How To Get A Georgian Residence Permit (2026)

How to Get a Georgian Residence Permit in 2026

• Most nationalities can stay in Georgia 365 days visa-free without any permit, so the first question is whether you actually need one yet.
• The property route now requires a verified market value of $150,000, up from $100,000 since March 1, 2026, confirmed by an accredited appraiser.
• The bigger 2026 change is the new Right to Work permit, which is separate from your residence permit and which most genuine remote workers no longer need after the April amendments.
• The $300,000 investment permit gives you five years instead of one and skips the work permit regime entirely.
• Six years of temporary residence gets you eligibility for permanent residence, but visa-free time does not count toward that clock.

Georgia spent most of the last decade as the easiest country in the region to move to. You landed, you stayed a year, nobody asked questions. That framework changed twice in 2026, once in March and again in April, and a lot of the advice still circulating online describes rules that no longer exist.

Here is what the process actually looks like now.

First, check whether you need a permit at all

Georgia grants visa-free entry for up to 365 days to citizens of 98 countries, including all EU member states, the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea. That is a full year, not 90 days, and it costs nothing.

Two things changed. Since January 1, 2026, tourists entering Georgia must hold health and accident insurance with minimum coverage of 30,000 GEL. Residence permit holders are exempt. And more importantly, being in Georgia under the visa-free regime no longer confers the right to work or run a business, as of March 1, 2026.

So if you are here to look at property, spend a summer, or figure out whether Tbilisi suits you, the visa-free year is still the right tool. If you plan to stay past a year, work locally, or build a path toward permanent residence, you need a permit. Visa-free time earns you nothing toward permanent residence later.

The property route: $150,000 since March 1, 2026

This is the route most of our buyers use, and the number went up this year.

Georgia raised the minimum real estate investment for a temporary residence permit from $100,000 to $150,000, effective March 1, 2026, following amendments passed in June 2025. It is the third increase in the program’s history. The previous $100,000 floor had held since July 2019, when it rose from $35,000.

How it works in practice:

• The property must be non-agricultural. Apartments, houses and commercial units all qualify, and the permit extends to your spouse and children under the same investment.
• Market valuation is what counts, not the price on your contract. You can combine multiple properties to reach the threshold.
• The valuation report must come from an appraiser accredited by the Unified National Accreditation Body. Expect to pay $100 to $300 and wait two to five working days for the report.
• The permit runs one year and renews annually as long as you keep the property.

The white frame trap. The appraiser values the property in its current condition. A white frame unit is not a finished unit, and it will not appraise the way a renovated one does. If you are buying at or near the threshold and the unit is white frame, talk to the appraiser about timing before you commit, or budget for finishing work first. We have seen buyers land $10,000 short on a valuation and have to scramble.

If you bought before March 1, 2026, you are grandfathered. Ownership registered before that date keeps the old threshold, including at renewal, as long as the property stays in your name. Sell it, and any new application meets the $150,000 rule.

At $150,000 you have real options across Tbilisi, and considerably more in Batumi. Our apartment listings and houses both have inventory in that band, though the mix has shifted since March as buyers moved up to clear the new floor.

The work route and the new Right to Work permit

This is where 2026 got messy, and where most outdated guides will get you in trouble.

From March 1, 2026, foreigners without permanent residence who are employed by a local employer, do paid work in Georgia, or are self-employed need a “right to work” approved by the State Employment Support Agency. Working without it carries a 2,000 GEL fine for the employer, employee or self-employed worker. Registering an individual entrepreneur or an LLC is no longer enough on its own. U.S. Embassy

The first version of the rule swept up thousands of people it was never aimed at. Parliament corrected it on April 16, 2026, exempting remote workers and international entrepreneurs, and formally recognising short-term professional activity as permit-free. Georgia

You are exempt if:

• You provide services to a non-resident person or company whose activities are conducted outside Georgia. This is the exemption written for the standard remote worker or freelancer with foreign clients.
• You work entirely remotely for a Georgian employer in a role that needs no physical presence in the country.
• You hold an investment residence permit, or permanent residence.

You are not exempt if you serve the Georgian market. A café, a shop, a local consultancy, a contract with a Georgian client: that is local labour activity and it needs the permit.

Self-employed people apply themselves through labourmigration.moh.gov.ge, employers apply on behalf of staff, and fees are 200 GEL standard or 400 GEL expedited.

One caveat worth knowing before you plan around old numbers. The April 16 amendments also removed the 50,000 GEL company turnover requirement that had underpinned work residence permit sponsorship for years, with replacement requirements to be set out in a Government Ordinance published later. Until that ordinance lands, anyone quoting you a firm turnover figure is quoting the old law.

The $300,000 investment permit

Bigger cheque, better terms. A qualifying investment of $300,000 in Georgian real estate or a Georgian business gets you the investment residence permit, which is a route to permanent residence. It gives a five-year permit rather than a one-year renewable, and it was not touched by the March 2026 threshold change. Holders are explicitly exempt from the new Right to Work regime.

If you were already planning to buy at that level, the five-year permit and the work exemption are worth more than the annual renewal cycle you get at $150,000.

The other routes

Family reunification, study, and the IT permit are all live options. Georgia introduced a dedicated three-year IT residence permit in September 2025 for tech professionals. Study permits work, with one catch worth flagging: time spent on a study residence permit does not count toward the six years required for permanent residence, and neither does time spent receiving medical treatment.

How the application actually works

First-time applications are submitted from inside Georgia, at the Public Service Hall. You have to be physically present to submit biometrics. Renewals of an active permit can be done online from abroad, with hard copies delivered to the immigration office within 10 days of the application.

Fees and timing scale with how fast you want it. The permit itself costs 300 GEL for 30-day processing, 450 GEL for 20 days, or 600 GEL for 10 days. The residence card is separate: 60 GEL on the 10th working day, up to 150 GEL if you want it the same day.Apply no less than 40 days and no more than 90 days before your current legal stay expires. The 40-day rule does not apply to real-estate-based permits. After approval, apply for your residence card within 30 days.A first permit is typically issued for six to twelve months.

Getting to permanent residence

Permanent residence is available after six years of holding a temporary residence permit and residing in Georgia, or after five years for investment permit holders. It is issued indefinitely. Citizenship generally requires ten years of continuous residence, so treat Georgia as a good place to live rather than a fast passport.

The clock only starts when your first permit is issued. The year you spent here visa-free does not count.

The thing people get wrong

A residence permit is not a tax document. Tax residency begins after 183 days in Georgia in any continuous 12-month period, with or without a residence permit. Those are two separate systems and you can trigger one without the other. If your tax position matters, get advice from an accountant before you optimise for the wrong thing. Our guide to property tax for foreign owners covers the ownership side.

Where we fit

We are a real estate agency, not immigration lawyers, and you should treat this as an orientation rather than legal advice. What we do handle is the part that comes first: finding a property that clears the $150,000 valuation, checking condition against what an appraiser will actually sign off on, and getting the registration done cleanly so the residence application is a formality rather than a fight.

If you are buying with residency in mind, tell your agent that upfront. It changes which units make sense. Reach us through the contact form on homesearch.ge and our team speaks English, Georgian, Russian, Arabic and Farsi.