Two Danish steps decide how your move goes, and most people find out about them late. You have to deregister from the Folkeregister, inside a window that closes five days after you leave. And deregistering does not end your Danish tax: that turns on whether you still have a home available in Denmark. Georgia's half of the application is identical on every passport. Yours differs in the document chain and in what Skattestyrelsen does afterwards.
Can you enter Georgia, and for how long?
Yes, for one full year at a time. Denmark appears by name 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. 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 Denmark is available and slower, and it removes your ability to correct a queried document at the counter.
Two conditions ride on the entry itself. From 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 Danish applicant
Georgia's routes, thresholds and government fees do not move with your passport. What moves is how much of your file has to be legalised, and Denmark funnels all of it through one office.
The property route at $150,000 and the investment route ask for no home-country criminal record certificate. For a Dane that deletes the slowest leg of the schedule outright, because it is the only document in the file that has to be ordered, waited for, and then legalised.
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. Danish freelancers invoicing Copenhagen or Aarhus clients from Tbilisi are inside that sequence too once they want the card, though foreign clients on their own engage no permit at all.
The IT residence permit suits a good share of the Danish 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 useful evidence that your life has moved, but be clear about what it does not do. Danish full tax liability turns on whether a home remains available to you, not on where you spend your nights, so days in Tbilisi will not save someone who kept a flat in Frederiksberg.
Your document chain runs through one office
Two documents and one bottleneck account for almost everything a Danish applicant needs.
The certificate is the international certificate of criminal record. The Danish police issue it to anyone who is or has been resident in Denmark, it is free of charge, and the current processing time is up to five working days from the point they have everything. Language is the trap. If you have no registered convictions in Denmark the certificate can be issued in English, German, French or Spanish. If you do have convictions it is issued in Danish only, and you then carry a Danish document into a Georgian translation office. It is sent by ordinary post rather than email, so build postal time into your plan.
The apostille comes from one place and one place only. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that it is solely the Legalisation Office that can legalise Danish documents with an apostille. The price is DKK 250 per document, which is worth counting: a family application with two birth certificates and a marriage certificate is three separate charges, not one. The document must have been issued by a public Danish authority and must be computer-generated, because handwritten documents are not accepted, and it needs either a physical wet signature or a certified digital signature.
There is no notary step in the Danish chain, which makes it shorter than the Norwegian one. Everything else runs the same way: translation happens in Georgia, on the paper original, after the apostille is attached. A translation produced in Denmark is itself a Danish document needing its own legalisation. What actually gets rejected is set out in the full apostille sequence, the police certificate procedures by country and the rules on certified translation.
What Denmark does when you leave
Deregistration is the step people miss. You must report your departure to the Civil Registration System if you will be away for more than six months, and a holiday back in Denmark during that period does not interrupt the count. You also have to report a shorter absence if you sublet or let out your home, because that is giving up the right of disposal. The window is narrow: as early as four weeks before you go and until five days after, with a fine for reporting late. Deregistration is done with MitID, or in person at Citizen Service if you do not have it.
Deregistering is not what ends your tax. Skattestyrelsen's published guidance on leaving Denmark makes the test the home, not the register entry. Full tax liability ends when you sell your home, give your landlord notice, or let your home on a lease that is non-terminable on your part for at least three years. A holiday home used only for holidays is not treated as a home. Keep a Danish dwelling available and you stay fully liable to Denmark on your worldwide income, whatever the Folkeregister says and whatever your Georgian permit says. Skattestyrelsen asks you to call a week after you have deregistered and physically left so that your status can be determined.
That is the same distinction we draw on the Georgian side between holding a permit and being tax resident, running in the opposite direction.
Exit tax on shares. If you leave Denmark holding shares with a market value of DKK 100,000 or more, Denmark treats the gains or losses as realised. The rule normally engages only where Denmark has had the right to tax those gains for at least seven of the last ten years. You can apply for deferral and pay as if you still lived in Denmark, reporting gains and losses each year, but the deadline is 1 July in the year after you left and missing it means paying the deferred tax at once. Georgia is outside both the Nordic region and the EU, so you must provide adequate collateral for the deferred tax. Inside the Nordic region or the EU no collateral is required, which is precisely the concession a move to Georgia gives up.
The treaty position and the citizenship endgame
Georgia's Ministry of Finance publishes 58 double tax treaties in force, and Denmark is on that list, recorded as in force since 23 December 2008. That matters at one moment: when both countries think they have a claim on the same income and something has to break the tie.
A treaty does not make you Georgian tax resident. Georgia's own test is 183 days in a rolling twelve-month window, and it applies whether or not you hold a permit.
On citizenship, Denmark is not the obstacle. A new Nationality Act on multiple nationality came into force on 1 September 2015, so a Dane who acquires another nationality no longer loses Danish citizenship for it. 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 is the sensible destination.
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, and the counting rule itself is in the 40-day rule.
For a Danish applicant the realistic trigger is around two months out. The certificate takes up to five working days plus post, the Legalisation Office is a single stop, and nothing has to be notarised first. Government fees are identical on every passport, and the full cost breakdown by route covers the state fees alongside ours. How nationality changes the shape of a file is compared across the guides by nationality.
The verdict is straightforward, with one trap that is Danish rather than Georgian. The document chain is short and cheap. What catches people is treating the Folkeregister entry as the thing that ends their relationship with Denmark. It is a registration duty with a five-day tail and a fine attached, and the tax question is decided somewhere else entirely, by whether a home is still available to you.
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
- Danish citizens enter Georgia visa-free for one full year, verified against the Georgian visa-free ordinance on 1 August 2026.
- Deregister from the Folkeregister if you will be away more than six months, between four weeks before departure and five days after.
- Deregistering does not end Danish tax. Full liability ends when you sell your home, give notice, or let it non-terminably for at least three years.
- The international certificate of criminal record is free, takes up to five working days, and is English-language only if you have no convictions.
- Only the Legalisation Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can apostille a Danish document, at DKK 250 each.
- Exit tax treats shares worth DKK 100,000 or more as realised where Denmark could tax them for seven of the last ten years.
- Deferring that tax requires collateral because Georgia sits outside both the Nordic region and the EU.
Frequently asked questions
Can Danish citizens enter Georgia without a visa?
Yes, for one full year at a time, and the period resets when you leave and return. Denmark is listed by name in the annex 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.
Do I have to deregister from the Folkeregister before moving to Georgia?
Yes, if you will be away for more than six months, and also for a shorter absence if you sublet or let out your home. The window runs from four weeks before you leave until five days afterwards, and reporting later than that carries a fine. Deregistration is done with MitID or in person at Citizen Service.
Does deregistering from the Folkeregister end my Danish tax liability?
No. Full tax liability turns on whether you still have a home available in Denmark. It ends when you sell the property, give your landlord notice, or let it on a lease you cannot terminate for at least three years. A holiday home used only for holidays does not count as a home for this purpose.
Which police certificate does Georgia want from a Danish applicant?
The international certificate of criminal record issued by the Danish police, then apostilled. It is free of charge and currently takes up to five working days once they have everything. It is posted rather than emailed, so allow for delivery, and apply in the name exactly as your passport spells it.
Can I get my Danish criminal record certificate in English?
Only if you have no registered convictions in Denmark. In that case it can be issued in English, German, French or Spanish. If you do have convictions the certificate is issued in Danish only, and you will be relying on a certified Georgian translation of a Danish document rather than an English one.
Who issues an apostille in Denmark?
Only the Legalisation Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at Asiatisk Plads in Copenhagen. No other body can do it. The fee is DKK 250 per document, the document must come from a public Danish authority and be computer-generated, and it needs either a wet signature or a certified digital signature.
Does Danish exit tax apply if I move to Georgia?
It can. If your shares are worth DKK 100,000 or more on departure, Denmark treats the gains and losses as realised, provided Denmark has had the right to tax those gains for at least seven of the last ten years. Deferral is available but the filing deadline is 1 July in the year after you leave.
Do I need collateral to defer Danish exit tax when moving to Georgia?
Yes. Skattestyrelsen requires adequate collateral for deferred tax where you move outside the Nordic region and the EU, and Georgia is outside both. Someone moving to another EU country would need none. Price that security before you fix a departure date rather than after.
Is there a Danish tax treaty with Georgia?
Yes. Georgia's Ministry of Finance lists 58 treaties in force and Denmark is among them, recorded as in force since 23 December 2008. It allocates taxing rights and breaks ties where both countries claim the same income, which is a materially better position than American, Canadian or Australian applicants have.
Can a Danish citizen work remotely from Georgia without a permit?
Yes. The Special Labour Permit follows who pays you rather than where you sit, so billing a Danish 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 Danish citizen become a Georgian citizen and keep Danish nationality?
Danish law has permitted multiple nationality since 1 September 2015, so Denmark would not withdraw your passport for it. Georgia is the obstacle: 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.
