You have an offer from a Georgian university and a stack of documents to turn into legal status. The permit itself is one of the easier ones on this site to obtain, which is exactly why students underestimate the two things that catch them: a Georgian job alongside the course needs a permit the study card does not carry, and it ends on the day the programme does. Here is what the file needs, what the permit does not cover, and why the exit has to be planned before your final term rather than after it.
Who it is for, and which institutions count
The permit is for foreign nationals admitted to a Georgian higher education or professional institution that is authorised for the purpose. Authorisation is the test, not reputation, size or how long the institution has been teaching.
That word does real work. A place can be running classes, taking your tuition and issuing letters on headed paper while not holding the authorisation that makes its students eligible for this permit. The consequence lands on the student rather than on the institution, and it lands after the money has been paid.
So confirm the status before you accept an offer, not after. Ask the institution directly for its current authorisation, ask what other international students on your exact programme received, and treat a vague answer as an answer. We check this before anything is filed, because it is the one input that cannot be fixed later in the process.
Georgia's international student population is heavily concentrated in medicine, and the English-language medical programmes draw students from across South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The permit is identical whatever you are studying: the category does not distinguish between a medical degree, a masters in economics and a professional qualification.
What goes in the file
The evidence set is smaller than most permit routes and it is mostly generated by your institution.
| Item | Note |
|---|---|
| Acceptance letter from the authorised institution | The document the whole application rests on |
| Proof of enrolment and tuition payment | Enrolment must be current, not merely offered |
| Evidence of means to cover living costs | The file has to show you can support yourself for the period |
| Passport valid well beyond the intended stay | Renew it before applying if it is close |
| Health insurance covering Georgia | Separate from the visitor insurance minimum |
| Proof of legal entry and a Georgian address | Address registration is its own small process |
Foreign documents behave the way they do on every other route. Anything issued abroad needs apostille or, from a country outside the Convention, full consular legalisation, and then certified Georgian translation. Which chain applies to your documents depends entirely on where they were issued, and that is set out in the apostille chain for Georgia and what certified translation means here. Diplomas and transcripts are usually apostilled by a different authority from the one that handles police records, which is where students lose weeks.
The address and insurance requirements are each their own small task. Address registration needs the owner's consent documents, and the insurance a permit requires is a different question from the minimum coverage every visitor now has to carry at the border.
Applications are filed through the Public Service Hall network and decided by the Public Service Development Agency, under the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons.
The term, and renewing through the programme
A study permit follows the course. It is issued for the duration of the studies and renewed as the programme continues rather than granted once for a five-year degree and forgotten.
Every renewal is a deadline, and the deadline is the same one that governs every other permit in Georgia. An application must be lodged at least 40 calendar days before your current lawful stay expires, and inside that window it is refused review rather than processed late. A student who files at day 30 with a perfect file gets the same outcome as one who files nothing. How to count backwards from the right date is set out in the 40-day filing rule, and what a renewal actually asks for is in the renewal guide. Each application, first or renewal, is assessed under the same procedural rules on granting residence permits.
Put every renewal date in a calendar at the start of the programme, with a reminder well before the 40-day mark. Term dates, exams and travel home have a way of arriving at the same time as filing deadlines.
Studying and working are separate permissions
This is the part that has changed, and the part that costs students money.
A study permit authorises you to live in Georgia in order to study, and it carries no work authorisation with it. Since 1 March 2026 a Special Labour Permit has been required in three situations: to employ a non-Georgian national in Georgia, to trade as an Individual Entrepreneur with Georgian clients, and to apply for a work or IT residence permit. Students are not on the exemption list, which runs to investment permit holders, permanent residents, diplomatic and consular staff, accredited foreign journalists, refugees and asylum seekers. A student is none of those, so a Georgian job is decided on the general rules.
Part-time work alongside study is possible. Where the employer is Georgian it is a second application, not something the study permit already covers, and it has to be in place before the first paid day.
Three points people get wrong:
There is no small-amount exception. Where a Georgian employer is paying you, no minimum appears in the rules below which the requirement falls away, so treat it as applying from the first lari. A few hours of tutoring for a Tbilisi school, a paid internship and a weekend shift are all inside it.
A foreign employer or client does put you outside it. Remote work billed to a company or a client abroad is not what the permit reaches, so a student freelancing for clients back home needs nothing beyond the study permit already in hand.
The penalty runs both ways. Working without authorisation carries a GEL 2,000 fine on the worker, about $765, and GEL 2,000 separately on the employer, doubled on a repeat. That second half is why a Georgian employer will often decline to hire a student who cannot show a labour permit. The wider consequences, including what an enforcement finding does to your residence permit, are in the penalties for working without authorisation.
The labour permit has its own government fee, GEL 200 for a decision in 30 calendar days or GEL 400 for 10 working days, roughly $75 and $155. We handle it through the Special Labour Permit service where a student is taking a Georgian job alongside their studies.
One thing worth knowing if you already had a Georgian employer before 1 March 2026: your employer has until 1 January 2027 to regularise foreign staff already on the books. Nothing published addresses whether somebody inside that window can renew a residence permit before the labour permit is in place, so we sequence the labour permit first rather than test it.
Do the study years count toward permanent residence?
Yes. Time held on a study residence permit is time held on a temporary residence permit, and it accrues toward the ten years that lead to permanent residence exactly like work, property or family time. Nothing about the category discounts it.
What costs students the accrual is not the category. It is the gap.
The ten years must be continuous, and a gap between one permit expiring and the next being granted resets the count to zero rather than pausing it. A student who finishes a long medical degree, spends a summer out of status and then starts on a work permit has not lost a summer. They have lost the whole degree, and they start again from the grant date of the new permit. What breaks a chain and what survives one is the whole subject of continuous residence in Georgia, and the destination itself is covered in the permanent residence guide.
For a student on a long programme this is not an abstraction. A medical degree is a substantial fraction of the decade, and protecting it costs nothing except filing on time.
The graduation transition
The study permit ends with the programme. Nothing converts, nothing extends automatically, and the institution does not do any of this for you.
Here is the sequence, and why the timing is unforgiving:
- Decide the destination before your final term. Work, family, property or leaving. Each has a different file and a different lead time.
- File the Special Labour Permit first if the answer is work. The residence permit application needs it in the file, so the order is fixed and getting it wrong costs a full cycle.
- Then file the work residence permit. The work residence permit route sets out what the employer has to evidence, including the turnover requirement that applies to them rather than to you.
- Watch the 40-day rule against your study permit's expiry, not against your graduation ceremony. Those are different dates and it is the first one that governs.
There is a further sequencing point that catches people. Once a labour permit is approved, the window for filing the residence permit behind it is short and finite. The closing date is on your own approval notice, and it is not the same thing as the 30-day decision period you paid for. Read your notice for the date rather than assuming.
Realistically the labour permit and work residence permit sequence runs six to eight weeks end to end, before any document chain from abroad. Starting roughly two months before you finish is comfortable. Starting after graduation is not, and the summer-shaped hole that produces is the single most common way a graduate loses a decade of accrual in Georgia.
If the destination is not work, the same lead time applies. A family reunification permit through a spouse, a property permit, or an independent route each needs its own evidence assembled while you still hold status.
For students enrolled at an accredited Georgian institution. Runs for the duration of study and can transition to a work permit afterwards.
See what it costs, from $380
What it costs
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Our fee, full service | from $380 |
| Government fee | GEL 300 to GEL 600, about $115 to $230, by processing track |
| Residence card | GEL 60, about $23 |
| Annual renewal, our fee | from $230 per year |
| Special Labour Permit, if you will work | GEL 200 or GEL 400 government fee, plus our fee |
The government fee decides your decision date rather than your chances. GEL 300 buys a decision on the 30th calendar day, GEL 450 the 20th, GEL 600 the 10th. Those are fixed in lari by law, so the lari figure is the one to work from and the dollar equivalent drifts with the rate.
Our study residence permit service covers the eligibility check through to card collection, including certified translations of academic documents, and how this route compares against every other on price is in the cost of a Georgian residence permit.
Bringing family with you
A spouse and minor children can apply through family reunification alongside a student, subject to the accommodation and means requirements that apply to any temporary resident sponsor. Those requirements are the constraint rather than the relationship, and a student sponsor has to evidence them like anybody else.
The dependants' permits rest on yours, which makes the graduation transition a household problem rather than a personal one. If your permit lapses, theirs lapse with it, and the whole family restarts a continuity count rather than one person. Sequence the renewal or the route change early enough that everybody moves together, and check what each person's file needs against the document requirements by route.
Key takeaways
- The study permit rests on enrolment at an authorised institution. Confirm the authorisation before you accept an offer.
- It runs for the length of the programme and is renewed as the programme continues, with the 40-day filing rule applying to every renewal.
- It carries no work authorisation. A Georgian job needs a Special Labour Permit, and there is no small-amount exception once one is paying you.
- Hiring a foreign national without one is a GEL 2,000 fine on the employer and GEL 2,000 on the worker, doubled on a repeat.
- Study years count toward the ten years for permanent residence. A gap resets that count to zero rather than pausing it.
- The graduation transition is not automatic. Labour permit first, then work residence permit, roughly six to eight weeks end to end.
- Start about two months before you finish. Starting afterwards is how graduates lose years of accrual.
- Our fee starts at $380, plus GEL 300 to GEL 600 in government fees and GEL 60 for the card.
Frequently asked questions
Who can get a study residence permit in Georgia?
Any foreign national admitted to a Georgian higher education or professional institution that holds authorisation for the purpose, with proof of enrolment, tuition payment and means to support themselves. Authorisation of the institution is the eligibility test, so confirm it directly before accepting an offer.
How long does a Georgian study residence permit last?
For the duration of your studies, renewed as the programme continues rather than issued once for the whole degree. It ends with the programme, which is why the next permit has to be in motion before your final term rather than after your results.
Can I work in Georgia on a student residence permit?
It depends on who is paying you. A job with a Georgian employer needs a separate Special Labour Permit, because students are not on the exemption list, and that is a second application to be in place before your first paid day rather than after. Freelancing for clients abroad while you study needs nothing beyond the study permit itself.
Is there a minimum amount of work before I need a Georgian labour permit?
No minimum appears in the rules, so where a Georgian employer is paying you, treat the requirement as applying from the first paid day. A few hours of tutoring, a paid internship or a weekend shift are all inside it. What decides the question is the source of the money rather than the number of hours, and work billed to clients abroad sits outside the requirement whatever its scale.
What happens if a student works in Georgia without a labour permit?
A fine of GEL 2,000, about $765, on the worker, and GEL 2,000 separately on the employer, doubled on a repeat finding. The employer exposure is the reason many Georgian businesses will not hire a student who cannot produce a labour permit, and an enforcement finding also puts the residence permit itself at risk.
Do study years in Georgia count toward permanent residence?
Yes. Time on a study residence permit accrues toward the ten years for permanent residence exactly like any other temporary permit. What breaks the accrual is a gap in status, and the badly timed graduation transition is the most common source of one.
How much does a Georgian student residence permit cost?
Our fee starts at $380, plus a government fee of GEL 300 to GEL 600, roughly $115 to $230, depending on which processing track you choose, plus GEL 60 for the card. Renewals through the programme start at $230 a year with us.
Can I stay in Georgia after I graduate?
Yes, but nothing happens automatically. If the plan is work, you need a Special Labour Permit and then a work residence permit, a sequence that runs about six to eight weeks. Start it roughly two months before you finish, and count the 40-day filing deadline from your permit's expiry rather than from graduation day.
Can my spouse and children join me on a Georgian study permit?
A spouse and minor children can apply through family reunification alongside you, subject to the accommodation and means requirements that apply to any temporary resident sponsor. Their permits rest on yours, so a lapse in your status takes theirs with it.
What documents does a Georgian study residence permit need?
An acceptance letter from an authorised institution, proof of enrolment and tuition payment, evidence of means, a passport valid well beyond your intended stay, health insurance covering Georgia, proof of legal entry and a registered Georgian address. Foreign documents need apostille or consular legalisation, then certified Georgian translation.
