How to move to Georgia 2026: relocation steps

Moving to Georgia in 2026 is less about packing and more about sequence. You land on a lawful stay, cover the entry rules that apply to your status, get a place to sleep and a bank account, then pick a residence-permit ground before your days run out - and you watch the separate 183-day tax clock the whole time. This page is the section map: what to do in what order, and which deeper guides to open for permits, visa-free counting and banking.

Checked on 01.09.2026. This is general reference information, not legal or tax advice. Immigration, tax and insurance rules change, and Georgia reworked several of them in 2025-2026. Confirm your own case on sda.gov.ge (residence), rs.ge (tax), geoconsul.gov.ge (entry) and with a local lawyer or tax adviser before you file anything.

Start with lawful stay, not with a permit fantasy

Most people who relocate from visa-free countries begin as visitors, not as residents. Citizens of countries on Georgia’s visa-free list may stay up to 365 days per entry under the MFA consular rules - that’s a country-list rule, not a promise to every passport. If your nationality needs a visa, you start from a different gate entirely; don’t borrow someone else’s timeline.

Two clocks run from day one:

• Immigration clock. Your entry stamp and the length of stay allowed for your status. Leaving the country (a real border crossing) usually starts a fresh visitor period; moving between Georgian cities doesn’t.
• Tax clock. Physical presence of 183 days or more in any continuous 12-month period ending in the current tax year makes you a Georgian tax resident under the Tax Code (as summarised by PwC and OECD). Visa-free days count - the basis of entry doesn’t exempt you. What does move the count is the purpose of the stay: the Tax Code leaves out days spent in Georgia for treatment or leisure, so a holiday month and a working month are not the same thing. A residence card doesn’t create tax residency by itself, and long presence can create it without a card.

The full counting traps - what counts as leaving, visa runs, and how 183 days flips status - live in Georgia visa-free stay. Who needs a visa at all is in Georgia visa.

Health insurance for tourists, not for everyone

From 1 January 2026, under the Law of Georgia on Tourism, tourists entering Georgia must hold valid health and accident insurance. The Georgian MFA embassy notice is clear on the floor: coverage of at least 30,000 GEL, policy in Georgian or English (paper or electronic), covering the full stay including arrival and departure dates. Georgian or foreign insurers are both acceptable. Diplomatic and a few treaty categories are exempt.

Read that word carefully: tourist. The published rule isn’t “every foreign visitor” and isn’t “anyone who lands at TBS”. Relocators who enter on tourist status fall under it. If you already live in Georgia on a residence permit you are arguably not a “tourist” under the tourism law’s own definition - but note that Decree 602 lists its exemptions exhaustively, and permit holders are not among them: the five are diplomatic and special visa holders, holders of diplomatic, official, service or special passports, accredited staff, people covered by an international agreement, and drivers working international road haulage and passenger transport. Until that list changes, carry the policy rather than argue the definition at the border. Border practice can still ask for proof, so keep a policy that matches your actual status and dates.

While you’re still entering and staying as a tourist, buy cover that meets the 30,000 GEL floor for every day you’ll be in the country. Extend it if your return flight slips. Once you hold a residence permit, health cover is a practical need and often a document banks or landlords ask for - but that’s a different conversation from the tourism-law entry check.

Housing that survives a permit file

You need an address that works for daily life and for paperwork. Short Airbnb stretches are fine for the first weeks; they’re weak evidence when an agency or a bank asks where you live. A written long-term lease with your name on it is the tool most relocators eventually need.

City choice isn’t only lifestyle. Tbilisi concentrates Public Service Hall capacity, banks and English-speaking clinics. Batumi works for sea and remote work, with its own queues and seasonality. Kutaisi is cheaper and quieter, and you’ll travel more for government errands. For deposits, contract quirks and real asking rents, use long-term rental in Georgia - this page won’t invent street prices.

Open a bank account before the heavy filings

A Georgian account is how you pay rent, receive remote income, and - for some permit grounds - show funds or turnover. Bank of Georgia and TBC are the usual picks for newcomers; requirements vary by nationality and have tightened, so confirm at the branch before you go. Passport, local number and sometimes proof of address are the common ask.

Do this early, not the week your permit file is due. Income letters, employer turnover certificates and “money on a personal account” language in SDA checklists all assume you can produce Georgian banking paper. The practical walkthrough is opening a bank account in Georgia.

Choose a residence-permit ground before day 325

Visa-free time isn’t a residence permit. If you plan to stay, work for a Georgian employer, run a local business or stop living on stamp resets, you’ll need a permit from the Public Service Development Agency (Public Service Hall / SDA).

SDA’s own rule is not advice but an instruction: you must apply 40 calendar days before your lawful stay expires. It does not apply to every ground - SDA exempts the lifelong, investment, special, domestic-violence, short-term and IT permits, plus electronic filings made from abroad. Three of the five grounds listed below sit in that exempt set, so check yours before you plan around the buffer. The standard fee track for many temporary permits is 300 GEL for a decision on the 30th calendar day, 450 GEL for the 20th, 600 GEL for the 10th - confirm the current table on sda.gov.ge before you pay.

Common grounds relocators actually use (full lists and documents are on SDA and in the permit guide):

• Work / business. Employment or entrepreneurial activity under Georgian rules. From 1 March 2026, the right to work for foreigners is a separate step before many work and IT residence filings - details in the residence permit 2026 guide.
• Property (short-term). Ownership of non-agricultural immovable property with market value over USD 150,000 in GEL equivalent (valuation by an accredited assessor). That threshold’s been the live SDA figure since the March 2026 rise from USD 100,000.
• Investment. Investment of at least USD 300,000 or ownership of property over that market value - a five-year track with turnover or holding conditions toward indefinite status.
• IT. Temporary IT residence for qualifying specialists and small IT businesses: among the published bars are at least two years’ experience and annual remuneration of at least USD 25,000 (or GEL equivalent), plus the labour-right step where required.
• Family / study / spouse pathways. Separate packs; spouse-of-citizen rules changed on 1 September 2026: the spouse of a Georgian citizen now gets a dedicated permit issued for one year, extended two years at a time up to five years total, and only then a permanent permit if the marriage still stands. The same amendment set up an interagency commission that may interview spouses separately and inspect the home. If your case predates that date, check the current SDA wording before you assume it applies.

Base pack almost always includes an application form, passport copy, proof of lawful stay, electronic 3x4 photo and fee receipt. Everything else depends on the ground. Don’t file “roughly” - refusals can come with thin explanations.

Watch the 183-day tax line while you do all of the above

Immigration status and tax residency are different systems. PwC’s Georgia individual summary and the OECD residency note both track Article 34 of the Tax Code: you’re a resident for the tax year if you were actually in Georgia for 183 or more days in any continuous 12-month period ending in that year. Days already used to establish residency in a prior period aren’t double-counted for the next one.

What that means for a move:

• You can become a tax resident on visa-free status alone.
• Holding a residence permit without enough days doesn’t, by itself, make you a tax resident.
• Certificates that prove residency for treaty purposes go through the Revenue Service (rs.ge); processing times vary, so don’t leave a foreign tax deadline to the last week.

This navigator won’t invent your worldwide-income consequences. If you earn remotely, run a Georgian sole trader, or sit near a dual-residency conflict, get personal tax advice and read the specialised pages in the relocation hub.

A practical order that usually works

1. Confirm entry basis for your passport (visa-free list vs visa) and how long that stay lasts.
2. Buy tourist insurance that meets the 30,000 GEL floor for your planned dates if you enter as a tourist.
3. Arrive, get a local SIM, and book short housing while you hunt a real lease.
4. Open a bank account once you have enough address and ID paper for the branch.
5. Pick a permit ground and gather apostilles/translations early - foreign documents eat weeks.
6. File at SDA, with the 40-day buffer in mind if your ground is one it covers; keep proof of lawful stay current while you wait.
7. Track day 183 on a calendar separate from your stamp calendar.

Skip a step and you’ll feel it: people who reverse bank and permit waste a month; people who ignore 183 discover tax residency as a surprise; people who treat tourist insurance as optional discover it at the desk.

Where to go next

• Deep permit grounds, fees and the March 2026 work-right change: Georgia residence permit 2026.
• Day counting and the 183-day tax trigger: visa-free stay.
• Account opening in practice: open a bank account.
• Lease mechanics: long-term rental.
• Section overview: relocation.

Georgia rewards people who treat rules as dated checklists, not as forum folklore. Print your own timeline, verify each number on the official page the week you act, and use the specialist articles above when a single step needs the full document list.