Italian applicants carry a deadline nobody else in this cluster has. Your criminal record certificate stops being valid six months after it is issued, as a matter of Italian law rather than Georgian discretion, and the clock runs from the date the Procura printed it rather than the date the apostille was added. Georgia's half of the application is identical on every passport. Yours differs in that clock, in two separate apostille authorities, and in what happens after you register with AIRE.
Can you enter Georgia, and for how long?
Yes, for one full year at a time. The Italian Republic 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.
The practical effect is that 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 Italy is possible and slower, and it removes your ability to correct a queried document at the counter the same week.
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 an Italian applicant
Georgia's routes, thresholds and government fees do not move with your passport. What moves for you is a deadline, and it makes one comparison sharper than usual.
The property route at $150,000 and the investment route ask for no home-country criminal record certificate. For an Italian that is worth more than the usual saving of a few weeks: it removes a hard six-month expiry from the middle of your schedule, and with it the risk of having to reorder and reapostille a document because the rest of the file moved slowly.
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. Italian freelancers invoicing Milan 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 good share of the Italian cohort here, at $25,000 of annual income, two years of experience and a three-year term. Its longer decision period is usually described as generous. For an Italian it is the opposite, because a certificate with six months on it has to survive both the labour permit decision and a longer residence permit decision.
Your document chain, and the clock inside it
The certificate. The certificato del casellario giudiziale is issued by the Casellario office at any Procura della Repubblica, and it can also be requested through the Ministry of Justice's online service. The published procedure at the Procura di Torino sets out both routes and confirms that criminal record certificates are valid for six months from the date of issue. It also publishes the cost: EUR 16.00 in revenue stamps plus EUR 3.92 in office fees on the ordinary track, or EUR 16.00 plus EUR 7.84 for same-day collection.
That six-month figure is the single most useful thing an Italian applicant can know, and it is unusual. Most origin countries print no expiry at all and leave the question to the receiving authority. Georgia publishes no fixed validity period either, so a reviewing officer applies a judgement about whether the certificate is current. Read the two together and the binding constraint is whichever is tighter, which for an Italian is almost always the printed Italian date.
The apostille, and which office. Competence splits by the nature of the document. The Procura della Repubblica apostilles judicial and notarial acts formed within its district, which includes your casellario certificate, while the Procura's own notice confirms that administrative acts go to the Prefettura instead. An atto di nascita or an atto di matrimonio issued by a comune and signed by the sindaco or the ufficiale di stato civile is an administrative act. So an Italian family application runs through two authorities in two buildings, and sending everything to one of them is the standard way to lose a fortnight.
Translation happens in Georgia, on the paper original, after the apostille is attached. A translation prepared in Italy is itself an Italian document and needs its own authentication. The full apostille sequence, the police certificate procedures by country and the rules on certified translation cover what gets rejected at the counter.
What Italy does when you leave
AIRE, and the 90-day duty. An Italian citizen who moves their residence abroad for more than twelve months must declare it to the competent consular office within 90 days, under Law 470 of 1988, and the consular guidance on AIRE explains that registration cancels you from the resident population register of your comune at the same time. Failing to register attracts administrative penalties.
AIRE is not a tax certificate. This is where Italians get hurt, and the law changed recently enough that older advice is misleading. Since 1 January 2024, under the decree that rewrote article 2 of the TUIR, an individual is Italian tax resident for the greater part of the tax period on any of four alternative tests: civil-law residence, domicile now defined as the place where personal and family relations principally develop, physical presence, or registration in the anagrafe. Registration is now a rebuttable presumption rather than a conclusion, which cuts both ways. Staying on the register no longer settles the question against you, and coming off it no longer settles the question in your favour.
The practical instruction is short. Register with AIRE because the law requires it, then build the evidence that your personal and family life is actually in Georgia, because that is what the domicile test now looks at. A Georgian permit is not that evidence by itself, and the difference 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.
The treaty position and the citizenship endgame
Georgia's Ministry of Finance publishes 58 double tax treaties in force and records the Italian one as in force since 19 February 2004. It allocates taxing rights and breaks ties where both countries claim the same income, and how relief is actually claimed sits in the treaty network guide.
Citizenship runs the other way from what most Italians expect. Under article 11 of Law 91 of 1992, an Italian who acquires a foreign citizenship keeps Italian citizenship unless they renounce it deliberately. Georgia is the obstacle: it does not generally permit dual citizenship and expects renunciation, with an exception granted by presidential decree on state-interest grounds. The dual citizenship position therefore decides the endgame on day one, and permanent residence at ten years, which carries no renunciation, is the sensible destination.
Timeline and cost, realistically
Count backwards from two dates rather than one. 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. Then check that the whole sequence still fits inside the six months on your certificate, and order the certificate late if it does not.
Government fees in Georgia are identical on every passport. How the queues stack up is set out in processing times by category, the counting rule is in the 40-day rule, and the same arithmetic returns at renewal because a renewal file needs current documents too.
The verdict
Straightforward, with one real scheduling constraint and one split authority. Entry is free for a year, the treaty is old and settled, and the certificate itself is cheap and quick to obtain.
What goes wrong is ordering the certificate first because it feels like the hard document. For an Italian it is the dated document, not the hard one, and ordering it early is the most common way to end up buying it twice. Order it once the rest of the file is nearly assembled, apostille it at the Procura, and send anything from a comune to the Prefettura instead.
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
- Italian citizens enter Georgia visa-free for one full year, verified against the Georgian visa-free ordinance on 1 August 2026.
- The certificato del casellario giudiziale is valid for six months from issue, and the clock runs from the Procura's date rather than the apostille's.
- The Procura della Repubblica apostilles the casellario certificate; the Prefettura apostilles anything issued by a comune.
- The property and investment routes need no criminal record certificate, which removes the six-month clock from the schedule.
- Since 1 March 2026 the Special Labour Permit comes before the work or IT residence permit, including for freelancers billing Italian clients.
- Italy and Georgia have had a double tax treaty in force since 19 February 2004.
- AIRE registration is compulsory within 90 days, and since 1 January 2024 anagrafe registration is only a rebuttable presumption of tax residence.
Frequently asked questions
Can Italian citizens enter Georgia without a visa?
Yes, for one full year at a time, and the period resets when you leave and return. The Italian Republic 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.
How long is an Italian casellario giudiziale certificate valid?
Six months from the date of issue, under Italian law, and the Procure publish that period on their own service pages. It is unusual: most countries print no expiry and leave the question to whoever receives the document. Georgia publishes no fixed validity period, so the Italian date is normally the binding one.
Which police certificate does Georgia want from an Italian applicant?
The certificato del casellario giudiziale, from the Casellario office at a Procura della Repubblica or through the Ministry of Justice's online service, then apostilled. Give your name exactly as your passport spells it, because every later document inherits that spelling and a mismatch cannot be corrected after the apostille is attached.
Who apostilles an Italian document for Georgia?
It depends on the document. The Procura della Repubblica apostilles judicial and notarial acts formed in its district, which covers your casellario certificate. Administrative acts, including birth and marriage certificates issued by a comune, are apostilled by the Prefettura. Sending both to one office is the standard way to lose two weeks.
How much does an Italian criminal record certificate cost?
The Procura di Torino publishes EUR 16.00 in revenue stamps plus EUR 3.92 in office fees on the ordinary track, and EUR 16.00 plus EUR 7.84 for same-day collection. Other Procure publish their own schedules, so check the office you intend to use rather than assuming the figures are national.
Is there an Italian tax treaty with Georgia?
Yes, in force since 19 February 2004. Georgia's Ministry of Finance lists 58 treaties in total, and the Italian one is among the older ones on that list. It allocates taxing rights between the two countries and provides a tie-breaker where both claim the same income.
Does registering with AIRE end my Italian tax residence?
No, and treating it as if it does is the expensive error. Since 1 January 2024 registration in the anagrafe is only a rebuttable presumption, and Italian tax residence turns on civil-law residence, domicile as the centre of personal and family relations, physical presence, or registration, for the greater part of the tax year. AIRE is a registration duty. Evidence of where your life actually is does the rest.
When do I have to register with AIRE after moving to Georgia?
Within 90 days of transferring your residence, under Law 470 of 1988, through the Italian consular office competent for where you live. Registration cancels you from the resident population register of your Italian comune at the same time, and failing to register attracts administrative penalties.
Can an Italian citizen work remotely from Georgia without a permit?
Yes. The Special Labour Permit follows who pays you rather than where you sit, so invoicing an Italian 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 an Italian citizen become a Georgian citizen and keep Italian nationality?
Italy would allow it. Under article 11 of Law 91 of 1992, acquiring a foreign citizenship does not cause loss of Italian citizenship unless you renounce deliberately. Georgia is the obstacle, because it does not generally permit dual citizenship and expects renunciation, with exceptions by presidential decree. Permanent residence after ten years is the realistic destination.
