Polish applicants can order the same criminal record certificate two different ways, and one of them produces a file that is worth nothing in Tbilisi. The online route is cheaper, takes up to twenty calendar days and returns an XML file the register itself tells you not to print. The counter hands you paper the same morning for ten złoty more. Georgia's half of the application is identical on every passport. Yours turns on that one choice, on a single apostille office, and on a threshold buried in the Polish income tax act.
Can you enter Georgia, and for how long?
Yes, for one full year at a time. The Republic of Poland 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.
Nothing therefore 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 Poland is possible and slower, and it removes your ability to fix a queried document at the counter the same week.
Two conditions attach to the entry itself. Since 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 Polish applicant
Georgia's routes, thresholds and government fees do not move with your passport. What moves is how many places your file can fail on a formality, and the Polish chain has one.
The property route at $150,000 and the investment route ask for no home-country criminal record certificate. For a Pole that deletes the KRK, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the courier from the schedule outright.
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 instead of a queue position. Polish freelancers on a JDG invoicing Warsaw or Kraków clients from a Tbilisi flat are inside that sequence too once they want the card, though the permit itself turns on who pays you and Warsaw clients engage nothing.
The IT residence permit fits a large share of the Polish 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 reads as a burden until you remember that Polish tax residence turns on where your centre of personal and economic interests sits. Days in Tbilisi are the cheapest evidence available, and what counts as qualifying work is set out in the IT permit guide.
Your document chain, and the format that breaks it
Choose paper at the point of ordering. The Krajowy Rejestr Karny is run by the Ministry of Justice and issues the certificate three ways. Order through the e-Platforma KRK and, in the register's own words on the government's KRK service page, you pay PLN 20, wait up to twenty calendar days and receive an XML file, with an instruction not to print it because the printout will not be an official document. Order at the Biuro Informacyjne on ul. Czerniakowska in Warsaw or at any information point and you pay PLN 30 and are normally handed the certificate on the spot, with a stated outside limit of seven days. By post the fee is the same PLN 30.
An apostille certifies a signature and a seal on a document. A signed XML file offers neither in a form the legalisation counter can act on, so the cheaper route is the one that ends in a second trip.
One apostille office, with exceptions behind it. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs legalisation service issues apostilles at PLN 60 per document, and it handles both the KRK certificate and civil registry documents directly, with no intermediate authority. Court documents and notarial acts are different: they need certifying by the president of the competent regional court first, and commercial and certain professional documents have their own preceding bodies. So a Polish family application can be one errand or three depending on which papers are in it, and the way to find out is to ask the office that issued each document.
Translation happens in Georgia, on the paper original, after the apostille is attached. A translation produced in Poland is itself a Polish document needing its own authentication, so translating early usually means paying twice. What gets rejected at the counter is set out in the full apostille sequence, the police certificate procedures by country and the rules on certified translation. Give your name exactly as your passport spells it, because everything downstream inherits that spelling.
What Poland does when you leave
Residence, not registration. Polish tax residence turns on having your centre of personal or economic interests in Poland, or on being there more than 183 days in the tax year. Either limb is enough. Cancelling your address registration is an administrative act and settles neither limb, so a Pole who keeps a flat, a family and a client base at home has not left in the sense that matters. The gap between holding a permit and being tax resident is the most expensive misunderstanding in this niche, and Georgia's own test is 183 days in a rolling twelve-month window.
Exit tax, and where it starts. Poland taxes unrealised gains on a change of tax residence under the podatek od dochodów z niezrealizowanych zysków in articles 30da and following of the personal income tax act. Three things decide whether it touches you. It does not apply at all unless the combined market value of the assets moved exceeds PLN 4,000,000, a limit applied to spouses jointly. It reaches only people who were Polish tax residents for at least five of the ten years before the change. And the rate is 19 per cent where a tax value for the asset has been established and 3 per cent where it has not.
Most people reading this are nowhere near that threshold. Anyone holding shares in a Polish company, a meaningful securities portfolio or a business being wound down is not, and the declaration falls due by the seventh day of the month after the month in which the limit was passed. That is a pre-departure conversation with a Polish adviser, not a post-departure discovery.
The treaty position and the citizenship endgame
Georgia's Ministry of Finance publishes 58 double tax treaties in force and Poland is on that list. The ministry's own summary table sets the withholding ceilings at 5 per cent on dividends, interest and royalties alike, and treats a construction or installation site as a permanent establishment after nine months. A treaty allocates taxing rights and breaks ties. It does not make you Georgian tax resident, which is a separate day count, and how relief is actually claimed sits in the treaty network guide.
Citizenship is decided in Tbilisi rather than Warsaw. Article 34 of the Polish Constitution says a Polish citizen loses citizenship only by renouncing it, and renunciation requires the consent of the President, so naturalising abroad costs a Pole nothing at home. Georgia is the obstacle, because it does not generally permit dual citizenship and expects renunciation, with an exception by presidential decree on state-interest grounds. The dual citizenship position therefore decides the endgame on day one, 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. For a Polish applicant with a paper certificate the trigger point is roughly two months out; with an XML file it is two months plus however long it takes to discover the problem. Government fees in Georgia are the same on every passport, and the full cost breakdown by route covers the state fees alongside ours. The counting rule is in the 40-day rule.
Straightforward, then, with one avoidable delay. Entry is free for a year, the treaty is in place, the apostille is a single office at a modest fee, and Poland puts nothing in your way on the tax side unless you are wealthy enough to have planned for it already. The decision that matters is made in the first five minutes, at the point where you choose how to order a certificate.
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
- Polish citizens enter Georgia visa-free for one full year, verified against the Georgian visa-free ordinance on 1 August 2026.
- The online KRK certificate is an XML file and the register instructs you not to print it, so it cannot carry an apostille. Order the paper version.
- Paper costs PLN 30 and is normally issued at the counter; the online version costs PLN 20 and can take twenty calendar days.
- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs apostilles KRK and civil registry documents directly at PLN 60, but court and notarial papers need a regional court president first.
- The property and investment routes need no criminal record certificate at all, which removes the whole Polish leg.
- Since 1 March 2026 the Special Labour Permit comes before the work or IT residence permit, freelancers on a JDG included.
- Polish exit tax engages only above PLN 4,000,000 of transferred assets and only after five of the last ten years of Polish residence.
- Poland does not withdraw citizenship for naturalising abroad, so the Georgian rule against dual citizenship is the only barrier.
Frequently asked questions
Can Polish citizens enter Georgia without a visa?
Yes, for one full year at a time, and the period resets when you leave and return. The Republic of Poland 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 Polish applicant?
The zaświadczenie o niekaralności from the Krajowy Rejestr Karny, apostilled. Ask for the paper version, obtained at the Biuro Informacyjne in Warsaw or at any KRK information point. Give your name exactly as your passport spells it, because the apostille and the Georgian translation both inherit that spelling.
Can an online KRK certificate be apostilled for Georgia?
No. The certificate issued through the e-Platforma KRK is an XML file, and the register's published instruction is not to print it because the printout is not an official document. An apostille certifies a signature and a seal on a document, so the electronic version has nothing for the legalisation counter to act on.
How much does a Polish criminal record certificate cost?
PLN 20 through the e-Platforma KRK and PLN 30 in person or by post. The cheaper version is the one you cannot use abroad, so the useful figure for a Georgian application is PLN 30. Volunteers taking certain roles with children are exempt from the fee on production of a letter from the organiser.
Who issues an apostille in Poland?
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through its legalisation service, at PLN 60 per document. It handles KRK certificates and civil registry documents directly. Court documents and notarial acts must first be certified by the president of the competent regional court, and some commercial and professional documents have their own preceding authority.
Is there a Polish tax treaty with Georgia?
Yes. Georgia's Ministry of Finance publishes 58 treaties in force and Poland is among them, with published withholding ceilings of 5 per cent on dividends, interest and royalties. A treaty allocates taxing rights and provides a tie-breaker. It does not by itself make you Georgian tax resident.
Will I pay Polish exit tax if I move to Georgia?
Only if the market value of the assets you take with you exceeds PLN 4,000,000 and you were a Polish tax resident for at least five of the previous ten years. The rate is 19 per cent where a tax value has been established for the asset and 3 per cent where it has not, and the limit applies to spouses jointly. Below the threshold the charge does not arise.
Does deregistering my Polish address end my Polish tax residence?
No. Polish tax residence turns on having your centre of personal or economic interests in Poland, or on spending more than 183 days there in the tax year, and either limb alone is enough. Address registration is a separate administrative matter. Evidence of where your life actually is does the work, which is one practical argument for the IT permit's presence condition.
Can a Polish 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 Polish 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 Polish citizenship by becoming Georgian?
Not through anything Poland does. Under article 34 of the Constitution a Polish citizen loses citizenship only by renouncing it, and renunciation needs the President's consent. The barrier is Georgian: Georgia does not generally permit dual citizenship and expects renunciation, with exceptions by presidential decree. Permanent residence after ten years avoids the question entirely. </content> </invoke>
