The answer to this question is a list of countries written into a government ordinance, and almost every article about it is a copy of a copy. That matters because the list has been amended seven times since it was made, most recently in February 2026, and because a wrong answer here means a refused boarding pass rather than an inconvenience. Everything below was read against the ordinance itself on 1 August 2026. Here is who enters Georgia freely, who does not, and what the alternatives are.
The rule is a named list, not a region
Georgia does not grant visa-free entry by bloc, income level or continent. Government Ordinance No. 255 of 5 June 2015 carries an annex that names each nationality, numbered one by one, and the first note attached to it grants citizens of those countries the right to enter and remain in Georgia for one full year without a visa.
Read on 1 August 2026, the annex contains 94 numbered entries. Five of those are groupings of overseas territories and dependencies rather than sovereign states, which is why the count you see quoted elsewhere is usually "around 95" and why nobody agrees on the exact number. The ordinance has been amended seven times since 2015, most recently by an ordinance of 24 February 2026.
Two practical consequences follow. Your nationality is either named or it is not, and nothing about where you live, what other visas you hold or how long your last trip went changes that. And any list of countries, including the one below, is a snapshot of an instrument that moves. Check yours against the ordinance and write down the date you checked.
Who is on the list
Grouped for readability, exactly as read from the annex on 1 August 2026.
| Region | Named in the ordinance |
|---|---|
| EU and EEA | Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden |
| Rest of Europe | Albania, Andorra, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Holy See, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom |
| Territories and dependencies, listed separately | Faroe Islands and Greenland; Bermuda, Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Falkland Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands and Gibraltar; Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man; Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles; French Polynesia and New Caledonia |
| Americas and the Caribbean | Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, United States |
| Middle East and the Gulf | Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates |
| Asia and the Pacific | Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand |
| Caucasus and Central Asia | Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan |
| Africa and the Indian Ocean | Botswana, Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa |
Absences matter as much as entries. India, China, Egypt, Nigeria and Pakistan are not named, so their citizens need a visa before travelling, and the opening move for those readers is completely different from the one described in the 365-day visa-free guide. If a nationality is missing from the table above, that is because it is missing from the ordinance, not because we ran out of room.
Three notes that change the answer for some people
The annex carries notes, and they are where several common situations are actually resolved.
EU citizens may travel on an identity card. The ordinance allows citizens of EU member states to enter with a travel document or an identity card bearing name, surname, date of birth and photograph. That is unusual outside the EU itself and it removes a passport problem for a lot of short-notice travel.
UN laissez-passer holders get the same year. Holders of a United Nations laissez-passer may enter and stay for one full year without a visa.
The government can add people case by case. A further note preserves the ability to grant visa-free entry to other foreign nationals by specific decision, which is how special cases get handled without amending the annex.
One more rule sits outside the ordinance and matters to everyone reading this site. Under the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons, a person holding a Georgian residence permit enters Georgia without a visa for the entire validity period of that permit. Once the card exists, the visa question stops applying to you, which is one of the underrated reasons to convert from a visitor stay to a permit.
Ukraine is the exception, and it has a date on it
Ukrainian citizens are named in the annex, so the answer to "do I need a visa" is no. The length of the stay is where the position diverges from everybody else's.
An ordinance of 2 April 2025 reduced the Ukrainian visa-free stay from three years to one year, with a grandfather clause protecting people already in the country under the previous terms. The February 2026 amendment extended that grandfathered stay to 24 February 2027.
Three things follow, and they are the difference between a calm year and a scramble.
It is renewed a year at a time, by political decision. This is not a standing rule that can be assumed forward. Anyone planning around it should plan for the possibility that it is not extended again.
The real deadline is earlier than the date. Georgian law requires a residence permit application at least 40 calendar days before lawful stay expires, and applications filed inside that window are refused review rather than assessed. Counting 40 days back from 24 February 2027 puts the last safe filing date in mid-January 2027, and the document chain in front of it needs starting months earlier.
A permit is the only thing that ends the annual uncertainty. The Ukrainian route in detail covers the documentation problems that make this harder than it looks for people who left in a hurry.
If your nationality is not on the list
Two routes exist, and which one applies depends on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs rather than on the ordinance.
The e-visa, where your nationality is eligible, is an online application for a short-term visa that gives the same right of entry as a consular sticker. Georgian law requires a short-term electronic visa to be issued no later than 5 working days after the application is submitted. Some nationalities the electronic visa portal accepts must additionally hold a valid Schengen or OECD-country visa or residence permit before it will process them. How the online route works covers the process and its limits.
A consular application at a Georgian mission is the route where the portal does not cover your nationality, and the only route where the purpose is immigration rather than a visit. Anyone arriving to work, study, join family or live on the strength of Georgian property needs a D category immigration visa, which is decided by a mission on a documentary file and is not available online.
Is there a visa on arrival in Georgia?
Not as something to plan around. The law allows a visa to be issued at the Georgian state border only in exceptional cases defined by an ordinance of the government. That is a narrow carve-out rather than a general facility, and treating it as a fallback is how people end up refused boarding at their departure airport, which is where the airline, not Georgia, makes the decision.
If you need a visa, get it before you fly.
The four channels, side by side
| Visa-free entry | e-Visa | Consular visa | Residence permit holder | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who | Nationalities named in Ordinance No. 255 | Eligible nationalities not on that list | Anyone else, and all immigration purposes | Anyone holding a valid Georgian permit |
| Applied for | Nothing to apply for | Online, before travel | At a Georgian mission | Already granted |
| Length of stay | One full year per entry | Short-term limits apply | As granted for the category | The validity of the permit |
| Cost | None | Fee shown at payment | Set by the mission | None for entry |
What being visa-free does not include
The generosity of the year creates a specific misunderstanding, and it is worth closing here rather than leaving it for the permit pages.
It is not work authorisation. Entry status and the Special Labour Permit are separate questions. Since 1 March 2026 the permit is required to employ non-Georgian nationals here, to trade as an Individual Entrepreneur with Georgian clients, and to apply for a work or IT residence permit, and none of those becomes available because you entered visa-free. Working remotely for clients abroad is outside all three, and which arrangements actually engage the permit is the thing to settle before you take on a Georgian customer. Where an employer hires without one, the fine is GEL 2,000 on the employer and a separate GEL 2,000 on the worker, doubled on a repeat.
It does not build toward anything. Permanent residence needs ten years of continuous temporary residence, meaning ten years of held permits. Years spent as a visitor count for nothing, and resetting the year at a land border does not change that arithmetic.
It is not unconditional. Every visitor must hold insurance covering at least GEL 30,000, checked at the border since 2026, and what qualifies as cover is narrower than most travel policies assume. Admission itself remains an officer's decision.
It ends. Staying past the period is an overstay, and since October 2025 it is recorded in an illegal-presence database that later applications are checked against. What follows an overstay is disproportionate to the convenience of ignoring the date.
If you are trying to work out which of these applies to you, and what your nationality means for the document chain behind a permit application, the guides by nationality go country by country. Where the answer is not obvious, a free consultation is a faster way to settle it than reading four articles that disagree.
Thirty minutes to establish which route fits, what it costs, and whether you have enough time left on your current stay.
See what it costs
Key takeaways
- Georgia's visa-free regime is Government Ordinance No. 255 of 5 June 2015, amended seven times, most recently on 24 February 2026.
- The annex names 94 entries, five of them groups of territories and dependencies, and grants one full year per entry.
- EU citizens may enter on an identity card rather than a passport, and UN laissez-passer holders get the same year.
- Ukraine is the exception: a one-year stay, with grandfathered entitlement extended to 24 February 2027 and renewed a year at a time.
- If you are not named, the e-visa covers eligible nationalities for short visits and a mission handles everything else.
- A visa at the border exists only in exceptional cases defined by ordinance, so it is not a plan.
- Holding a Georgian residence permit removes the visa question entirely for as long as the permit is valid.
Frequently asked questions
Which countries do not need a visa for Georgia?
The nationalities named in Government Ordinance No. 255, which as read on 1 August 2026 runs to 94 numbered entries covering the EU and EEA, the UK, the United States, Canada, Australia, Israel, Turkey, the Gulf states, most of Latin America and the post-Soviet region. Each of them gets one full year per entry. Check your own nationality against the ordinance rather than a summary.
How long can I stay in Georgia without a visa?
One full year from the date you are stamped in, under the first note to Ordinance No. 255. The period runs per entry, so it restarts when you leave and are readmitted. Nothing about the year authorises work, and none of it counts toward permanent residence.
Do US citizens need a visa for Georgia?
No. The United States is named in the ordinance, so US citizens enter with a passport and may stay a full year. The insurance requirement of at least GEL 30,000 in cover still applies, and taking a job with a Georgian employer still needs a separate Special Labour Permit.
Do Indian or Chinese citizens need a visa for Georgia?
Yes. Neither India nor China is named in Ordinance No. 255, so citizens of both need a visa before travelling. Where the nationality is eligible for the online route, the e-visa is normally the faster channel; otherwise the application goes to a Georgian diplomatic mission.
Do Ukrainian citizens need a visa for Georgia?
No, Ukraine is named in the ordinance. The stay is one year rather than the longer period that applied before an ordinance of 2 April 2025, with a grandfathered group whose entitlement was extended to 24 February 2027. It is renewed a year at a time by political decision, so it should not be assumed forward.
Can I get a visa on arrival in Georgia?
Only in exceptional cases defined by a government ordinance, which is not a route to plan around. In practice a traveller who needs a visa should hold it before departure, because the airline decides whether to board you and it will apply the strict rule rather than the exception.
Can EU citizens enter Georgia with an ID card?
Yes. A note to the ordinance allows citizens of EU member states to enter with a travel document or an identity card showing name, surname, date of birth and a photograph. Anyone whose onward plans involve a residence permit application should still travel with a passport, since the permit file is built around one.
Do I need a visa for Georgia if I have a residence permit?
No. A holder of a Georgian residence permit enters without a visa for the entire validity of the permit. That applies on every entry while the card is valid, and it is one of the practical reasons for converting from a visitor stay to a permit rather than repeatedly resetting the year.
Does visa-free entry to Georgia let me work?
Entry status does not decide that question either way. Remote work for a foreign employer or foreign clients needs no Georgian permit at all, and a visa-free visitor can do it for as long as the year keeps resetting. What needs a Special Labour Permit is a Georgian company employing foreign staff, an Individual Entrepreneur trading with Georgian clients, or an application for a work or IT residence permit. On the first of those the fine for skipping it is GEL 2,000 on the employer and a separate GEL 2,000 on the worker.
How often does Georgia's visa-free list change?
It has been amended seven times since the ordinance was made in 2015, most recently on 24 February 2026. That is roughly once a year, which is often enough that a list copied from an article of unknown age is not a source. Read the ordinance, note the date, and check it again before you book.
