ten working days. The relief changes the evidence required, not the fee, and it does not change the residence permit fees that follow.
Is the start-up relief available to a founder applying for themselves?
Where the founder is employed by the Georgian company, the company applies and the relief can cover them like any other foreign hire. A founder trading as an Individual Entrepreneur and invoicing the Georgian company is on the self-employed route instead, qualifying on their own turnover or income, which is a different application with different evidence.
