Georgia work permit 2026: rules for the self-employed

Short version: since 1 March 2026 a foreign national in Georgia can neither take a job nor run a business without a separate authorisation - the right to labour activity. You apply through the labour ministry portal; the fee is 200 GEL for a 30-calendar-day review or 400 GEL for 10 working days. But the law was amended in April and some remote workers were carved out, so the first question is not how to get the permit but whether you personally need one.

Checked 23.07.2026. This is general information, not legal advice. The rules are new and still moving: the founding resolution came on 20 February 2026, the law itself has been amended twice since (15 April and 25 June) and the granting rules three times, last on 9 July. Before applying, open the Georgian text on matsne.gov.ge: the English translation lags and does not yet reflect the June amendment. Take anything unusual to a local lawyer. A mistake costs a 2,000 GEL fine plus trouble at your next residence permit renewal.

What the right to labour activity is

The procedure comes from government Resolution No 70 of 20 February 2026, in force since 1 March. Permits are issued by the State Employment Support Agency under the Ministry of IDPs, Labour, Health and Social Affairs, whose tower stands in Tbilisi’s Didube district.

There are two categories, and which one you fall into decides the whole procedure:

• Labour immigrant - a foreigner working under contract for a Georgian employer. The permit is tied to that employer and that position, and the employer files.
• Self-employed foreigner - a sole trader, independent contractor or freelancer with activity in Georgia. The permit is tied to a field of activity, and you file for yourself.

The word “partner” has been struck from that second definition - from the law in April, from the rules on 9 July. Setting up a Georgian company, holding a share or contributing capital no longer trigger the requirement on their own; the obligation flows from work, not ownership.

Holders of permanent residence are outside the requirement. For everyone else, sole trader registration or an ordinary year of visa-free stay no longer carries a right to work: it is now a separate administrative status you must prove.

Who the April amendment took out of scope

This is the most useful part. Law No 1509 of 15 April 2026 added a list of exemptions to Article 1(4) of the law, and Resolution No 321 of 9 July carried it into the rules. No permit is required, among others, for:

• refugees, people under international protection and registered asylum seekers, diplomats, accredited foreign journalists, holders of an investment residence permit;
• people covered by a Georgian international treaty, and holders of a special residence permit issued at the written initiative of a government member;
• short-term professional activity from a government list - since 9 July no more than 4 months in total per calendar year, with the host obliged to register the person in the system in advance (free of charge);
• work for state institutions and state-participated enterprises;
• those working entirely remotely for a Georgian employer where that work requires no entry into Georgia;
• those providing services to a non-resident where the work relates to that non-resident’s activity outside Georgia;
• members of the management and audit bodies of category I, II and III enterprises;
• people engaged in the conservation, restoration and rehabilitation of cultural heritage monuments;
• from 1 September 2026, holders of the right to temporary stay under Article 60 of the Law on the Legal Status of Foreigners (a narrow category: those who cannot be removed by law).

Note the wording: the exemption is not “I work from home” but “the work requires no entry into Georgia”. Someone who works remotely for a Georgian company yet lives in Tbilisi most likely does not fall under it.

The grey zone: sole traders with foreign clients

Until July the exemption described only the client (a non-resident) and that client’s activity (outside Georgia), but said nothing about where the provider is registered. Some consultants (ExpatHub.GE, Gegidze, iakobadze.ge) read it as freeing a sole trader who works only for the foreign market; others (PB Services, legal-vista, IBCCS) countered that the trigger is not the client’s address but the person’s presence and activity in Georgia.

Resolution No 321 of 9 July narrowed it: the exemption gained a proviso that it does not apply “where this foreigner is a sole trader and needs a residence permit to stay lawfully”. So a sole trader on visa-free stay is covered; one who needs a residence permit is not. The proviso sits only in the subordinate rules, not the law, and no agency clarification has been published, so a borderline case still merits an hour of advice.

How a sole trader or freelancer applies

Applications go through the portal labourmigration.moh.gov.ge, filed by the foreigner in person, not a proxy. Then comes a video interview with the agency. Since 9 July the rules spell out its format: the conversation is in Georgian or English, you may bring an interpreter, and the passport used for the application must be produced in the original. It is not a formality: this is where they check there is something real behind the activity.

The numbers worth knowing before you start:

• 200 GEL for the standard review, up to 30 calendar days.
• 400 GEL for the expedited route, up to 10 working days.
• The statutory cap on this service fee is 500 GEL, so anything above that should raise questions.
• The first permit runs 6 months to 1 year; in the IT sector, up to 3 years.
• Renewals: up to a year at a time for the first five years, longer stretches after that; the renewal fee is the same 200 GEL and you file 30 calendar days before expiry.
• A self-employed permit lapses if the holder leaves Georgia for more than 6 months in a row.

The paperwork changed on 9 July too. A self-employed applicant is now asked for a Revenue Service certificate showing annual turnover of at least 50,000 GEL per foreign national (35,000 for education and healthcare); someone about to start out submits a detailed business plan. If the company or sole trader was registered less than three months ago, no turnover certificate is required, and non-VAT payers replace it with other certificates. Document lists on relocation blogs contradict one another, so take the final one for your case from the portal. How the tax regime behind that turnover works is covered separately in our guide to tax for sole traders in Georgia.

How an employer hires a foreign employee

From March a labour market test applied here: the company posted the vacancy on the state employment portal worknet.moh.gov.ge, kept it there for 10 working days and justified in writing any rejection of the candidates the agency put forward.

On 9 July this block was rewritten. In the new sub-paragraphs (a) to (c), posting the vacancy gives way to agreeing the employer’s annual quota: a company planning to hire more than 5 foreigners in a calendar year, or where foreigners exceed 5% of staff, must agree the quota with the agency at least 10 working days before applying and confirm, by Revenue Service certificate, annual turnover of at least 50,000 GEL per foreign national (35,000 for education and healthcare). Unused quota may be cut the next year. Caveat: the consolidated rules on matsne still showed the March version on 23 July, so check the amendment itself.

The test does not apply to everyone. Outside it are companies with international-company or innovative-start-up status; international experts from the National Center for Education Quality Enhancement (those who authorise universities and accredit programmes); positions paying over 15,000 GEL a month that require specialised higher education; and, since March, foreigners for whom a state institution has argued in a separate petition that the work matters specifically from that person. The logic is plain: the state is filtering mass low-skilled hiring, not expensive specialists.

The jobs with a quota of zero

Alongside the rules, the government set annual quotas by profession, and three of them are zero: couriers and delivery, taxi drivers and passenger transport, and tour guides. Zero means zero: a permit for that work cannot be issued at all. Mountain and ski guides have a quota, but a small one, around 200 a year.

That matters for anyone who planned to drive or lead tours for a living. Until 2026 it was routine; now it is closed, and there is no arranging it on the spot: an inspection fines both the worker and whoever hired them.

Deadlines: 1 May has passed, 1 January is ahead

The reform has two transition dates, both anchored to 1 March 2026:

• Self-employed people already operating on 1 March had to obtain the permit and get their paperwork in order by 1 May 2026.
• Labour immigrants on the ministry’s electronic register on 1 March must obtain both the permit and the matching residence permit by 1 January 2027.

The first date had already passed when this was checked, with no confirmation it was extended. For a sole trader who still has not applied, there is nothing left to wait for, and the file is worth backing up with evidence that the activity is genuine: contracts, invoices, statements from a Georgian bank account. If you do not have an account yet, see our guide to opening a bank account in Georgia.

What breaking the rules costs

The fines are a ladder and climb fast. Working without a permit costs 2,000 GEL for a first offence, 4,000 for a second and 12,000 after that; the employer pays the same. Changing employer or activity without re-issuing the permit is penalised separately at the same 2,000, 4,000 and 12,000 GEL. An employer who fails to report a contract change is fined 1,000, 2,000 or 6,000 GEL.

The money is not the end of it. The violation surfaces at your next residence permit renewal, and serious cases run to removal: the agency refuses a permit once removal proceedings have started, and appealing that refusal does not halt them. From 1 September 2026 appealing the fine will likewise stop suspending a labour immigrant’s removal. That is why “work now, regularise later” is a poor plan: the permit is granted in advance and does not work retroactively.

What comes after the permit

The right to labour activity alone does not give you grounds to live in the country; it is the first of two steps. After it:

• if you are outside Georgia, a category D1 immigration visa is issued within 30 days of the permit;
• if you are already in Georgia, you file within 10 days for a work residence permit or an IT specialist residence permit;
• if the work is entirely remote and needs no entry, this step does not apply.

Requirements for the work residence permit have a life of their own. Resolution No 317 of 9 July 2026 (a different act from No 321) confirmed the same employer turnover thresholds and added a concession for very new companies: an enterprise under three months old, hiring no more than three foreigners and applying for the first time, may attach its own certificate instead of the standard one, but the residence permit is then granted for 6 months. Residence permit types, fees and timings are covered separately in our guide to the Georgian residence permit in 2026.

What changes on 1 September, and what is still unclear

Public write-ups skipped the June amendment (Law No 1815 of 25 June 2026, published 29 June), so it has to be cross-checked against the Georgian text directly. By the amendment annotations there are two changes, both in force 1 September 2026. Article 1 gains one more exemption (sub-paragraph “ო”), for holders of the right to temporary stay under Article 60 of the Law on the Legal Status of Foreigners. Article 14 gains a clause (annotations: paragraph 3³) under which administrative proceedings over the fine no longer suspend either the consideration of removing a labour immigrant or the enforcement of a removal decision already taken.

What remains unanswered:

1. The status of a sole trader with entirely foreign clients. The July proviso narrowed the dispute, but there is no official clarification from the agency, and it is nowhere to be seen in the text of the law.
2. Amendment No 321 in full. There is no public analysis, and the consolidated text on matsne lags behind - the figures above are taken straight from the amendment.
3. Refusal statistics for the first months of the system are not public, so there is nothing to gauge the agency’s real strictness by. The practical takeaway: budget for the full review period and do not treat the expedited 400 GEL as a guarantee of the outcome - it buys speed, not a decision.

One more thing people forget: the work permit and tax residency are separate counters. Spend 183 days in the country within any 12 months and you are a tax resident regardless of your permit status; that rule is unpacked in how long you can stay in Georgia visa-free.

The short version

• Since 1 March 2026 working or running a business in Georgia as a foreigner requires a separate permit; sole trader status alone does not grant the right to work.
• The fee is 200 GEL for 30 days or 400 GEL for 10 working days, filed at labourmigration.moh.gov.ge; the self-employed apply themselves and sit a video interview.
• The April amendments carved out remote workers of Georgian companies - but only where the work needs no entry into Georgia - and those serving non-residents. Since 10 July a sole trader who needs a residence permit for lawful stay is excluded from that exemption.
• The quota is zero for couriers, taxi drivers and tour guides.
• The fine for working without a permit is 2,000 GEL, rising to 4,000 and 12,000 for repeats.
• Deadlines: 1 May 2026 for the self-employed (now passed); registered labour immigrants must hold the permit and residence permit by 1 January 2027.