If you are an expat conducting entrepreneurial activity or working locally, you have probably heard about Georgia introducing a new system for tracking and controlling labour migration. Now that the system is close to becoming operational, it is becoming clearer what changes the regulations will bring.
Our office has been covering this topic since the amendments to the Law on Labour Migration were first announced in the summer of last year. Back then, the picture was incomplete. We understood that permits would be mandatory. We also knew there’d be visa and residence implications. But how all of this would work was still a mystery. Now, with Government Ordinance No. 70 (dated February 20th, 2026) published, we finally have the full picture.
To any expat worker or entrepreneur reading this: this is a long read, but please don’t skip it. The consequences of getting this wrong could be significant, including being unable to legally conduct business in Georgia.
Getting things right, however, ensures that you stay in full compliance with the Government’s requirements and are able to seamlessly continue operating your business or conducting activities in Georgia.
Affected Persons
The new system applies to foreign nationals without a permanent residence permit who are either:
- Employed by a Georgian business (labour immigrants) – working for a local employer, whether physically in Georgia or remotely from abroad; or
- Self-employed in Georgia (self-employed foreigners) – this includes Individual Entrepreneurs (IEs), partners in Georgian companies, independent contractors, traders, service providers, and anyone else conducting business activity in Georgia for financial gain.
The law also provides a list of foreign individuals to whom the new regime does not apply. These are:
- Permanent residence permit holders
- Investment residence permit holders
- Individuals who work in a diplomatic mission, a consular institution, or for a legal representation of an international organization
- Refugees, a person with temporary protection
- Asylum seekers
- Journalists accredited by a foreign mass media outlet operating in Georgia
- Persons to whom, according to an international treaty of Georgia, a different rule of labour arrangement applies
Other than the above, to carry out entrepreneurial activity or work locally in Georgia, every foreign individual will need to meet the following requirements:
- They need to obtain the new Right to Work (also known as the “Labour Permit” or “Authorization”); AND
- They have to hold a D1 visa or a residence permit.
The New Labour Permit
The new Labour Permit is an authorization to carry out entrepreneurial activity or work locally in Georgia. For self-employed individuals, it is granted with regard to a specific speciality and labour/entrepreneurial field; while for employees of Georgian businesses, it is granted with regard to a specific employer and position.
Consequently, the primary criteria for granting a Special Labour Permit are:
- The current demand in the Georgian labour market (for employed individuals); and
- The field of economic activity (for self-employed individuals).
Ordinance No. 70 has already established annual quotas for specific professions:
- Courier services (e.g, delivery), passenger transportation (e.g., taxis, drivers), tourist guide services – 0
- Mountain, alpine, and ski guide services – 200
This list may change annually.
Required Immigration Procedures
Affected persons need to first apply for the Right to Work, and then to safeguard a D1 visa or a residence permit.
The procedure is different for self-employed individuals and employees of Georgian businesses. More details are provided below.
Nevertheless, in both cases, there are some common rules.
Right to Work: Eligibility and Processing Time
Affected persons are entitled to apply for the Right to Work if they are present in Georgia on a legal basis. If they have overstayed, entered Georgia illegally, or are in Georgia based on an extension, they will not be eligible.
The processing time for the Right to Work cannot exceed 30 calendar days, even if the State Employment Support Agency (hereinafter referred to as the “Agency”) requests additional/corrected information or documents. The same applies to the request for the renewal of the Right to Work.
The government fees are:
- Standard processing (30 calendar days): 200 GEL
- Expedited processing (10 business days): 400 GEL
- Renewal (30 calendar days): 200 GEL
D1 Visa & Residency: Deadlines and When It Is NOT Mandatory
Once a foreign individual is granted the Right to Work, they are obliged to:
- Request a D1 visa within 30 calendar days if they are not in Georgia
- Request a work/IT residence permit within 10 calendar days if they are in Georgia
The above is not mandatory if:
- The applicant holds any type of residence permit; OR
- The applicant carries out labour/entrepreneurial activities completely remotely, and they need not enter Georgia to carry out these activities.
The Self-Employment Path
Self-employed individuals need to apply for the Right to Work on their own. This is done through the Labour Migration portal.
The application should include the following information/documents:
- Basic personal information, including the information about the applicant’s residence permit (if applicable)
- Identification number of the registered business
- Information regarding the applicant’s professional experience (education, profession/qualification, experience, specialised skills, additional knowledge)
- Information regarding the field, as well as the description and place of business activities
- For existing businesses, a turnover document issued by the Revenue Service
- For new businesses, a detailed business plan (planned investment and annual turnover, as well as required resources and financial security documentation)
Following the submission of the application, the applicants need to have a video call with the government representative to confirm the application. The recording is then attached to the application.
Finally, the government fee is paid online, and the bank receipt will also be attached to the application.
The decision will then be made within 10 business or 30 calendar days, depending on the paid government fee.
Hiring Foreigners: The Implications for Georgian Employers
Employees of Georgian businesses need to apply for the Right to Work through their employer.
However, even before the Georgian business can request the Right to Work on behalf of the foreign employee, they need to complete a few steps:
- Publish information about their job opening in the Labour Market Management portal.
- If the Agency is unable to offer a suitable candidate for the published job opening within 10 business days, the employer can proceed with requesting the Right to Work for their foreign employee.
- If the Agency offers a candidate for the published job opening, the employer should either accept or reject the candidate within 3 business days. If rejected, the employer needs to inform the Agency about this decision and provide subsequent justification within the said 3 business days. Following this, the Agency has 3 business days to accept or reject the employer’s decision. If accepted, the employer can proceed.
Once the above is completed, the Georgian business and the foreign employee need to sign an employment agreement for a fixed period of time. The agreement needs to be bilingual. The employer can then submit the request for the Right to Work on behalf their foreign employee.
The application should be submitted through the Labour Migration portal. It should include the following information/documents:
- Basic information about the employer and the employee, including the information about the employee’s residence permit (if applicable)
- Information about the position and its requirements (education, profession/qualification, experience, specialised skills, additional knowledge)
- Information regarding the employee’s professional experience (education, profession/qualification, experience, specialised skills, additional knowledge)
- The employment agreement
- Consent of the foreign employee, certified with a qualified electronic signature or electronic stamp
The government fee is paid online, and the bank receipt will also be attached to the application.
The decision will then be made within 10 business or 30 calendar days, depending on the paid government fee.
Right to Work: Approval, Validity, and Renewal
Once approved, the Right to Work is valid for:
- 3 years for self-employed IT specialists and IT employees of Georgian businesses
- 6-12 months for other self-employed individuals and employees of Georgian businesses
The Right to Work takes effect:
- From the moment of obtaining a D1 visa or an IT/work residence permit, if the applicant doesn’t have a residence permit.
- From the moment the Right to Work is granted, if the applicant already has a residence permit.
The extension of the validity period of the Right to Work shall be requested at least 30 calendar days prior to the expiry. This applies both to self-employed individuals and employees of Georgian businesses.
Once renewed, the Right to Work is valid for:
- 3 years for self-employed IT specialists and IT employees of Georgian businesses
- no more than 1 year for other self-employed individuals and employees of Georgian businesses in the first 5 years of labour/entrepreneurial activities, and 1-5 years thereafter
Businesses Just Starting Out: The 10-day Problem
As you can probably tell by now, the glaring issue with the new system lies within the obligation for foreign nationals who are already present in Georgia to apply for residence permits within 10 days of receiving their labour permits. According to the new regulations, in the event of expiration or failure to obtain such a residence permit, the special labour permit will be revoked.
At first glance, this is not a huge problem: if you’ve been living in Georgia and/or working under some type of self-employment/business status, you should be able to qualify for a work residence permit. If you’ve made some investments in Georgia, that could translate to property investment or general investment permits.
However, this requirement becomes a real issue for individuals who are just starting their economic activity in Georgia. The most popular path to residency is the work residence permit, which requires the sponsoring business (or the self-employment status) to show at least 50,000 GEL declared revenue in the last 12 months (per person sponsored). The 10-day rule makes it impractical for new arrivals to get this specific immigration status to be able to hold onto their labour permits.
We have a good reason to believe that this complication resulted from an oversight on the Government’s part in the process of devising the new regulations, and it will likely be resolved in practice over time. For now, there are a few key considerations that may help individuals go around this restriction:
- If you are an IT professional, you have it better than others. IT residence permits can be obtained without proving turnover earned under a Georgian setup. However, other requirements apply: You need to prove 2 years of experience in IT and an annual income of 25,000 USD made in at least 2 payments.
- Apply for a D1 Visa before you enter Georgia. This is the primary option for expats considering a move to Georgia. However, for the visa application, a sponsoring business must first exist, which in most cases means that the registration process will need to be initiated remotely. Please keep in mind that the 1-year visa-free regime that applies to nationals of 95 countries remains in force without any change.
- Make necessary investments and get respective residence permits before starting business activity. Due to the financial commitment required (the lowest possible investment threshold being 150k USD for property investment), this is likely to be the least popular option for most individuals seeking refuge under Georgia’s favorable business environment, but it is nevertheless a workable path towards maintaining a labour permit.
- Apply for permanent residency based on family ties with a Georgian citizen. While this may not be possible for many, permanent residency will exempt you from this law altogether.
Enforcement and Other Considerations
With all these changes, one of the key questions to address is how strict the Georgian Government will be in enforcing these regulations, particularly in cases of individuals who do not occupy any position on the local market and already enjoy a fairly relaxed immigration process. This is a question that cannot be answered until the labour migration system is actually put into practice. Officially, based on the new regulations, the Agency will start activating enforcement mechanisms on May 1st, 2026.
If history is any indication, the likelihood of tight enforcement is not extremely high. It also makes very little sense from an economic perspective: there is little for the Government to gain by restricting expats from doing business, investing, and paying taxes, particularly in cases where the local labor market is not affected. Therefore, it is entirely possible that a few months from now, the practical reality of working/doing business in Georgia for most expats will not be too dissimilar to what it’s currently like.
Another matter is to assess whether Georgia is doing something unique with the new system. It is true that the effortless registration experience is likely going away. Moreover, there are genuine unresolved issues about how this system will work in practice, and we’ve been honest about those throughout this article. But it’s worth remembering that virtually every jurisdiction that has attracted a significant wave of mobile professionals has eventually introduced more formal frameworks around them. Estonia, Portugal, Thailand, the UAE, to name a few.
Georgia is not doing anything unusual by moving in this direction. What matters is how the system evolves, and Georgia has a track record of listening to the business community and adjusting when new rules create unintended friction.
Entrepreneurs’ Perspective: Is This a Dealbreaker?
It is quite clear that the new system introduces some complications that the expat entrepreneurs and workers moving to Georgia did not previously face. However, “complicated” does not equate to “dealbreaker” in our opinion.
Our honest take on the situation is this: for the most part, these changes serve to help the Government keep track of labour migration, and the primary point of that is to ensure that the local labour market is not dominated by non-Georgian nationals. The new system should therefore not be viewed as a major disruption in the long term, or a “dealbreaker” for foreign entrepreneurs and workers who primarily render their services for the benefit of non-Georgian clients/businesses. This is further demonstrated by the fact that the government has directly established quotas for specific professions or specialisations that, in the words of the law, “do not require highly qualified labour.”
For people already established here, the process for obtaining the permit will merely look like an additional administrative step. It is absolutely crucial that individuals belonging to this category apply for their residence permits as soon as they can to make the labour permit acquisition as smooth and seamless as possible.
For people looking to move here, the situation is a bit more complex. The new system introduces a difficult-to-execute business immigration sequence that will be tough to follow. This, however, does not necessarily apply to IT professionals, who can move to Georgia and apply for the IT residency within a 10-day timeframe, provided that they meet the applicable requirements.
It is also worth reiterating that Georgia’s administrative systems have a history of looking more rigid on paper than they turn out to be in practice. This new framework will inevitably be shaped by how the Agency actually implements it over the coming months, and the reality of these changes may end up looking vastly different (and simpler) compared to what it looks like in written form.
Conclusion
Many of our readers are well aware of what Georgia represents in terms of the ease of doing business and offering modern entrepreneurs a place where they can conduct their business freely, easily, and without excessive cost.
We don’t think that the introduction of this system changes that in any major way. The tax regimes, the lifestyle, the financial sector, and the low cost of living – everything remains the same, and just as attractive as before.
For affected individuals, the priority should be to try to navigate the new system and the apparent issues that come with it to the best of their ability. You do this by staying informed and getting the best advice you can, instead of looking for reasons to give up or walk away. So, if you’ve built something real here, or you’re seriously considering doing so, a new permit application is not the thing that should stop you.
How Can ExpatHub Help?
The law comes into effect starting from March 1st, and its enforcement from May 1st. And as always, ExpatHub is ready to assist with this new change.
Due to the novelty of the ordinance, we have not introduced any processes for this. Join Our Waitlist so we can contact you once applications for the Labour Permit open.
We will be hosting a webinar on this topic soon. Keep an eye on our social media and e-News for updates. Stay tuned!
