While some 42,000 foreign nationals are officially registered to work in Georgia, estimates place the number of illegal migrant workers closer to 200,000. Such is the conceptual framework behind a recent push to update regulations and tighten control over the labor market and the Parliament of Georgia’s June 2025 adoption of amendments to the Laws On Labor Migration and On the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons. The laws will officially kick in on March 1, 2026, but the transition period will last until January 1, 2027, leaving time to prepare a strategy.
The heart of the matter: a snapshot
- Foreign nationals without permanent residence planning to work in Georgia will now have to obtain a work permit. Exceptions apply to refugees, asylum seekers, employees of diplomatic missions, journalists of foreign media, and individuals with investment residence permits, who will not require a separate permit. It has yet to be established whether individuals working remotely from Georgia for clients abroad may also be exempted.
- Work permits will be required for all non-residents who work for a local employer or are involved in the local labor market, so the law will also affect remote employees of Georgian startups and the thousands of individual entrepreneurs currently based in Georgia.
- The work permit will serve as the basis for obtaining a type D1 work visa or a labor residence permit. As a subcategory of the latter, the amendments introduce a new three-year residence permit for IT workers.
- You do not need a labor residence permit if you have another valid reason for entering or staying in Georgia; however, if you intend to start working or engage in business activities, you must obtain either a D1 visa (note that citizens of countries with visa-free access to Georgia are generally exempt from this requirement) or a work residence permit.
- The amendments also raise (for the third time) the entry threshold for a residence permit for real estate. After March 1, 2026, the market value of the propety (one or more) will have to exceed USD 150,000 (previously USD 100,000).
- Much of the text focuses on fines, control measures, and deportation.
Who will need a work permit
Where the old version of the Law On Labor Migration only had eyes for labor migrants, it has now expanded its horizons to cover self-employed foreign nationals, understood as any non-resident without a residence permit carrying out activities in Georgia for financial gain. So whether you work for yourself as an individual entrepreneur, big, small, or micro, or a Georgian company or other foreign nationals without a residence permit, the law is looking at you.
Simply put, if you are working in any way while in Georgia or providing services of any kind, you will be either a migrant worker or a self-employed foreign national, both of which are obliged by law to obtain the so-called right to labor activity.
According to the first clarification received from the authorities, this requirement will extend to foreigners who have opened a sole proprietorship in Georgia but provide services abroad. Whether that will in turn affect foreign managers founding and directing Georgian companies remains to be seen, though at present, we would incline to believe it will not.
The starting point for obtaining this right is a work permit issued by the Ministry of Georgia for Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Labor, Health and Social Protection (which for simplicity’s sake we will call the Ministry of Labor, though some also call it the Ministry of Health). The right to work is also connected to the D1 visa for entry into the country and/or a residence permit. As we wrote above, not everyone will need a visa, but everyone will need a residence permit.
How work permits will be issued
Besides applying in person at the House of Justice, it will also be possible to apply online through the portal of the Ministry of Labor, originally created for businesses to add their non-resident employees to the registry. The technological and regulatory framework should be finalized by March 1, 2026.
So far, relatively little is known about the process:
- Companies hiring a migrant worker will have to apply to the Ministry of Labor for permission (after concluding an employment contract with their future employee).
- Self-employed foreign nationals will apply to the Ministry of Labor themselves.
The processing period is 30 days, and the maximum price provided for by the law is GEL 500 (USD 185). After the application has been approved and you’ve got your permit, a separate application to prolong your stay (assuming you still want to) will have to be made 30 days before your current permit expires.
The Ministry of Labor reserves the right to refuse to grant a work permit. This is also new: The state couldn’t previously refuse, but now inaccuracies in the documents submitted, late submission, and the applicant’s profession itself can all serve as reason for refusing to grant a work permit. It is safe to assume that in the coming days the authorities will come out with a list of professions closed to foreign nationals.
Self-employed professionals will have to provide information about the work they do, and providing other services than those specified may result in their losing their permit, as will the termination of a contract, expiration of a visa or residence permit, or their absence from Georgia for 6 months or more.
There is an exception to the last point, with the Ministry of Labor clarifying that “labor permits for foreign nationals will indicate if they are working entirely remotely”. I.e., remote employees (including sole proprietorships) who do not plan to visit Georgia will be able to obtain a work permit but “will not be able to use this right to work on the territory of Georgia“.
So who actually needs a D1 visa and residence permit?
The first lot of questions stirring up the Internet were about Georgia’s visa-free regime for the citizens of almost 100 jurisdictions, many allowed to stay in the country for up to a year. And although the new amendments actually abolish the existing right to work without a visa (i.e., without a permit), it does not follow from the law that a D1 work visa will be required to enter the country.
We see room for the following scenarios:
- Foreign nationals availing themselves of the existing visa-free regime (such as those from the former CIS, many countries in the Middle East, North and South America, and Europe) and finding themselves in Georgia may then apply for a work permit.
- Foreign nationals not benefiting from a visa-free regime (such as individuals from India, Pakistan, Myanmar, and Nigeria, among others) will have to first obtain a work permit and then apply for a D1 visa.
- There is an exception to the second scenario: Travelers with a visa or residence permit from a Tier 1 or 2 country listed in government Decree No. 256 will not require a D1 visa for entry and may apply for a work permit here on the spot as well.
The amended text of Article 13 of the Law on Labor Migration emphasizes that foreign nationals wishing to work and engage in entrepreneurial activity will have to have a work permit and “a labor residence permit or any other form of residence permit provided for by Georgian legislation“.
“Any other” probably means the new IT residence permit (something we’ll write about separately) and investment residence permits. Such would appear to be the new reality, visa-free or not.
Obtaining a D1 visa and residence permit
The law established rules for those categories of foreign nationals who need a work visa and residence permit. As you may recall, you must first request a work permit and in case of approval:
- Apply for a D1 visa within 30 days of receiving the permit outside Georgia.
- Apply for a labor or IT residence permit within 10 days from the date of issuance of the permit if already in Georgia.
The requirements remain unchanged for a labor residence permit. You will need to submit:
- A document confirming labor activity (an agreement with an employer or registration as an Individual Entrepreneur).
- A certificate stating that their salary/income will not be less than five times the minimum subsistence level in Georgia (in other words, not less than about GEL 1,500 – USD 550).
- Companies that employ migrants must also show an annual turnover of at least GEL 50,000 (USD 18,500) for each foreign worker, a number that has been lowered to GEL 35,000 (USD 13,000) for educational and medical organizations.
The Internet is all abuzz right now over whether the turnover requirement will apply to the self-employed. If so, it will actually exclude foreigners from registering micro-businesses with a turnover of up to GEL 30,000, and the difficulty of showing turnover of GEL 50,000 immediately after registering an IE could likely limit the application of the clause to legal entities.
The requirements for a labor residence permit remain unchanged. As for the new IT residence, you will need to confirm work experience of 2 years and an annual salary of at least USD 25,000 (or equivalent in national currency), a good option for both self-employed and salaried workers. The right to a residence permit will also be granted to family members, and the document will be issued immediately for three years, 3-6 times longer than the validity of the usual labor residence permit.
It should be noted that appealing against the decision to refuse to extend a visa or residence permit will now not be an obstacle to the expulsion of a foreigner from Georgia. Therefore, it will be necessary to monitor the validity of documents with special care.
We also inquiried about what would happen to long-term labor residence permits of 5 to 10 years, but the response was indefinite. There is a possibility they will be cancelled, and applications will have to be resubmitted.
Fines for violations
- Any work carried out for remuneration without having first obtained the right to work will result in a fine of GEL 2,000 (USD 740) for both the head of the company that employed a foreign national in violation and the migrant. Where more than one worker is employed, multiple fines will be issued.
- The fine is similar for the self-employed working without first having obtained the right to do so.
- A repeat violation doubles to GEL 4,000.
- A third strike triples to GEL 6,000.
The Labor Inspectorate and Ministry of Internal Affairs will now be responsible to checking the documents of migrant workers and conduct on-site inspections. Obstructing inspections will incur fines of GEL 1,000 to 7,000 (depending on the size of the company). Repeat violations will double in the same way.
Time limit for getting registered
According to the Law On Labor Migration, foreign nationals registered in the unified database of the Ministry of Labor before March 1, 2025, will have until January 1, 2027 to obtain a work permit and corresponding residence permit as required. This will be the transition period, though the law will probably kick in immediately for those who didn’t manage (or simply couldn’t be bothered) to register before then.
At the time this post was written, the database was accessible to legal entities employing foreign nationals only. I.e., the self-employed couldn’t register themselves even if they wanted to.
Unanswered questions
- As follows from the article, unanswered questions remain. So we will wait for further clarification from the Ministry of Labor, sure to appear in the lead-up to March 1, 2026, and come back with updates as we receive them. Add our blog to your bookmarks and check back periodically.
- To register a sole proprietorship or see what your chances of obtaining a residence permit are, book a free consultation at PB Services or leave a request through the form below.
- And just to repeat one more time: On March 1, 2026, the price of a real estate residence permit will increase by USD 50,000 to 150,000. So if you have been planning to buy, do not delay. Our experts can help you choose a property, quickly formalize the transaction, get an independent assessment of the value of the property, and use it to apply for a residence permit.