Moving to Georgia: the Relocation Checklist for the First 90 Days

The first 90 days in Georgia are a sequence, not a list, because several deadlines run from events you control. Documents for the registry, the Agency and the bank are legalised and translated before you travel, since that takes weeks. In the first week you sign a written lease, because the same address goes on every file. In the first month you register the company or the individual entrepreneur, which is also your tax registration, and obtain the right to work before the first invoice. Inside the company's first three months you file for the work residence permit, within 10 calendar days of the right to work, because a first permit in that window runs six months without turnover proof. The bank file is built alongside. The longer clocks follow: the 183rd day, the renewal, the monthly filings.

Before you travel: the documents that take weeks

1. 1

   Check the passport: validity well beyond the permit period you will ask for. Under six months is a blocker at the Agency, and a renewal abroad takes longer than a flight.

2. 2

   Obtain the home-country documents: a criminal-record certificate where the route requires it, marriage and birth certificates if a family follows, and any diploma or employment letter the right-to-work file may ask for.

3. 3

   Legalise them where they were issued: an apostille for Hague Convention states, consular legalisation through a Georgian embassy for the rest, and often neither where Georgia has a legal-assistance treaty with the issuing country. Certify first, translate afterwards, in Georgia, with every name matching the passport; our article on apostille and legalisation covers the chain.

4. 4

   Prepare the source-of-funds file: six to twelve months of bank statements, payslips, contracts or invoices, and the document behind every large balance. The bank and the Agency read the same file.

5. 5

   If the company is to exist before you land, sign a notarised power of attorney and a passport copy, legalised the same way; the remote process takes two to three weeks in practice.

Week one: an address, and the paper that proves it

A written lease in Georgian, with a translation for you, is the simplest proof of address for the Public Service Development Agency, the bank and the Revenue Service, and in practice it is asked for before anything else. Sign it with the registered owner, against a fresh extract from the National Agency of Public Registry, or with the owner's written consent where the landlord is not the owner. Some landlords prefer cash and no contract because rent is taxable in Georgia; insist on the contract. From that day the same address goes on every document: the company's registered address if you use your home, the Revenue Service profile, the bank questionnaire and the permit file. An unread electronic tax notice is treated as delivered after a set period, so keep the Revenue Service profile current.

Month one: register the business, which is also your tax registration

Two forms sit under the Law on Entrepreneurs. An individual entrepreneur is you, with unlimited liability; with Small Business status the turnover is taxed at 1% up to GEL 500,000 a year for an activity not on the excluded list, and consulting is excluded, so whether your work is a deliverable or advice is settled in writing before registration. An LLC is a separate legal person, may be owned 100% by a foreigner, and pays 15% profit tax only on distribution plus 5% on the dividend. The registry decides in about a day and the registration number is the company's tax number from that day. Since 1 March 2026 one more item sits in this month: a foreigner who carries on the activity in Georgia needs the right to work before the first invoice, unless an exemption applies. The 2026 right-to-work article and the complete guide to taxation carry the detail; the figures are those of the Tax Code at the time of writing.

Inside the company's first three months: the right to work and the permit

1. Apply for the right to work personally, as the manager of your small company or as a self-employed individual entrepreneur, with the registry extract. While the business is no more than three months old no turnover proof is asked; afterwards the file needs Revenue Service proof of annual turnover of at least GEL 50,000 for each foreigner applying, at the time of writing.
2. Within 10 calendar days of the grant, file for the permit at the Agency: passport, photographs, the lease as the address, the right-to-work decision, proof of monthly income of at least five times the subsistence minimum (a personal bank balance can count) and the company's certificate of its foreign staff.
3. A first permit filed in this window runs six months without turnover proof. Diary the renewal for 40 days before expiry: it needs the turnover the first permit did without.
4. If a family follows, note the six-month rule: family reunification needs more than six months left on your permit, so it cannot be filed against a first six-month permit. Plan the family for the renewal, or consider a property or investment permit for everyone from the start.

The bank file runs alongside, not afterwards

A foreigner may hold a personal account in a Georgian bank without a permit, and an individual entrepreneur needs one in their own name for clients to pay into and the monthly 1% to go out of. The bank decides on its own risk assessment and asks four things: who you are, what the account is for, where the money comes from and where you are tax resident. Bring the passport, the lease, a half-page purpose statement, the source-of-funds file, the registry extract and, for an individual entrepreneur, the right-to-work decision, which banks in practice ask for. On the self-certification state your real country of tax residence: in the first months that is almost always the country you left, because the 183 days have not run. Plan on at least one branch visit; our article on a personal bank account for foreigners explains each question.

Within the first year: the day count, the renewal and the calendar

Three longer clocks start on the day you arrive. The first is the 183rd day of actual presence in any continuous 12-month period ending in a tax year, which makes you a Georgian tax resident for the whole of that year: from then on, work physically done in Georgia is Georgian-source income whoever pays for it, at 20% and declared in an annual return before 1 April of the following year, while foreign dividends, interest, rent and gains are exempt at the time of writing. The Revenue Service checks the count against border records, and the country you left keeps its own claim until its own tests release you. The second clock is the permit renewal. The third is the compliance calendar: an individual entrepreneur declares and pays monthly, including months with no income; an LLC files monthly where a distribution occurred and annual financial statements.

What this checklist does not answer

It does not compare the residence permit routes, which the founders' residence permit guide does, explain each bank question, which the personal bank account article does, or set out the 1% regime and the other tax statuses, which the taxation guide does. It does not cover visa categories, schools, healthcare or driving licences, where the rules depend on your country and we confirm them for each client rather than publish a figure. We register the company or the individual entrepreneur, prepare the right-to-work, permit and bank files in this order and keep the deadlines on a board for each client. We do not open bank accounts and cannot promise a permit, a status or an account; the Agency and the bank decide.