Georgia digital nomad visa: requirements (2026)

Virtually all foreign nationals — including freelancers, self-employed persons, and digital nomads without permanent residency — must now hold a formal work permit issued by Georgia's Labour Ministry; employers must complete a 10-business-day labour-market test before applying. This ends the de-facto permit-free work environment in place since independence and represents the most consequential change for remote workers in Georgia's history.

Employment-based residence permit applicants must now submit a Revenue Service reference letter confirming the sponsoring employer has ≥GEL 50,000 annual turnover per foreign employee; employers must also notify the Service Development Agency within five days of a foreign worker's termination. These are the first enforcement provisions of the June 2025 amendment package to take effect.

A new Digital Nomad Residency Programme created by the June 2025 legislative package entered operation, offering a formal IT-specialist residence permit requiring ≥2 years of IT work experience and ≥USD 25,000 annual income, with income sourced from employers or clients outside Georgia. This replaces the informal 365-day visa-free overstay as the preferred compliant route for remote IT workers.

Laws No 862 and No 863 of 26 June 2025 simultaneously amended the Labour Migration Law and the Law on Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons, authorising mandatory work permits (effective March 2026), a Digital Nomad Residency Programme (effective September 2025), and heightened residence-permit oversight. This package marks Georgia's formal shift from a deliberately open immigration model to a compliance-oriented one.

Putin's partial mobilisation announcement triggered a second large wave of Russian emigration to Georgia; combined with the first wave after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, over 1.45 million Russian border crossings were recorded in 2022 — many from the IT sector. The surge cemented Georgia's reputation as an open tech hub but strained residency services, drove up property prices in Tbilisi, and directly motivated the 2023–2025 tightening of immigration rules.

Georgia launched one of the world's first dedicated digital nomad schemes: a working-visitor programme allowing remote workers from 95 visa-free countries to enter despite COVID-19 border closures, conditional on a minimum 180-day stay commitment and proof of foreign income (approx. USD 2,000/month). Nearly 3,000 applicants registered within weeks; the programme was later phased out as the broader 365-day visa-free stay made a formal scheme redundant.

Following EU Council Regulation of 27 February 2017, Georgian biometric-passport holders gained 90-day visa-free access to the Schengen Area. While primarily an outbound benefit for Georgians, this milestone confirmed Georgia's European-integration trajectory and reinforced Tbilisi's appeal as a base for Western remote workers who could travel freely between Georgia and the EU.

This landmark statute superseded fragmented earlier regulations to establish Georgia's modern residence-permit framework, codifying visa-free entry for ~95 nationalities and creating distinct permit categories (work, study, family, investment). A June 2015 amendment extended the maximum visa-free stay to 365 days, making Georgia one of the world's most open destinations for long-term remote work without a formal permit.

Georgia's Law on Information Technology Zones granted registered IT companies 0% corporate income tax on profits from supplying software and IT services to clients outside Georgia. By allowing foreign nationals to own and direct Virtual Zone companies remotely, this was Georgia's first formal policy instrument positioning the country as a tax-efficient base for international digital entrepreneurs.