Georgian residency, mapped to your situation.

What you get#

Five areas cover most foreign professionals' Georgian residency questions. Visa & Entry for short stays. Legal Residency for those building Georgian operational presence. Tax Residency for those planning Georgian fiscal status. Work Permit for the narrow set of activities that require one. Citizenship for the long-path question.

Most foreign professionals don't need all five. The right combination depends on operational profile, intended time-in-Georgia, and whether Georgian tax residency or eventual citizenship is on the table. Residency Scoping is the entry-point engagement that maps your situation to the path or paths that matter.

What we do#

We map your situation through a structured Residency Scoping engagement, scope the specific application work needed, then handle the application end-to-end through Power of Attorney where the residency type allows. Some steps need you in Georgia — every first residence permit is filed while you are in Georgia and its residence card is requested in person, and HNW Tax Residency has its own initial certificate collection — and we surface those during scoping rather than discovering them mid-application.

Sub-pages cover the specific mechanics and per-application timeline for each area.

The five areas we work through#

Visa & Entry — Residency Scoping €290#

Visa-free entry for citizens of the countries on Georgia's visa-free list — including the EU, the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, Israel and Japan — with stays of up to one year for almost all of them. C-series and D-series visas for specific entry purposes. The C-5 short-stay-with-remote-work visa added in April 2026 for non-resident-employer remote workers. For most 1-year-visa-free clients no application is needed at all. The €290 Residency Scoping confirms your path in writing; visa application support, where you need it, is quoted separately.

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Legal Residency — Work Residence from €1,130#

Four pathways: property (market value above USD 150,000), work (IE-grounded under Article 15(a)), investment (a five-year permit with a route to an indefinite residence permit), and IT residence (Article 15(l)). You need to be in Georgia when the first application is filed and in person for the residence card; extensions are filed under Power of Attorney. Work Residence is from €1,130 in Happy Georgia fees, with government charges paid separately; property, investment and IT residence services are quoted individually.

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Tax Residency — from €540#

Two routes: standard 183-day rule (filed via Power of Attorney for clients reaching 183 days through business or lifestyle presence; from €540) or HNW Tax Residency Programme (three-layer framework: global wealth or income, USD 500,000+ of assets in Georgia, Georgian connection; pricing on request). Independent of legal residency.

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Work Permit — from €290#

Some activities are exempt under Article 1(4) of the Law on Labour Migration, among them work for non-resident clients, management roles at larger companies and short-term professional visits. Each ground has conditions. We assess your position and document the basis at €290, the entire engagement when an exemption applies. Where the right to work is needed (employment by a Georgian employer, or self-employment no exemption covers), the full application engagement runs from €1,130 plus GEL government fees.

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Citizenship — pricing on request#

A path that opens after 10 consecutive years of lawful residence, with language, history and law tests, a work, property or business tie to Georgia, and a decision by the President. Georgia applies single citizenship. Most foreign professionals engaging Georgia for tax residency or business operations do not pursue citizenship; the realistic near-term question is usually about Tax Residency or Legal Residency. For multi-decade Georgian commitment plans, we coordinate the residence-to-citizenship pathway.

Read more about Citizenship →

Not sure which applies?#

Most foreign professionals start with the Visa & Entry framework while assessing whether Georgian operations warrant legal residency. Legal Residency fits when you're building Georgian operational presence (property, work, investment, IT). Tax Residency is the separate fiscal-status question — independent of legal residency. Whether a founder needs a Work Permit depends on the activity: some are exempt, others need the right to work, and the Residency Scoping tells you which. Citizenship is a long-path question typically explored after years of legal residency.

For a structured walk-through, the Residency Scoping engagement is the entry point. Itemised Happy Georgia pricing is on /pricing/residency; government charges are separate and confirmed for your case.

Why Happy Georgia#

Independent advisory. No tied immigration services, no commission for steering you toward residency engagements you don't need. Our recommended path for some readers is "your existing visa-free regime + a documented work-permit exemption where one applies + no residence permit needed yet" — the actually-correct minimal answer when that's what fits, even though it means smaller engagement.

Foreign clients only. Our entire practice is foreigners setting up in Georgia. Every engagement starts from your own situation: where you live and pay tax, who your clients are, and what you plan to do in Georgia.

Fixed pricing, no tourist tax. Residency Scoping across the five areas is fixed-price. Specific engagement pricing depends on the path that fits — residence permit, tax residency certificate, work permit application support, C-5 or D-series visa support are each separately quoted. We quote in EUR, we honor the quote, no surprises later.

Frequently asked questions#

Which residency areas matter for my situation?#

Depends on three factors: how much time you intend to spend in Georgia annually, whether Georgian tax residency is on the table, and whether you're building operational presence (company, employment, property). The Residency Scoping engagement maps your situation across the 5 areas in 60-90 minutes and surfaces which specific applications are warranted. For most foreign professionals 2-3 of the 5 areas turn out to be relevant.

Are legal residency and tax residency the same thing?#

No. Legal residency is a residence permit granted by the State Services Development Agency (SDA), giving the right to live in Georgia legally. Tax residency is a fiscal status: it arises under the standard 183-day rule, which counts qualifying days in Georgia, with certificates issued by the Revenue Service, or is granted under the HNW Programme by the Minister of Finance on the Revenue Service's recommendation. You can hold one without the other. Foreign professionals frequently become Georgian tax residents while holding their original country's legal residence; foreign professionals also commonly hold Georgian residence permits without triggering Georgian tax residency.

How does Residency interact with Company Setup, Banking, and Services?#

Residency commonly follows Setup but isn't tied to it. IE registration creates the basis for the work-grounded legal residency pathway under Article 15(a). Banking is independent for personal accounts; corporate banking for foreign-owned LLCs requires substance which sometimes overlaps with residency planning.

What's the typical timeline from first engagement to residency permit in hand?#

Varies by pathway: 1-3 months for work residence (IE-grounded) at the fast end; 3-6 months for investment residence at the slow end. Property and IT residence typically 2-4 months. The Residency Scoping engagement surfaces the realistic timeline for your specific path.

What about HNW Tax Residency planning over multiple years?#

HNW Programme positioning often takes multi-year planning — building Georgian-located assets to satisfy Layer 2 (USD 500,000+), establishing Georgian connection through residency or income, and timing the application to align with the Revenue Service review window. Initial assessment is part of Residency Scoping; the multi-year structuring is scoped separately.

Ready to map your situation#

Book a free consultation. We map your situation across the 5 areas, identify which applications matter for your specific profile, confirm pricing, and schedule the Residency Scoping engagement to formalize the path.