Moving to Georgia: A First-Steps Guide for Expats

Georgia does something almost no other country does: it lets nationals of a long list of countries turn up and stay for up to a year without a visa, no application, no fee. That single policy has made it one of the most accessible places on earth to try living abroad, and it explains why Tbilisi has a disproportionately large population of freelancers, founders and people who came for a month.

The country behind that policy is more interesting than the tax-and-visa conversation suggests. Georgia has its own alphabet, a language related to nothing else, a winemaking tradition going back some eight thousand years, and the High Caucasus - genuine, serious mountains - a few hours from the capital.

Staying: the visa-free year and actual residence

The visa-free stay of up to a year is genuinely available to many nationalities and is what most people use initially. Two things to understand about it: it is a stay permission, not residence, so it builds towards nothing in permanent-status terms, and it does not by itself give you the right to take local employment.

For anything longer-term you want a residence permit. The common categories are work residence based on employment or entrepreneurial activity, study, family reunification, and property-based residence for those purchasing real estate above a value threshold. Applications go through the public service agency and processing is comparatively fast and unbureaucratic by regional standards.

Permanent residence and eventually citizenship follow qualifying periods, with language and history requirements for naturalisation, and Georgia is restrictive about dual nationality - it is not generally permitted without a specific exception, which is an important consideration if you were thinking long-term.

The Georgia visa section covers the current picture, and the general architecture is in visas and residence permits explained.

Tax: the small business status

This is the other reason people are here, and it deserves accurate treatment.

Georgia offers a small business status for registered individual entrepreneurs, under which a low turnover-based rate applies to gross income up to an annual threshold. That is a genuinely attractive proposition for a freelancer or consultant, and it is straightforward to register.

The conditions matter, though. Certain activities are excluded from the status, there is a turnover ceiling above which the rate changes, and you must actually register and file - it is a regime, not an absence of obligations. Get it set up with a Georgian accountant rather than from a forum post; the fee is small and the mistakes are not.

Employment income is taxed at a flat rate. Georgia has historically operated on a broadly territorial basis for individuals, with foreign-source income of resident individuals often outside the net - an area where the details and their application matter enough to warrant local advice.

And the universal caveat: your home country may still tax you if you have not properly ceased residence, and Americans file regardless. See tax residency explained and the Georgia tax section.

Note also that the visa-free year and tax residence are separate questions - spending a year in Georgia may well make you tax resident there, which is the point people most often miss.

Banking and money

Georgian banks are modern, with good apps, multi-currency accounts and a historically welcoming attitude to foreign customers. Compliance requirements have tightened in recent years, so bring thorough documentation of identity, address and source of funds - but this remains one of the easier places in the region to get banked. See how to open a bank account abroad.

The currency is the lari, which floats and has moved meaningfully at times, so if you earn in one currency and spend in another, the points in transferring money abroad without losing it to fees apply.

Healthcare

Georgia has a state health programme providing a defined basket of services, with private insurance widely used to supplement it. Standards in the better private clinics and hospitals in Tbilisi are reasonable and costs are low by European measures; provision outside the capital and in the mountain regions is considerably thinner.

Most foreign residents hold private insurance, which is inexpensive. For complex conditions, treatment abroad is not unusual, so evacuation cover is worth having.

Details in the Georgia healthcare section, and the general logic in health insurance for new arrivals.

Cost of living, housing and the recent squeeze

Georgia has been genuinely inexpensive - rent, food, wine, transport and services all well below European levels - and it remains so relative to the EU.

An honest note on recent history: the arrival of a very large number of people from Russia and Belarus following 2022 pushed rents in Tbilisi and Batumi up sharply and quickly, and while the market has adjusted, prices in the desirable central districts are well above where they were. Plan on current figures rather than the ones that made Georgia famous.

Foreigners may buy property with few restrictions, other than on agricultural land, which is one of the more open regimes anywhere and is the basis of the property residence route. Use your own lawyer - see buying property as a foreigner.

Tbilisi has the employment, the international community and a genuinely characterful old city. Batumi on the Black Sea is a resort city with a distinct seasonal rhythm. Kutaisi and the smaller towns are cheaper and quieter, and the mountain regions - Kazbegi, Svaneti, Tusheti - are spectacular and remote, with roads that close in winter.

Language, culture and the geopolitical note

Georgian uses its own script and belongs to its own language family, with no relationship to Indo-European languages - it is a serious undertaking to learn. Russian is widely understood, particularly among older generations, though its use carries political weight and is worth being thoughtful about. English is increasingly common among younger people and in Tbilisi’s international sector.

Georgian hospitality is famous and not exaggerated - the supra, the traditional feast with its toastmaster, is a genuine institution and one of the more memorable ways to be welcomed anywhere.

It is also fair to state plainly that Georgia’s situation is shaped by regional geopolitics: parts of its internationally recognised territory - Abkhazia and South Ossetia - are outside government control and occupied, and the country’s political direction has been the subject of significant domestic contention. None of this makes Tbilisi unsafe for a resident, and all of it is worth being informed about rather than arriving unaware.

What catches people out

Treating the visa-free year as residence. Assuming the small business status covers any activity. Rents that have risen from the figures that made the country famous. Winter road closures in the mountains. And Georgia’s position on dual nationality if you were thinking about the long term.

For neighbouring comparisons, moving to Turkey is directly south and shares a border, moving to Bulgaria is the nearest EU option across the Black Sea with its own flat-tax pitch, and moving to Romania completes that regional picture.

Detail on residence routes, the tax statuses and costs is in the Georgia country guide and the cost of living section. For current registration and small business status experiences, the digital nomads and remote work forum is where this is actively discussed.