You landed with a year of legal stay and no paperwork, which is why nobody warned you about anything. Then the questions start. Does it reset. Does it let you work. Does any of it count toward staying permanently. Georgia's 365-day visa-free rule is the most generous entry policy in the region and the most widely misread, and since 2026 it carries a condition at the border. Here is what the year covers, how the reset works, and exactly where it stops.
What the 365 days actually grant
Georgia admits citizens of around 95 countries with no visa, no advance application and no fee, for a stay of up to 365 days. The conditions of entry and stay for foreign nationals sit in the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons, and the country list itself is maintained by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The number is most of the reason Georgia filled up with remote workers. A visitor to most countries gets 90 days in any 180. Georgia gives a year, in one run, on arrival, on the strength of a passport and nothing else.
What the entitlement grants, precisely, is presence. You may be in Georgia, lawfully, for 365 days. Everything else people assume travels with it is a separate question with its own answer, and most of this post is those answers.
Nothing in the 2026 reforms touched the 365 days, which is worth stating plainly given how much changed around it. The insurance condition arrived alongside the rest of the 2026 changes, and so did the work authorisation rule that decides whether the rest of this page applies to you at all.
Which nationalities the list covers
Roughly 95 is a description rather than a constant. The list is set by government decision and revised from time to time, so both the count and the membership move.
It covers most of the countries our clients arrive from, including the EU and EEA states, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia. Israel, Turkey, Brazil and Kazakhstan are on it as well. Citizens of India, China, Egypt, Nigeria and Pakistan are not, and need a visa before travelling, which changes the opening move entirely: the year described below does not begin until you have entered on something else. The entry rules by nationality are where to start instead.
If your nationality is not named above, do not read anything into its absence. Check it against the Ministry's own list before you book, because a general article is not a source for your particular passport. Several nationalities that need a visa can obtain one through Georgia's online visa process rather than an embassy appointment, which is a materially faster chain.
| Your nationality | How you enter | How long |
|---|---|---|
| On the visa-free list | Passport at the border, nothing filed in advance | Up to 365 days |
| Eligible for the e-visa | Online application before you travel | As granted |
| Neither | Consular application at an embassy | As granted |
How the reset works, and why leaning on it is fragile
The 365 days are resettable. Leave Georgia, come back, and a fresh year begins on re-entry. That mechanism is behind every border run to Armenia and Turkey you have heard about, and it is genuinely how the rule operates. Two things need saying about it, and neither is what people want to hear.
Entry is a decision, not an entitlement. The visa-free list tells a border officer that they may admit you. It does not tell them they must. Nothing obliges anyone to keep admitting a person who has spent four consecutive years resetting a visitor's stay, and refusals do happen at the land crossings.
How long you have to be out, and how many times this works, are not questions the published rules answer. That silence is not permission, and we will not invent a number to fill it. The mechanics, and what a reset builds and what it does not, deserve reading before you build a life on top of them.
The deeper problem is that a reset only solves presence. It does not begin a residence history, produce a personal number, or improve your standing with a bank. You can do it five times and end up exactly where you started, five years older.
The insurance condition, added in 2026
From 2026, every visitor to Georgia must hold insurance covering at least GEL 30,000, roughly $11,500 at current rates. The figure is fixed in lari by the rule, so the lari number is the requirement and the dollar number is a conversion that drifts with the exchange rate.
It applies to all visitors, which includes everyone arriving on the visa-free entitlement. A year of lawful presence and a 30-day policy bought at the airport are not the same thing, and the distance between them is where long-stayers are exposed. What counts as a qualifying policy and what to have with you at the border decides whether you have complied or merely bought something.
What visa-free does not let you do
The 365 days are generous about one thing and silent about everything else, and the silence gets read as permission.
It does not let you take a job here
Visa-free status admits you. It does not put you on a Georgian payroll. Since 1 March 2026 employment in Georgia runs through the Special Labour Permit, issued by the Employment Promotion State Agency under a government resolution of 20 February 2026, and obtaining it is the employer's obligation before you start. The same permit is engaged if you register an Individual Entrepreneur and invoice Georgian clients, and it is a prerequisite if you decide to convert to a work or IT residence permit.
What sits outside all of that is the arrangement most people on a visa-free year actually have. Working from Georgia for an employer or clients abroad engages no permit, and registering an Individual Entrepreneur to invoice them does not change that. The line is drawn by who pays you rather than by where your laptop is, and which arrangements the permit reaches is the page to read if your client list sits on both sides of it.
The penalty attaches where the permit is required and missing. An employer hiring a foreign national without one faces GEL 2,000, with a separate GEL 2,000 on the worker, doubled on a repeat. Those are statutory lari figures and they do not move with the exchange rate. For anyone holding a residence permit the second-order risk is larger than the fine, because work outside what is authorised undermines the basis of the permit itself.
Georgia has no dedicated visa for remote workers either, and for most of them it has no need of one. What remote workers use instead is the visa-free year, reset when it runs out, with a residence permit taken up only by the people who want what a residence card adds.
It does not build toward permanent residence
Permanent residence in Georgia requires ten years of continuous temporary residence, which means ten years of held permits. The threshold was raised from six by an amendment in force on 12 May 2021, so treat a six-year figure as out of date wherever you meet it.
A visa-free year contributes zero to that count. So do five of them. The clock starts on the day your first residence permit is issued, and every year spent as a visitor beforehand is, for this purpose, a year you were not here.
That is the most expensive item on this page, because it costs nothing while it is happening. You simply arrive at year seven of living in Tbilisi and discover you are at year two of the count that decides anything.
It does not get you banking that behaves
Georgian banks distinguish sharply between a resident and a long-staying visitor, and they have grown stricter rather than looser. A tourist can usually open a basic personal account. Business accounts, credit facilities, mortgages and most of what makes financial life ordinary are built around a Georgian personal number, and that number arrives with a residence card.
Compliance teams also ask what your legal basis for being in the country is, and they ask at the least convenient moment. "Visitor, fourteen months" generates questions rather than approvals.
It does not settle your tax position, and it can create one
Immigration status and tax residency are separate tests that share no paperwork and no application. Georgian tax residency turns broadly on 183 days of physical presence in a rolling twelve-month period, and the day count does not ask what immigration status you held while accumulating it.
So an uninterrupted visa-free year does not merely risk making you a Georgian tax resident. It does it, and it does it around month seven, while your immigration paperwork consists of one entry stamp. Nothing is filed, nothing is applied for, and nobody tells you the threshold has been crossed.
For people who never take a permit, that is the settled shape of their position rather than a transitional oddity: tax resident in Georgia, no residence card, and a tax obligation that arrived on a day count. The assumption that the two arrive together is costly in both directions, because a permit holder who spends most of the year elsewhere is in the opposite position. Holding one without the other is ordinary rather than an error, and how the days are counted decides which side of the line you are standing on.
It does not put your family in the same position
Your spouse and children each hold their own visa-free entitlement, if their nationality qualifies, and their own 365 days. What visa-free cannot do is make them dependents of anything, because there is nothing to depend on. Sponsoring a spouse or a minor child through family reunification requires you to hold a permit first, so a family of visitors runs five separate clocks rather than one shared status.
Visa-free against a residence permit
| Visa-free stay | Residence permit | |
|---|---|---|
| Lets you be in Georgia | Yes, up to 365 days | Yes, for the permit term |
| Lets you invoice clients abroad from here | Yes | Yes |
| Lets you take a job with a Georgian employer | No | On the work and IT routes, with the labour permit granted first |
| Counts toward permanent residence | No | Yes, toward the ten years |
| Personal number and residence card | No | Yes |
| Lets you sponsor family | No | Yes |
| Cost | Nothing | Government fees of $115 to $230 by track, or $190 to $285 on the IT category, plus $23 for the card |
The dividing line is not how long you plan to be here. It is what you need the country to give you. If you are visiting, or working from here for people who pay you from somewhere else, the 365 days are an unusually good deal and you need nothing else. If you want a job with a Georgian employer, banking that behaves, a family in the same status as you, or to still be counting toward something in five years, one of the six residence permit routes is what makes that durable.
Counting backwards from day 365
Most people who convert from visa-free to a permit leave it too late, and the cause is arithmetic rather than laziness.
Georgian law requires a residence permit application to be filed at least 40 calendar days before your lawful stay expires. For a visa-free arrival, lawful stay ends on day 365, so your last safe filing date is day 325. Filing means a complete application in the hands of the Public Service Development Agency, not a decision to begin one, and the procedure sits in the the procedural rules on granting residence permits. Then subtract everything that has to happen before that date:
| Stage | Realistic time |
|---|---|
| Criminal record certificate from your home country, apostilled | 2 to 8 weeks, outside anyone's control |
| Certified translations and supporting documents | 1 to 2 weeks |
| Special Labour Permit decision, on the work and IT routes | Up to 30 calendar days |
| Residence permit decision | 10 to 30 days |
On a work route that puts the honest start point somewhere around day 270, or month nine of your year. An application filed inside the last 40 days is refused review rather than assessed, so a strong file is never opened at all.
Leaving the country on day 360 and coming back resets your presence. It does nothing for a permit application you have already run out of time to file, because the 40 days are measured against the lawful stay you were in when the deadline passed. The reset and the filing deadline are different clocks, and only one of them restarts.
What happens on day 366
Staying beyond your lawful period puts you out of status, which brings fines and the possibility of an entry ban, and since October 2025 it puts you in an illegal-presence database that follows you into every later application. Inspection powers were expanded at the same time, alongside biometric collection that now includes fingerprints and palm prints.
An overstay is therefore no longer a private problem you can quietly correct. If you are past the date or close to it, regularising an overstay is a narrower exercise than it was two years ago, and the options shrink weekly.
What we would tell you to do
Two questions decide this, and you can answer both today.
Who pays you? If a Georgian company employs you, or Georgian clients pay your invoices, the labour permit question is live now rather than at renewal time, and exposure runs from the day the work started, not the day somebody asks about it. If everything you bill sits outside Georgia, that question is not yours.
Do you intend to be here in five years? If yes, every visa-free month is a month that does not count, and the sooner the permit clock starts the sooner it finishes.
If the answers point toward a permit, the route is settled by evidence you already hold rather than by preference. Software and infrastructure professionals earning $25,000 or more usually belong on the three-year IT permit. People with capital and no Georgian income usually belong on the property route at $150,000, which rose from $100,000 on 1 March 2026, so treat any lower figure as out of date. Anyone taking a job with a Georgian company is on a work permit with a labour permit underneath it.
Bring your dates and your circumstances to a free consultation and we will tell you which applies, including the cases where the honest answer is that you need no permit at all. Not sure which routes your situation supports? The residency quiz takes about a minute and names them.
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
- Citizens of roughly 95 countries enter Georgia without a visa and may stay 365 days in one run. The rule is unchanged.
- The year resets on exit and re-entry, but admission is an officer's decision and the published rules set no minimum time outside the country.
- Since 2026 every visitor must carry insurance covering at least GEL 30,000, around $11,500.
- Visa-free presence carries no right to take a job with a Georgian employer. That runs through the Special Labour Permit, with fines of GEL 2,000 on the employer and GEL 2,000 on the worker.
- Working from Georgia for clients abroad engages no permit at all, so a visa-free year is a durable arrangement rather than a stopgap.
- A visa-free year counts nothing toward the ten years of temporary residence that permanent residence needs.
- A full year of presence makes you a Georgian tax resident on the 183-day test, with no residence permit involved at any point.
- To convert before the year ends, file by day 325 and start assembling documents by roughly day 270.
Frequently asked questions
How long can I stay in Georgia without a visa?
Up to 365 days in one continuous stay, if your nationality is on Georgia's visa-free list of roughly 95 countries. There is no advance application and no fee. The period runs from the entry date stamped in your passport.
Which countries get 365 days visa-free in Georgia?
Around 95, including the EU and EEA states, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Israel, Turkey, Brazil and Kazakhstan. India, China, Egypt, Nigeria and Pakistan are not on it and need a visa before travelling. The list is set by government decision and revised periodically, so confirm your own nationality against the Ministry of Foreign Affairs version before booking.
Can I reset my 365 days in Georgia by leaving and coming back?
Yes, the period resets on exit and re-entry and a fresh 365 days begins. What the published rules do not set out is how long you must be outside Georgia, or how many times an officer will keep admitting you. Admission is discretionary, and repeated resets at the land borders attract scrutiny rather than sympathy.
Do I need travel insurance to enter Georgia?
Yes. Since 2026 every visitor must hold insurance covering at least GEL 30,000, roughly $11,500. The amount is fixed in lari, so the dollar equivalent moves with the rate while the requirement does not. Carry evidence of the policy rather than assuming a booking confirmation will do.
Can I work in Georgia on visa-free entry?
For clients or an employer abroad, yes, and no permit is engaged. Registering an Individual Entrepreneur to invoice them does not change that. What visa-free status does not give you is a job with a Georgian employer, because employment here runs through the Special Labour Permit, which the employer obtains and which carries GEL 2,000 on the company and a separate GEL 2,000 on the worker when it is missing. Invoicing Georgian clients through an Individual Entrepreneur engages it too.
Does time spent in Georgia visa-free count toward permanent residence?
No, none of it. Permanent residence requires ten years of continuous temporary residence, meaning ten years of held permits, and the count begins when your first one is issued. Investment permit holders qualify after five years, and the spouse or minor child of a Georgian citizen qualifies immediately.
Can I open a Georgian bank account without a residence permit?
A basic personal account is usually possible as a visitor, but business accounts, credit facilities and most other products are built around a Georgian personal number, which arrives with a residence card. Banks also ask what your legal basis for being in the country is, and a long visitor stay invites more questions than it answers.
Am I a Georgian tax resident if I stay 365 days visa-free?
Yes, in almost any version of it. Tax residency turns broadly on 183 days of physical presence in a rolling twelve-month period and takes no account of immigration status, so an uninterrupted visa-free year crosses the line around month seven with nothing filed and nobody notifying you. Holding tax residency without a residence permit is the normal position for a long-stay visitor rather than a contradiction, and it is worth planning for before it arrives.
Do I need a residence permit if I can stay 365 days visa-free?
Not in order to be present, and not in order to invoice clients abroad. You need one to take a job with a Georgian employer, to build toward permanent residence, to sponsor family, to get a personal number and to make banking behave normally. If you are visiting or working for people who pay you from outside Georgia, the visa-free year is enough on its own, indefinitely.
What happens if I overstay my visa-free period in Georgia?
You fall out of lawful status, which brings fines and the possibility of an entry ban, and since October 2025 an illegal-presence database records it against you. That record then has to be answered in any later permit application. The position hardens with time, so take advice on the day you notice rather than the week you leave.
When should I apply for a residence permit if I arrived visa-free?
File by day 325, because the law requires a complete application at least 40 calendar days before your lawful stay expires and refuses to review anything later. Start assembling documents around day 270, since an apostilled criminal record certificate can take eight weeks and the labour permit adds another 30 days in front of the permit application.
