The Dutch document chain has one failure mode and almost everyone walks into it. You apply for a VOG, Justis returns it digitally within days, and then no district court in the Netherlands will put an apostille on it, because there is nothing to apostille. Ask for paper at the point of ordering and the whole thing is short and cheap. Georgia's half of the application is identical on every passport. Yours differs in that request, in what the Belastingdienst secures on the way out, and in what a second nationality costs you.
Can you enter Georgia, and for how long?
Yes, for one full year at a time. The Kingdom of the Netherlands appears on the list annexed to the Georgian ordinance approving visa-free entry, which fixes 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.
So nothing has to be arranged before you fly. Land, live here lawfully for a year, assemble the file and submit it at a Public Service Hall. Filing through a Georgian mission in the Netherlands is possible and slower, and it removes your ability to correct a queried document at the counter the same week.
Two conditions ride on that entry. 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 by leaving and returning.
Which route actually fits a Dutch applicant
Georgia's routes, thresholds and government fees do not move with your passport. What moves is how many chances your file has to fail on a technicality, and the Dutch chain has exactly one weak link.
The property route at $150,000 and the investment route ask for no home-country criminal record certificate, which for a Dutch applicant means no VOG, no district court and no risk of ordering the wrong format. If you have the capital, that removes the only genuinely fragile step in your schedule.
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 residence permit application submitted before the labour permit has been granted produces a refusal rather than a queue position. Dutch freelancers invoicing Amsterdam clients from a Tbilisi flat are inside that sequence too once they want the card. Foreign clients on their own engage no permit, and a ZZP registration at home changes nothing either way.
The IT residence permit fits a large share of the Dutch cohort here, at $25,000 of annual income, two years of experience and a three-year term. Read its condition of 183 days a year in Georgia carefully. It is a real commitment to being here, and the detail of what counts as qualifying work is in the IT permit guide.
Your document chain, and the format that breaks it
Ask for paper. The VOG is issued by Justis, applied for through your gemeente while you are still registered there or directly with Justis once you are not. Justis is unambiguous about the international version: a digitally issued VOG cannot be legalised, and anyone who needs the document for use outside the Netherlands should always request a paper version, which can be legalised.
Why that rule exists. In the Netherlands an apostille is a sticker applied by a district court, and the government's guidance on where to get one states plainly that you can only obtain an apostille if your document carries a signature. A digital VOG has none for the court to certify. The two rules interlock, which is why the fix has to happen at the moment you order rather than afterwards.
The same logic reaches the rest of your file. A birth or marriage extract downloaded from a gemeente portal fails for the same reason a digital VOG does, so order the signed paper extract. Give your name exactly as your passport spells it, because everything downstream inherits that spelling and it cannot be corrected once the sticker is on.
Translation happens in Georgia, on the paper original, after the apostille. A translation prepared in the Netherlands is itself a Dutch document and needs its own authentication, so translating early means paying twice. What actually gets rejected is set out in the full apostille sequence, the police certificate procedures by country and the rules on certified translation. The whole file by route sits in the document checklist.
What the Netherlands does when you leave
BRP deregistration. Anyone who will be outside the Netherlands for more than eight months within any twelve, and the months do not have to run consecutively, must deregister from the Basisregistratie Personen at their gemeente. The declaration can be made from five days before departure, your record changes from resident to non-resident, your details move into the register of non-residents, and your BSN stays valid. Failing to do it can attract a fine. It is a registration duty, not a tax event, and it settles nothing about tax on its own.
The conserverende aanslag, and why Georgia is the awkward destination. After you file the return for the year of emigration, the Belastingdienst may impose a preserving assessment. Its published guidance covers four things: Dutch pension rights, annuities on which premiums were deducted, capital insurance linked to an owner-occupied home, and a substantial interest in a company, where emigration is treated as if the shares had been sold.
The assessment normally stands for ten years, and the substantial-interest version stands indefinitely. Deferral of payment is the part that turns on your destination. Emigration within the EU and EEA is treated favourably, with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein put on the same footing as EU states. Georgia is in neither group, so deferral is requested rather than granted automatically and security can be required, in the form of a bank guarantee, a mortgage right or a pledge.
Anyone with a substantial interest in a company, or a meaningful Dutch pension pot, should treat that as a pre-departure conversation rather than a post-departure surprise. Deregistering does not end what the Belastingdienst can assess, and the distance between holding a permit and being tax resident is the most expensive misunderstanding in this niche. Georgia's own test is 183 days in a rolling twelve-month window, and the treaty position is covered in the treaty network guide. Georgia's Ministry of Finance publishes 58 double tax treaties in force and the Netherlands is on that list.
The citizenship endgame is closed, and the Netherlands closes it
Most origin countries in this cluster leave the naturalisation question to Georgia. The Netherlands decides it first, and decides it against you.
Dutch nationality is lost automatically on voluntarily acquiring another nationality, with three exceptions: you were born in the country of the new nationality and have your main residence there, you lived there uninterruptedly for five years before reaching adulthood, or you are taking the nationality of your spouse or registered partner. An adult Dutch national naturalising in Georgia after arriving as a migrant falls outside all three.
Georgia then adds its own bar, because it does not generally permit dual citizenship and expects renunciation, with an exception granted by presidential decree on state-interest grounds. Both systems point the same way, and the dual citizenship position is worth reading before you plan a decade around it. For a Dutch applicant permanent residence at ten years is not the second-best outcome, it is the outcome, and it costs you nothing at home.
Timeline and cost, realistically
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.
For a Dutch applicant the trigger is roughly two months out, provided the VOG was ordered on paper. Ordered digitally, add the time it takes to discover the problem and start again, which is the real risk in this chain. Government fees in Georgia are identical on every passport, and how nationality changes the shape of a file is compared across the guides by nationality. The counting rule is in the 40-day rule.
The verdict
Straightforward on paper and fragile in one specific place. Entry is free for a year, the treaty is in place, the VOG is quick and the district court is not a bottleneck. Everything depends on a checkbox chosen weeks earlier.
The two decisions worth taking advice on are the conserverende aanslag if you hold shares or a Dutch pension, and the nationality question if you were imagining a Georgian passport at the end of ten years. Neither is a Georgian problem, and neither shows up until it is expensive.
A three-year permit for IT professionals earning $25,000+ a year, with two years of experience behind them. Longer than any other work route.
See what it costs, from $450
Key takeaways
- Dutch citizens enter Georgia visa-free for one full year, verified against the Georgian visa-free ordinance on 1 August 2026.
- A digitally issued VOG cannot be legalised. Request the paper version if the document is going abroad.
- Dutch apostilles are stickers issued by a district court, and only on documents that carry a signature.
- The property and investment routes need no VOG at all, which removes the only fragile step in the Dutch chain.
- Since 1 March 2026 the Special Labour Permit comes before the work or IT residence permit, including for freelancers billing Dutch clients.
- BRP deregistration is compulsory when you will be abroad more than eight months in any twelve, and it settles nothing about tax.
- A conserverende aanslag is not automatically deferred for emigration outside the EU and EEA, and Georgia is outside both.
- Dutch nationality is lost automatically on voluntarily acquiring another one, so the Georgian citizenship endgame is effectively closed.
Frequently asked questions
Can Dutch citizens enter Georgia without a visa?
Yes, for one full year at a time, and the period resets when you leave and return. The Kingdom of the Netherlands 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.
Which police certificate does Georgia want from a Dutch applicant?
The Verklaring Omtrent het Gedrag, issued by Justis, apostilled. Apply through your gemeente while you are still registered there, or directly with Justis once you are not. Ask for the paper version, and give your name exactly as your passport spells it.
Can a digital VOG be apostilled for Georgia?
No. Justis states that a digitally issued VOG cannot be legalised, with or without an apostille, and that anyone needing the document abroad should always request a paper version. A Dutch apostille is a sticker applied by a district court to a document carrying a signature, and a digital VOG has none.
Who issues an apostille in the Netherlands?
A district court, as a sticker bearing the court's stamp and a court official's signature. Any district court can do it, someone else can attend on your behalf without authorisation, and the document has to carry a signature before the court will act. Nothing in Georgia can apostille a Dutch document.
Do I have to deregister from the BRP when I move to Georgia?
Yes, if you will be outside the Netherlands for more than eight months within any twelve, and those months do not have to be consecutive. You can declare it from five days before departure. Your record changes from resident to non-resident, your details go into the register of non-residents, and your BSN remains valid.
What is a conserverende aanslag and will I get one?
It is a preserving assessment issued after the return for your year of emigration, covering Dutch pension rights, annuities with deducted premiums, capital insurance tied to an owner-occupied home, and a substantial interest in a company treated as sold on departure. Whether you receive one depends on which of those you hold, not on where you are going.
Is a conserverende aanslag deferred if I emigrate to Georgia?
Not automatically. Emigration within the EU and EEA is treated favourably, with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein on the same footing as EU states. Georgia is outside both, so deferral is requested rather than automatic and security can be required, through a bank guarantee, a mortgage right or a pledge. The assessment normally stands for ten years, and indefinitely for a substantial interest.
Is there a Dutch tax treaty with Georgia?
Yes. Georgia's Ministry of Finance publishes 58 double tax treaties in force and the Netherlands is among them. A treaty allocates taxing rights and breaks ties where both countries claim the same income. It does not make you Georgian tax resident, which is a separate day-count test.
Can a Dutch 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 Dutch 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.
Would I lose Dutch nationality by becoming Georgian?
Almost certainly. Dutch nationality is lost automatically on voluntarily acquiring another one, and the three exceptions are narrow: birth and main residence in the other country, five uninterrupted years there before adulthood, or taking a spouse's or registered partner's nationality. An adult who moved to Georgia as a migrant meets none of them, and Georgia expects renunciation anyway.
