A residence permit is not a possession. It is a conclusion the state reached about your circumstances, and it lasts exactly as long as those circumstances do. Sell the apartment, leave the job, spend most of the year elsewhere, and the reasoning that produced the card stops holding. The decision that follows arrives with ten calendar days attached and, since 2025, no protection while you use them. Here is what can be taken away, why, and what to do in the first week.
Revocation, expiry and refusal are three different events
They arrive on similar paper and they need opposite responses, so separate them before anything else.
Expiry is the date printed on your card arriving. Nothing was decided about you; a clock ran out. The answer is a renewal filed 40 calendar days early.
Refusal is an application you made being turned down. You are no worse off than before you applied, unless your lawful stay was riding on it. The grounds and remedies for that are a separate subject, covered in what to do after a residence permit refusal.
Revocation is the state withdrawing a permit you already hold, before its expiry date. That is the one that changes your status overnight, because the document you have been relying on stops being a legal basis on a date the decision names rather than the date on the plastic.
The instinct after a revocation notice is to argue about the merits. The more useful first question is which of the three you are actually holding, because the deadlines and the options are not the same.
What a Georgian residence permit rests on
Every temporary residence permit is granted for a reason, and the reason is written into the category. That reason is a live condition rather than a historical fact.
| Category | The basis | What ends it |
|---|---|---|
| Work | Employment or self-employment in Georgia, with a labour permit underneath | The activity stops, or the labour permit lapses |
| IT | Qualifying IT income and 183 days a year of presence | Income falls away, or presence does |
| Property | Ownership of qualifying real estate | Sale, transfer, or a valuation that no longer holds |
| Investment | The qualifying investment, held for its term | The investment is unwound |
| Family | A sponsor with status, and the relationship | The sponsor loses status, or the relationship ends |
| Study | Enrolment at the institution | Withdrawal, expulsion, or graduation |
Read that table as a maintenance list rather than an entry test. The evidence that got you the permit is the evidence you have to keep being able to produce, and most revocations we see are not punishments. They are the state noticing that a condition stopped being true.
The grounds, in four families
The Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons and the procedural rules on granting residence permits govern both the grant and the withdrawal. The grounds fall into four recognisable families.
The basis ceased to exist. The largest group by a wide margin, and the subject of the next two sections.
The application was not true. False, incomplete or misleading information given to obtain the permit, including a document that turns out not to be what it appeared to be. This ground reaches backwards: it does not matter that you have since become eligible on other facts.
Conduct. Working without authorisation is the version most readers are exposed to, because a permit granted on a basis that turns out to be unlawful is a permit whose foundation is in question. The GEL 2,000 fine on you and the separate GEL 2,000 on whoever paid you are the visible part; the effect on the permit underneath is the expensive part.
State security or public interest. A short decision, no defect for you to correct, and the one situation where an appeal is the only instrument available.
We do not publish a ranked frequency for these. No figures are released that we could stand behind, and an invented distribution on a page people act on would be worse than saying so.
Selling the property is the clearest case
If your permit rests on real estate, the permit and the title move together. Ownership is recorded at the National Agency of Public Registry, so the transfer is a matter of public record on the day it completes rather than something you disclose later at a counter.
The consequence is uncomfortable in a specific way: the sale is usually a good decision, taken for good reasons, by someone who did not connect it to their status. The money arrives, and the basis for living here leaves with the title.
The permit does not survive the sale simply because the card still has months on it. At best you are holding a document whose foundation has gone, and at worst you are holding one that has been withdrawn. Either way a property renewal cannot succeed, because renewal is a fresh application assessed on ownership as it stands on the day you file.
The workable version is sequencing. Decide the next basis before you sign, not after: buying a replacement property above the threshold, moving onto the work route with a labour permit obtained in advance, or qualifying through family. Selling in the same month as your renewal falls due is the version that goes wrong, and the mechanics of planning a route change around a property sale are worth an afternoon before they are worth a lawyer.
One point of genuine uncertainty, which we are not going to resolve for you. Holders granted a permit when the threshold was $100,000 may renew while they retain ownership, even though the threshold rose to $150,000 on 1 March 2026. What the legislation does not settle is whether a permit that has lapsed can be applied for again on the old figure. Treat the protection as attaching to the permit you hold, not to the apartment you own.
Prolonged absence
A residence permit says you live in Georgia. Spending most of the year somewhere else contradicts the document rather than merely stretching it, and prolonged absence is a recognised reason for withdrawing one.
We are not going to give you a number of days, because no published figure exists that we can stand behind, and a wrong threshold here would be acted on by exactly the people who are closest to the line. Anyone whose travel pattern is genuinely heavy should get the position assessed against their own passport stamps rather than against a number found online.
Three things are firm enough to plan with.
The IT route has an explicit presence condition. The three-year IT residence permit requires 183 days a year in Georgia. That is a stated condition of the permit, so failing it is not an argument about interpretation.
Absence and tax residency are different tests. The 183-day test that decides Georgian tax residency runs on any continuous 12-month period ending in the tax year, and clearing it does not settle the immigration question. They are separate, and holding one without the other is common.
Absence damages the ten-year count even where the permit survives. Permanent residence needs ten years of continuous temporary residence, and what actually breaks continuity is worth understanding long before year ten, because nothing warns you at the time.
When the permit that fails is somebody else's
Dependent permits hang from a principal's, and they fall with it. If your spouse or parent holds the permit that supports yours and theirs is revoked, yours has lost its basis by the same event, on the same day, without a separate decision needing to reach you first.
That makes the sponsor's status a family matter rather than a personal one. Sponsors should hold the earliest date in the household, renew before anybody else, and tell the people depending on them when something changes. The sequence when a sponsor's permit lapses is the same shape as revocation and it moves faster than families expect.
What to do first
The first week decides most outcomes here. In order:
- Write down the notification date. That is day one of ten, and it is the date the notice reached you rather than the date you read it.
- Read the ground literally. "The basis has ceased" and "information provided was inaccurate" point at completely different responses.
- Establish the date your lawful presence actually ends, from the decision itself. Do not assume it is the expiry printed on the card, because that is the point of a revocation.
- Ask whether a different basis already exists. A spouse, a property, an employer willing to sponsor, a qualifying investment. Where one does, a fresh application on that basis usually beats an argument about the old one.
- Decide appeal or refile inside the ten days, not after them. If the answer is not clear by day three, it needs a second opinion rather than more thinking.
- If your lawful presence has already ended, treat it as an overstay problem running alongside the permit problem. The two have different clocks and different consequences.
A revocation is not by itself an order to leave, and a prohibition on entry, where one is imposed, comes from a separate decision that states its own period. Nothing fixes that period in advance, so read the decision you were given rather than a figure from anywhere else.
The ten days, and why they are real now
The window to challenge a decision is 10 calendar days from notification. Calendar days, so a notice served on a Thursday spends two weekends inside the count.
The change that reshapes everything after it is recent. Since the 2025 amendments an appeal no longer suspends enforcement. Lodging one used to hold the decision while it was considered. It does not now: the revocation takes effect and the appeal proceeds alongside it.
So the appeal is a way of correcting a wrong decision. It is not a way of staying in the country while the decision is wrong. If your presence depends on the permit that has just been withdrawn, appealing does nothing for you on the ground, and Georgia has operated an illegal-presence database since October 2025. That sits alongside the other 2026 changes that make the margin for error narrower than it was.
Where the ground is factual and correctable, or where a different basis is available to you, both moves belong together: the appeal protects the point, the new application protects your presence.
What we do about it
Most of the value here is upstream of the decision. A sale planned three months out, a job change with a labour permit application already filed, a renewal brought forward because a sponsor's date moved: none of those are litigation and all of them are cheaper than it.
Bring the decision, your card, your passport stamps and the date the basis actually changed to a free consultation and we will tell you whether you are arguing about a decision or rebuilding a basis. If it is the second, the six routes and what each demands in evidence is where the next application starts, and the fee schedules for it are published by the Public Service Development Agency.
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
- Revocation withdraws a permit you already hold, before its printed expiry. It is not expiry and it is not a refusal.
- The dominant ground is the basis ceasing to exist: the property sold, the job ended, the relationship over, the enrolment finished.
- Selling qualifying property is the clearest version, and ownership is a matter of public record on the day it transfers.
- Prolonged absence undermines a permit premised on living here. No day count is published that we can stand behind, so heavy travellers should get their own dates assessed.
- Working without authorisation costs GEL 2,000 and puts the permit's foundation in question.
- Dependent permits fall with the sponsor's, on the same day and without a separate decision.
- You have 10 calendar days from notification, and since 2025 an appeal no longer suspends enforcement.
- The reliable fix is a planned route change before the triggering event rather than an argument after it.
Frequently asked questions
Can a Georgian residence permit be revoked?
Yes. A permit can be withdrawn before the expiry date printed on the card, most often because the basis it was granted on has ceased to exist. Other grounds include false or incomplete information in the original application, conduct such as unauthorised work, and state security or public interest.
What happens to my Georgian residence permit if I sell my property?
The basis for it goes with the title. A property permit rests on continued ownership, so the sale removes the reason the permit was granted, and a renewal on that basis cannot succeed. Decide and evidence your next route before completing the sale rather than afterwards.
How long can I be outside Georgia without losing my residence permit?
No published day count exists that we would put in front of you. Prolonged absence is a recognised ground for withdrawal because the permit assumes you live here, and the IT residence permit adds an explicit condition of 183 days a year in Georgia. Anyone travelling heavily should have their actual dates assessed.
Can I appeal a Georgian residence permit revocation?
Yes, within 10 calendar days of notification, and the decision names the body the appeal goes to. Since the 2025 amendments the appeal does not suspend enforcement, so the revocation takes effect while the case is heard. Where a different basis is available, a fresh application usually protects you faster.
Does working without a permit affect my Georgian residence permit?
It can, and that is the larger exposure rather than the fine. Unauthorised work carries GEL 2,000 on the worker and a separate GEL 2,000 on the employer, but it also puts the lawfulness of the basis underneath your residence permit in question, which turns a penalty into a status problem.
What is the difference between revocation and refusal in Georgia?
A refusal decides an application you made, so you are left where you were before you filed. A revocation withdraws a permit you already hold, which changes your status on a date the decision names. The response differs: a refusal is often answered by refiling, a revocation by establishing a new basis.
Will my family lose their permits if mine is revoked?
If their permits are dependent on yours, yes, because the basis for theirs is your status. That happens by the same event rather than through a separate decision reaching each of them. Sponsors should treat their own dates as the household's dates and renew before everybody else.
Do I have to leave Georgia immediately after a revocation?
Not automatically. A revocation decides the permit rather than ordering removal, and any prohibition on entry comes from a separate decision that states its own period. What matters is the date your lawful presence ends, which the decision sets out and which is usually earlier than the date on your card.
Can I get a new Georgian residence permit after one is revoked?
Usually yes, where a genuine new basis exists and the ground was not deception or state security. It is assessed as a first application on that basis, using current thresholds and current documents. What you cannot do is refile the same case and expect the previous conclusion to change.
Does a revoked permit break my count toward permanent residence?
Yes, if it produces a gap. Permanent residence requires ten years of continuous temporary residence, and continuity is broken by the gap rather than paused by it. That is the strongest argument for arranging the next permit before the current one fails rather than after.
What should I do in the first week after a revocation notice?
Record the notification date, read the stated ground literally, and establish from the decision when your lawful presence actually ends. Then ask whether another basis is already available to you, and decide between appealing and applying afresh inside the ten days rather than at the end of them.
