Work Residence Permit Application Service

An official document allowing a foreign national to live and work in Georgia beyond the visa-free period. It gives legal resident status rather than a tolerated stay, which is what makes banking, tax residency documentation and long-term planning work.

Since 1 March 2026, yes, and it comes first. The residence permit application is not accepted without it. Investment permit and permanent residence holders are exempt; almost nobody else is.

Budget six to eight weeks end to end from a standing start: up to 30 days for the labour permit, one to two weeks of document preparation, then 10 to 30 days for the residence permit decision. Expedited processing compresses the government stages but not the apostille.

Our fee is $450 plus VAT for the residence permit alone, $765 bundled with the labour permit, or $1,070 including Individual Entrepreneur registration. Government fees are separate: $115 for a 30-day decision, up to $230 for 10 days.

You are not obliged to have one, and plenty of people never take one. Most nationalities get 365 visa-free days, resettable on exit, and an Individual Entrepreneur invoicing clients abroad can run on that basis indefinitely. What visa-free status does not do is open full banking, document a tax residency position, or accumulate anything toward permanent residence, and it keeps you doing border runs. Those are the reasons people take the permit rather than an obligation to.

Yes. The self-employed route is how most freelancers and remote workers do it, usually paired with an Individual Entrepreneur registration that evidences the activity and puts you on the 1% tax regime at the same time.

There is no fixed statutory floor for the residence permit itself, though around $610 a month is generally accepted as sufficient. The labour permit is stricter: employers must show $19,000 of annual turnover per foreign employee, and self-employed applicants qualify on $19,000 turnover or income of at least five times the subsistence minimum.

A Georgian residence permit application must be filed at least 40 calendar days before your current lawful stay expires. The Agency refuses to review applications submitted inside that window, regardless of how strong they are. This is the most common avoidable failure in Georgian immigration.

A Georgian work residence permit is commonly issued for six to twelve months on a first application, then renewed annually. The term follows your evidenced circumstances rather than a fixed schedule, so a one-year employment contract tends to produce a one-year permit.

Passport valid six months beyond your stay, a Special Labour Permit, an apostilled criminal record certificate, proof of income or employment, health insurance covering Georgia, proof of a Georgian address, biometric photos and the application form. We build the exact list around your nationality, because the document trail differs by country.

Yes, through family reunification. As a temporary resident you can sponsor your spouse and minor children, and you will need to show adequate accommodation and financial means. We price dependents at $345 each on this route, or in a family package if there are several.

Generally yes, but it needs planning around your existing legal stay rather than assuming. If your current basis expires while you are abroad, re-entry can become the problem rather than the application. Tell us your travel dates at the consultation, not after you have booked.

Refusals can be appealed to court within 10 calendar days of notification, and since the 2025 amendments an appeal no longer suspends enforcement, which makes the deadline real. In practice most refusals are fixable document problems, and the faster route is usually a corrected fresh application rather than litigation. We tell you which of the two you are looking at.

No, and conflating the two is expensive. Tax residency is a separate test, broadly 183 days of physical presence in a rolling 12-month period. A residence permit supports that position with documentation but does not create it, and you can hold one without being tax resident.