Moving to Georgia: the complete, date-checked guide
A whole year, visa-free, no forms — the easiest landing in Europe's orbit. Working there is the part that changed in 2026.
An ordinary Tuesday: breakfast of khachapi adjaruli (the boat-shaped cheese one), work from a café in Vera as church bells and construction compete, a marshrutka-or-cable-car afternoon up to Mtatsminda for the view, and supra-style dinner with friends where the tamada's toasts structure the evening and the bill structures nothing — it's tiny.
Rent from ~$400/moYour money goes ~126% further than in the USEntry line: A listed passport + insurance ≥30,000 GEL — that's the whole testEmergency: 112
1-bed from ~$400/mo in Tbilisi outside the prime centre (indicative, checked Nov 2026) · Cost anchors are indicative — the residency figures below are the verified ones.
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Georgia is the loophole that isn't: a written-down, legal one-year visa-free stay for most of the world's passports, in a capital that costs half of Toronto, with a 1% small-business tax that made it a remote-work magnet. 2026 added the two rules that now define it — mandatory visitor insurance from January, and a labour-permit regime from March that separates 'living here on foreign income' from 'working here'. Nothing about Georgia is hard; it's just newly specific. Come for the year, buy the insurance, keep foreign work foreign, and let Tbilisi argue its case.
The residency routes
The 1-year visa-free stay
For most passports: just arrive. A full year, no application, no income test — live on foreign income, explore, and decide. It's a stay, not a residence permit: it doesn't itself confer work rights or count as 'residence' for longer statuses.
The line: A listed passport + insurance ≥30,000 GEL — that's the whole test
Working: Entry ≠ work rights (since Mar 2026). Pure remote work for foreign clients sits in a still-settling exemption zone — if you need a residence permit to stay, expect the labour permit rules to apply to you. Confirm your exact case at labourmigration.moh.gov.ge before relying on it.
How long: 1 year per entry.
Leads to: Nothing automatically — the residence permits below are separate applications, filed in-country.
Source: Ordinance No. 255 (as amended 24 Feb 2026) / geoconsul.gov.ge · checked Nov 2026 · secondary · ⟳ The country LIST is amended by ordinance (last: Feb 2026) — check your passport is still listed before booking a one-way ticket.
Residence via property (US$150,000)
Buy non-agricultural Georgian property worth at least US$150,000 (accredited appraisal, registered in your name) for a 1-year renewable residence permit. The threshold ROSE from $100,000 on 1 Mar 2026 — pre-March buyers and renewals keep the old basis; first-timers don't.
The line: US$150,000 of Georgian real estate (from 1 Mar 2026)
Working: The property permit is a residence right; local work still runs through the labour-activity permit below.
How long: 1 year, renewable while you own the property.
Leads to: Renewals — the property route alone isn't the PR escalator; the $300k investment residence is.
Source: Residence-by-property rules (Mar 2026 threshold) · checked Nov 2026 · secondary · ⟳ USD threshold set by law — it moved in 2026 and can move again; verify at sda.gov.ge at purchase time.
Investment residence (US$300,000)
Invest US$300,000 (property or other qualifying investment) for a 5-year residence permit — and permanent residence after those 5 years if the investment is maintained.
The line: US$300,000 invested in Georgia
Working: Permanent residents are exempt from the labour-activity permit — the end state of this route includes full work rights.
How long: 5-year permit.
Leads to: Permanent residence after 5 years with the investment held; citizenship generally after 10 years' residence with Georgian language/history.
Source: Investment residence rules — sda.gov.ge · checked Nov 2026 · secondary · ⟳ USD threshold set by law — verify at filing.
Work residence (labour-activity permit first)
Since 1 Mar 2026 it's two stages: FIRST the 'right to labour activity' from the State Employment Support Agency (via labourmigration.moh.gov.ge) — employers normally advertise the vacancy 10 working days first; exemptions include very high salaries (>15,000 GEL/mo) and some statuses. THEN the D1 visa / work residence permit. Self-employed: tied to your field, with a Revenue Service turnover benchmark of 50,000 GEL per foreign person (35,000 in education/healthcare). Working without it: 2,000 GEL fine.
The line: Right-to-labour-activity approval, then a work residence permit
Working: This IS the work right — employer permits tie you to that employer+position (1 year); self-employed permits tie to your field of activity.
How long: 1 year, renewable.
Leads to: Time toward the long residence clocks; PR is mainly reached via the investment route or ~10-year general grounds (details vary — verify at a Public Service Hall).
Source: Georgian MFA notice on the Mar 2026 labour-migration changes · checked Nov 2026 · official · ⟳ Brand-new regime (Mar–Jul 2026 amendments, incl. the remote-work exemption scope) — this is the record most likely to change in the next re-check. Workers already in Georgia transition by 1 Jan 2027.
→ Test these routes against YOUR income in the planner
Who can just show up?
Two 2026 changes define Georgia now: (1) since 1 Jan 2026 every visitor must carry health+accident insurance of at least 30,000 GEL for the entire stay; (2) since 1 Mar 2026, entering is no longer the same as being allowed to WORK — local work needs a 'right to labour activity' permit (below). Residence permits are applied for in-country at a Public Service Hall — the opposite of the Schengen model.
Health
Must-have insurance: Mandatory for EVERY visitor since 1 Jan 2026 (Law on Tourism Art. 12 + Decree 602): health + accident cover of at least 30,000 GEL (≈US$11,500) for the entire stay, in Georgian or English. Entry can be refused without it. Local compliant policies run ≈2–4 GEL/day (~379 GEL/year).
Public system: There is no free public entitlement for foreigners to slot into — Georgia's system is insurance/market-based, and residents buy private cover. Tbilisi's private clinics are modern and inexpensive by western standards; care thins quickly outside the capital.
Private costs: Beyond the budget compliant policies above, fuller expat policies price like other regional plans (≈US$1,000–3,000/yr by age/tier, estimate). Cash-pay private care in Tbilisi is cheap enough that many residents insure mainly for hospitalisation.
Services that can help
- Compare expat health insurance (partner link coming soon)
Safety — can you walk the streets at night?
Tbilisi is a late-night walking city — the Old Town, Rustaveli and Vera are busy and well-lit past midnight, and violent street crime against foreigners is rare. The honest caveats: badly-lit underpasses late at night, drunk-and-loud bar districts (use the same instincts as any capital), and a national homicide rate (2.0/100k, 2019 figures) in Canada's neighbourhood rather than Europe's safest tier. Batumi and the towns are calmer still.
Official advisory (Government of Canada, checked Nov 2026): Take normal security precautions (with regional advisories — avoid all travel to South Ossetia and Abkhazia) — check the live advisory.
Homicide rate: 2 per 100,000 (2019, UNODC via World Bank — latest available; treat as indicative).
Money & tax
Tbilisi is the cheapest capital-city life on this list: country-average costs ~55% below US levels, rents from ~$400, and a food culture (khachapi, khinkali, natural wine) that treats eating out as a civic right. Imported electronics and cars are the exception — they're the expensive part.
Tax: Tax residency at 183 days. The famous lever is the Individual Entrepreneur small-business status: 1% tax on turnover up to 500,000 GEL — still available, but for foreigners it now coexists with the 2026 labour-activity permits, so structure it with local advice rather than a blog post.
Banking: The pleasant surprise of the region: TBC and Bank of Georgia open full accounts for foreigners quickly (historically passport-only), with excellent apps and multi-currency (GEL/USD/EUR) accounts. Bring source-of-funds documents for larger transfers.
Services that can help
- Send money internationally for less (partner link coming soon)
- Land connected: travel eSIMs (partner link coming soon)
First steps
- Buy compliant health+accident insurance (≥30,000 GEL, whole stay) — since Jan 2026 this is an entry requirement, not a travel tip. ⏱ 20 minutes online · ≈379 GEL/yr for local policies
- Decide your lane for the year: pure visa-free stay on foreign income, or formalise (property/work permits) — the paperwork is all in-country either way. ⏱ An evening · Free
- If you'll seek local work: line up the employer first — the labour-activity permit is employer-anchored and starts before the residence permit. ⏱ Weeks of lead time · 200–400 GEL state fee
Questions, answered
Can I really just… stay for a year?
If your passport is on the Ordinance 255 list (Albania, Canada, US, UK, Germany, Australia, South Africa all are), yes: enter, stay 365 days. Since Jan 2026 you must hold ≥30,000 GEL of health+accident insurance for the stay, and since Mar 2026 working locally needs a labour-activity permit.
Is there a digital nomad visa?
No — 'Work Remotely From Georgia' was a 2020 COVID scheme, long discontinued. The modern setup is the visa-free year + foreign clients + insurance, with the remote-work corner of the new labour law still being clarified in 2026.
Did the property threshold really double?
It rose from US$100,000 to US$150,000 for first-time applications on 1 Mar 2026 (existing holders/renewals keep the old basis). The 5-year investment residence sits at US$300,000 and leads to permanent residence.
What does the 1% tax actually cover?
Individual Entrepreneur small-business status: 1% of turnover up to 500,000 GEL/yr. It's a tax status, not a work permit — post-2026, foreigners basing themselves in Georgia should confirm how the two interact in their case.
Is the Philippines treated the same?
No — Filipino passport holders are not on the 1-year list. It's an eVisa in advance, or 90-in-180 visa-free if you hold a qualifying visa/residence (EU/US/UK/Canada/Australia and others).
Sources
Figures checked Nov 2026. MovePath is guidance, not immigration legal advice — confirm with the consulate before committing money.