German applicants lose their first fortnight to the same mistake. They order the Führungszeugnis, wait for it, receive it, and only then go looking for someone to apostille it. Germany reversed that order, and by the time the certificate is in your hand it is too late to fix cheaply. Georgia's half of the application is identical on every passport. Yours differs in the document chain, in what the Finanzamt does after you go, and in very little else.
Can you enter Georgia, and for how long?
Yes, for one full year at a time. The Federal Republic of Germany appears 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, 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, assemble the file here and submit it at a Public Service Hall. Filing through a Georgian mission in Germany is possible 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 German applicant
Georgia's routes, thresholds and government fees do not move with your passport. What moves is how much of your file has to cross a border.
The property route at $150,000 and the investment route ask for no home-country criminal record certificate. For a German that means no Führungszeugnis, no BfAA application and no courier, which deletes the whole slow half of the 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 work residence permit application submitted before the labour permit has been granted produces a refusal instead of a queue position. German freelancers invoicing Munich or Berlin clients from a Tbilisi flat are inside that sequence too once they want the card. Foreign clients on their own engage no permit at all.
The IT residence permit suits a large share of the German 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 before choosing it. For someone who also has to demonstrate to a German tax office that their life has genuinely moved, that day count is closer to useful evidence than to a burden.
Your document chain runs backwards
This is the section the guide exists for, and it is the one thing a German applicant cannot work out from a general apostille article.
The apostille is applied for before the certificate. The Bundesamt für Auswärtige Angelegenheiten instructs applicants to request the apostille online, pay the fees that arise there, and only then order the Führungszeugnis. The application number the BfAA issues is what you quote to the Bundesamt für Justiz when you order the certificate, and it is what allows the Bundesamt für Justiz to send the certificate directly to the BfAA for apostilling instead of posting it to you.
Get that sequence wrong and the certificate arrives at your address unapostilled, and you start a second procedure rather than continuing the first. Order it in the version intended for use abroad, and give your name exactly as your passport spells it, because everything downstream inherits that spelling.
The BfAA is not the answer for the rest of your file. It apostilles documents issued by federal authorities: federal ministries, the Bundesamt für Justiz, federal courts. A birth or marriage certificate from a Standesamt is not a federal document. Those go to a Land authority, competence is not uniform across the Bundesländer, and court and notarial documents go to a Land or Amtsgericht president instead. A German couple filing a family application is therefore running two or three errands at two or three offices, and the reliable way to find the right one is to ask the office that issued the document.
Translation happens in Georgia, on the paper original, after the apostille is attached. A translation produced in Germany is itself a German document and needs its own authentication, so translating early usually 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.
What Germany does when you leave
Two obligations and one long shadow.
Abmeldung. Under §17 of the Bundesmeldegesetz, anyone who gives up a German dwelling without taking another one in Germany has to deregister with the Meldebehörde within two weeks of moving out, and may do so at the earliest a week before. It is a registration duty rather than a tax event, and failing it is an administrative offence. Do it properly and keep the confirmation, because it is the record every later conversation about your departure starts from.
Extended limited tax liability. §2 of the Außensteuergesetz can keep a German national partly inside the German tax net for ten years after the end of the year of departure. Three conditions have to hold together: unlimited German tax liability for at least five of the previous ten years, a move to a low-tax jurisdiction as defined in paragraph 2, and substantial continuing economic interests in Germany under paragraph 3. That third test is concrete: a stake in a German business, or German-source income above 30 per cent of your total income or above EUR 62,000, or German assets above 30 per cent of your total assets or above EUR 154,000.
Whether Georgia counts as a low-tax jurisdiction for you is a calculation against your own income, not a fixed answer, and we do not publish one. Put your actual numbers to a German adviser before you assume either way.
There is a separate charge on the way out for shareholders. §6 of the same act treats the end of unlimited German tax liability as a disposal of substantial shareholdings for someone who was unlimitedly liable for at least seven of the previous twelve years. Payment can be spread over seven annual instalments, normally against security. If you own part of a GmbH, that is a conversation to have before you book the flight rather than after.
The treaty position and the citizenship endgame
Georgia's Ministry of Finance publishes 58 double tax treaties in force, and Germany is on that list, in force since 21 December 2007 with a protocol in force from 1 January 2015. That matters at exactly 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. That is a separate test with its own day count, and the gap 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 how relief is claimed sits in the treaty network guide.
Citizenship inverts what most German readers expect. Since 27 June 2024 German law permits multiple nationality and no longer strips German citizenship from someone who voluntarily acquires another. The obstacle is Georgian: Georgia 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, not forwards. 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 German applicant the trigger point is roughly three months out, set by the BfAA and Bundesamt für Justiz legs running in sequence rather than in parallel. Government fees are identical on every passport, and the full cost breakdown by route covers the state fees alongside ours. The counting rule itself is in the 40-day rule.
The verdict is straightforward, with one genuine trap. Entry is free for a year, the treaty is in place, and the German document chain is short once you run it in the right direction. What catches people is the direction: an applicant who treats the apostille as something you do to a certificate you already hold has lost a month. What a page cannot answer is the German tax overlay, and how a family application should be sequenced across three separate apostille authorities.
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
- German citizens enter Georgia visa-free for one full year, verified against the Georgian visa-free ordinance on 1 August 2026.
- Apply for the apostille at the BfAA first, then order the Führungszeugnis quoting its application number. The reverse order costs a month.
- The BfAA apostilles federal documents only. Standesamt certificates go to a Land authority that differs by Bundesland.
- The property and investment routes need no criminal record certificate, so they avoid both German queues.
- Since 1 March 2026 the Special Labour Permit comes before the work or IT residence permit, freelancers included.
- Germany and Georgia have had a double tax treaty in force since 21 December 2007, with a protocol from 1 January 2015.
- Abmeldung is a two-week duty under §17 BMG, and §2 AStG can extend a German liability for ten years.
Frequently asked questions
Can German citizens enter Georgia without a visa?
Yes, for one full year at a time, and the period resets when you leave and return. The Federal Republic of Germany 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 German applicant?
The Führungszeugnis issued by the Bundesamt für Justiz, in the version intended for use abroad, apostilled. Say at the point of ordering that it is going abroad, because the domestic version is signed differently and the apostille process depends on it. Give your name exactly as your passport spells it.
Do I order the Führungszeugnis or the apostille first for Georgia?
The apostille, and this is the single most useful thing in this guide. Apply online at the Bundesamt für Auswärtige Angelegenheiten, pay the fees that arise there, then order the Führungszeugnis quoting the BfAA application number. That number is what lets the Bundesamt für Justiz send the certificate straight to the BfAA instead of to you.
Who apostilles a German birth or marriage certificate for Georgia?
Not the BfAA. It handles federal documents only, and a Standesamt certificate is a Land document. Competence sits with a state authority and is not regulated uniformly across the Bundesländer, so the reliable move is to ask the office that issued the certificate which authority apostilles it.
Is there a German tax treaty with Georgia?
Yes. Georgia's Ministry of Finance lists 58 treaties in force and Germany is among them, in force since 21 December 2007 with a protocol in force from 1 January 2015. It allocates taxing rights and breaks ties, which is a materially better position than American, Canadian or Australian applicants have.
Do I still pay German tax after moving to Georgia?
Deregistering ends unlimited liability, but not necessarily all liability. §2 AStG can extend a limited German tax liability for ten years after the year you leave where three conditions all hold: five of the last ten years unlimitedly liable, a move to a low-tax jurisdiction, and substantial continuing economic interests in Germany. Whether Georgia is low-tax for you is a calculation on your own figures.
Does moving to Georgia trigger German exit tax on my company shares?
It can. §6 AStG treats the end of unlimited German tax liability as a disposal of substantial shareholdings where you were unlimitedly liable for at least seven of the previous twelve years. The tax can be spread across seven annual instalments, normally against security. Anyone holding part of a GmbH should take advice before departure, not after.
Can a German 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 German 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.
Which Georgian residence permit is best for a German citizen?
If you have capital, the property route at $150,000, because it needs no Führungszeugnis and therefore no BfAA leg at all. If you have income, the IT permit at $25,000 a year suits technology workers with two years of experience, and the work permit covers everyone else. Both income routes need the labour permit granted first.
Can a German citizen become a Georgian citizen and keep German nationality?
German law has permitted multiple nationality since 27 June 2024, so Germany 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.
