Two things sink Irish applications, and neither of them is Georgian. The first is ordering Garda vetting when what Georgia wants is a Police Certificate, which is a different document from a different process and cannot be substituted. The second is assuming that leaving Ireland ends your relationship with Revenue, when ordinary residence runs for three tax years after you go and domicile does not end at all. Here is the Irish half of a Georgian residence permit.
Can you enter Georgia, and for how long?
Yes, for a full year at a time. Ireland 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 checked that text on 1 August 2026, and it is what the border officer applies rather than any summary of it.
That single fact sets the shape of an Irish application. Because you are lawfully present for a year without asking anyone, the sensible sequence is to land, assemble documents locally and file at a Public Service Hall. The year of visa-free stay resets on re-entry, which tempts people into treating it as settled status. It is not, and it accrues nothing toward permanent residence. Every visitor also needs travel or health insurance with at least GEL 30,000 of cover under the 2026 insurance rule, checked at the border rather than at the permit stage.
Which route actually fits an Irish applicant
The routes, thresholds and government fees are identical on every passport. What differs is which one suits the way Irish readers actually work, and most of them arrive as contractors or remote employees rather than as investors.
That puts the Special Labour Permit at the front of the queue. Since 1 March 2026 it is a prerequisite rather than a parallel process, so a work residence permit filed before it is granted produces a refusal instead of a delay. Irish contractors invoicing a Dublin or Amsterdam client from Tbilisi consistently assume the permit is about employment. It is about employment, Georgian clients, and whether you want a residence card. A Dublin client is none of those, so it is the card that puts an Irish contractor into the sequence.
The IT residence permit fits a large share of the Irish technology cohort at $25,000 of annual income and two years of experience, for a three-year term. Its 183-days-a-year presence condition is a real commitment to being here, and it does nothing at all for your Irish position, which runs on a separate clock described below.
If you have capital rather than income, the property route at $150,000 needs no police certificate and no labour permit, and it is the shortest path for anyone who qualifies for both.
Ask for a Police Certificate, not Garda vetting
This is where Irish applications lose a month, and it is a naming problem rather than a legal one.
Garda vetting is run through the National Vetting Bureau for people taking up roles with unsupervised access to children or vulnerable adults, and it is requested by a registered organisation rather than by an individual. It is not available to you on your own account and it is not what a foreign immigration authority is asking for. An Garda Síochána says so directly on its own Police Certificates page: a Police Certificate cannot be construed as Garda vetting, a security clearance or a character reference.
What you want is the Police Certificate. It is issued by the Superintendent in the Garda division where you live, applied for by post with a certified copy of your passport or driving licence and proof of address, issued free of charge, and stated to take around three weeks. We checked those details on 1 August 2026. By international standards that is fast, and it is the reason an Irish file moves quicker than an American or Canadian one.
The apostille comes afterwards, from the Department of Foreign Affairs, which is Ireland's only designated authority for the purpose. Where a document has been signed by a solicitor or a notary rather than issued by the State, expect an authentication step in front of the apostille rather than a direct submission. Then the original travels, and translation and notarisation happen in Georgia, never before. The full apostille sequence and the police certificate procedures by country cover what actually gets rejected, and the rules on certified translation cover the last step.
What Ireland does when you leave
Ireland is unusual in running three separate concepts at once, and each of them survives your departure for a different length of time.
Residence ends when you stop meeting the day counts. Ordinary residence does not. Revenue states that after three consecutive years of Irish tax residence you become ordinarily resident from the start of the fourth year, and that if you then leave you continue to be ordinarily resident for three consecutive tax years. Through those three years you remain taxable in Ireland on worldwide income, with carve-outs for income from a trade or profession no part of which is performed in Ireland, and from an employment where all duties are performed outside Ireland.
Read that carve-out carefully, because it is the whole game for a relocating contractor. Work genuinely performed from Tbilisi can fall inside the exemption. Investment income, rent from an Irish property and anything with a residual Irish element does not. The three-year tail is the single most consequential Irish fact on this page, and it is invisible to every Georgian official you will meet.
Domicile is the one that never ends. It is a general-law concept meaning the country you treat as your permanent home, and it does not change because you bought a flight. Revenue's domicile and domicile levy guidance sets the levy at EUR 200,000 a year for an Irish-domiciled individual whose worldwide income exceeds EUR 1 million, whose Irish property is worth more than EUR 5 million, and whose Irish income tax for the year came to less than EUR 200,000. Irish income tax paid is credited against it. That combination catches very few people, and the ones it catches are exactly the readers most likely to assume a foreign residence permit solved it. It does not.
Georgia's own test is separate again and purely mechanical: 183 or more days in any continuous twelve-month period ending in the tax year makes you resident here for that whole year, and the day-count rule applies whether or not you hold a permit. You can therefore be Georgian tax resident and Irish ordinarily resident in the same year. Georgia's Ministry of Finance lists Ireland among the 58 double tax treaties in force, so there is a working instrument to allocate taxing rights, but holding a permit and being taxed somewhere remain two separate questions.
The citizenship trade, and why it is a bad one
Georgia does not generally permit dual citizenship and expects renunciation, with an exception by presidential decree on state-interest grounds. For an Irish reader that is a worse bargain than for almost anyone else on this site.
Renouncing Irish citizenship is possible under section 21 of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956, but only where you already are or are about to become a citizen of another country and are ordinarily resident outside the State, by lodging a declaration of alienage. What you would be giving up is not only an Irish passport but EU citizenship and the right of free movement across the Union, in exchange for a Georgian one. Permanent residence after ten years carries no renunciation and delivers most of what people actually want, and the dual citizenship position explains why this is settled on day one rather than in year ten.
Timeline, cost and the verdict
Straightforward, and among the least obstructed origins we cover. Entry is free, the police certificate is free and fast, and the apostille goes to one office.
Count backwards all the same. The application has to be filed at least 40 calendar days before your lawful stay expires, and a file lodged inside that window is refused review rather than assessed, which is set out in the 40-day rule. On a work or IT route the labour permit decision sits in front of that. Government fees do not move with nationality and the full cost breakdown by route covers both the state fees and ours.
The real Irish work is on the other side. Whether your contracting income falls inside the ordinary-residence carve-out, what to do with an Irish rental property, and whether the domicile levy touches you at all are questions for an Irish adviser and worth resolving before you file here. What we can settle is the Georgian sequence, and half an hour on a free consultation is a better use of it than a guess. The Swedish guide covers a country with a similar trailing-ties problem, and the rest sit in the guides organised by nationality.
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
- Irish citizens enter Georgia visa-free for one full year, verified against the Georgian visa-free ordinance on 1 August 2026.
- Order a Police Certificate from An Garda Síochána, not Garda vetting. The Gardaí state that the two are not interchangeable.
- The Police Certificate is free and takes about three weeks, which makes the Irish document chain one of the fastest on this site.
- The Department of Foreign Affairs is Ireland's only apostille authority, and solicitor or notary signatures need an authentication step first.
- Since 1 March 2026 the Special Labour Permit comes before the work or IT residence permit, including for contracting invoiced to an Irish client.
- Ordinary residence keeps you taxable in Ireland on worldwide income for three tax years after you leave, with carve-outs for work performed wholly abroad.
- Domicile does not change because you moved, and the domicile levy is EUR 200,000 a year for those who meet all three Revenue conditions.
Frequently asked questions
Can Irish citizens enter Georgia without a visa?
Yes, for one full year at a time. Ireland is on the list annexed to the Georgian ordinance on visa-free entry, checked on 1 August 2026, and the period resets when you leave and return. Every visitor also needs travel or health insurance with at least GEL 30,000 of cover.
Does Georgia accept Garda vetting for a residence permit?
No, and asking for it is the most common Irish mistake. Garda vetting is requested by registered organisations for roles involving children or vulnerable adults, and An Garda Síochána states plainly that a Police Certificate cannot be construed as Garda vetting. The Police Certificate is what you order for a foreign immigration application.
How do I get an Irish Police Certificate for Georgia?
By post to the District Superintendent in the Garda division where you live, with a completed application form, a certified copy of your passport or driving licence and proof of address. It is issued free of charge and takes around three weeks. It then needs an apostille from the Department of Foreign Affairs before it is usable here.
Who apostilles Irish documents for Georgia?
The Department of Foreign Affairs, which is Ireland's only designated authority for apostilles. Documents signed by a solicitor or a notary rather than issued by the State generally need an authentication step before the Department will stamp them, so build that in rather than discovering it at the counter.
Is there a double tax treaty between Georgia and Ireland?
Yes, and it is in force. Georgia's Ministry of Finance lists Ireland among the 58 double taxation treaties it recognises, and Revenue publishes the text on its own treaty pages. That gives you a mechanism to allocate taxing rights, which matters because you can be Georgian tax resident and Irish ordinarily resident in the same year.
How long does Ireland keep taxing me after I move to Georgia?
Ordinary residence continues for three consecutive tax years after you leave, if you were tax resident in Ireland for three consecutive years beforehand. Through those years you remain taxable on worldwide income, except for income from a trade or profession no part of which is performed in Ireland and employment income where all the duties are performed abroad.
Does the Irish domicile levy apply if I live in Georgia?
It can. Domicile is not the same as residence and it does not change because you moved, so an Irish-domiciled individual remains within scope wherever they live. Revenue sets the levy at EUR 200,000 a year, payable where worldwide income exceeds EUR 1 million, Irish property exceeds EUR 5 million and Irish income tax for the year was under EUR 200,000.
Do I need a Georgian work permit as an Irish contractor?
Only if you want a residence card, or your clients are Georgian. The Special Labour Permit follows who pays you rather than where you sit, so invoicing Dublin from a Tbilisi desk engages nothing on its own. It is required to employ foreign staff in Georgia, to trade as an Individual Entrepreneur with Georgian clients, and as the first step on a work or IT residence permit.
Can an Irish citizen get Georgian citizenship?
In principle, after ten years of continuous residence and exams in Georgian language, history and law. In practice it is a poor trade, because Georgia expects renunciation and giving up Irish citizenship also ends EU citizenship and free movement. Section 21 of the 1956 Act also requires you to hold or be about to hold another nationality and to be ordinarily resident outside Ireland.
Which Georgian residence permit is best for an Irish citizen?
If you have income, the IT permit for technology work at $25,000 a year and two years of experience, or the work permit for everything else. Both need a Special Labour Permit granted first. If you have capital, the property route at $150,000 needs no police certificate and no labour permit, and it closes faster.
