Permanent Residence in Georgia: Who Qualifies, and the Path From a First Permit

A permanent residence permit in the country of Georgia is issued under the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons, by the Public Service Development Agency, on a short list of grounds: ten years of residence on temporary residence permits, five years as the spouse of a Georgian citizen on a spouse permit, being the minor child of a citizen or the parent of a minor citizen, and, for investors, the maturity of the investment route into an unlimited permit. Once granted it carries the right of permanent residence with no expiry date, and it is the one status that places a foreigner outside the Law on Labour Migration altogether. The figures are those of the consolidated Georgian text as we read it on 22 October 2026; they have moved before, and the pre-check confirms them.

A permanent residence permit is a status without an expiry date

Every temporary residence permit is issued for a period and renewed on evidence that is current at renewal: turnover on the work route, ownership and a valuation on the property route, the principal's permit on the family route. As the Law reads at the time of writing, most temporary permits can be extended up to twelve years in total, and each renewal is an application that can be refused. A permanent residence permit ends that cycle. The Law says it is issued with the right of permanent residence, which is why practice calls it indefinite. It also takes the holder out of the Law on Labour Migration, so the right to work that every work permit holder has needed since 1 March 2026 stops being a separate file.

The grounds the Law lists

• Long lawful residence: an alien who has lived in Georgia for the last ten years on the basis of a temporary residence permit. Time spent here for study or medical treatment, and time working at a diplomatic or equivalent mission, is not counted.
• The spouse of a Georgian citizen who has lived in Georgia for the last five years on a spouse residence permit; after five years, if the marriage continues, the permanent permit follows.
• The minor child of a Georgian citizen, and the parent of a minor Georgian citizen.
• Investors: an investment residence permit holder who has met the Law's turnover conditions for five years, or kept real property worth more than USD 300,000 for five years, receives an unlimited residence permit with the same right of permanent residence.
• Stateless persons in the categories the Law names, among them a person whose Georgian citizenship ended by renunciation.

The ten-year route starts with a first permit renewed without a gap

The general ground counts years lived on a temporary residence permit, not years spent in Georgia. A national of a visa-free country can live here a year at a time with no permit; those years are lawful presence, but none of them counts. The clock starts with the first temporary permit, usually a work permit through your own company or a property permit, and it runs only while one permit follows the next. Years on a study permit and years spent here for treatment are excluded: a founder who arrived as a student and later took a work permit counts from the work permit.

The investment route matures into an unlimited permit

For an investor the Law writes a shorter path with harder conditions. The investment residence permit, issued for up to five years on an investment of at least USD 300,000 or real property worth more than USD 300,000, is kept on yearly conditions: as the Georgian text read on 22 October 2026, annual turnover from the investment of at least USD 50,000 in the first year, USD 100,000 in the second and USD 120,000 in each of the third to fifth years, each figure in its lari equivalent, or, where the investment is property worth more than USD 300,000, continued ownership for the five years. An investor who has met them applies before the five-year term runs out and receives an unlimited residence permit, which extends to the family members the investment permit covered.

Permanent residence changes the right to work and the pension, not your tax

Three things change on the day the permanent permit is issued. The holder no longer needs the right to work for any activity. The holder joins the funded pension scheme, which the Law on Funded Pension applies to Georgian citizens and to foreigners with a permanent residence permit: 2% withheld from the employee and 2% added by the employer, as that Law reads at the time of writing, and our article on payroll taxes in Georgia covers the mechanics. What does not change is tax. A permanent permit is an immigration status; Georgian tax residency still follows from 183 days or more of presence in any continuous twelve months, or from the high-net-worth route.

Citizenship follows its own Organic Law and its own clock

Citizenship is granted by the President of Georgia under the Organic Law of Georgia on Georgian Citizenship, on the Agency's conclusion. As the Georgian consolidated text read on 22 October 2026, the ordinary procedure asks for continuous lawful residence in Georgia for the last ten years, knowledge of the Georgian language, of Georgian history and of the basics of law within limits the law sets, and one economic tie: a job, real property, a business or shares in a Georgian company. The spouse of a Georgian citizen applies under the simplified procedure after five years of continuous lawful residence and sits the language and the history and law tests; the economic tie is not asked of a spouse. How the Agency counts lawful residence for a given history is a pre-check question.

• Single citizenship: a decree granting citizenship under the ordinary procedure takes effect when the authorities receive proof that the applicant has left their previous citizenship, unless the State consented to its retention or citizenship was granted by way of exception.
• Timing: the authorities have three months to decide, and an applicant refused under the ordinary procedure may apply again six months after the refusal.
• Review: since a decision of the Constitutional Court of 7 March 2025, a refusal under the ordinary, simplified, restoration or special procedure can be challenged in court; before it, the Organic Law excluded that.
• Exception: the President may grant citizenship for exceptional merit or on grounds of state interest, without the residence period. It is not a route anyone can plan on.

A refusal goes to court within a short time limit

The Agency decides on the file. It may refuse where the ground for the stay has lapsed, where documents are forged or invalid, where material information was concealed, or on the security and criminal grounds the Law lists. As the consolidated text read on 22 October 2026, a decision of the Agency under this Law is not appealed to a higher administrative body: it is challenged in court within ten calendar days of its service, and the challenge does not by itself stop expulsion proceedings. We ask clients to send a refusal the day it arrives, and we give the odds in writing before any state fee is paid.

1. 1

   Fix the start date: the date of your first temporary permit, and every permit since, with its dates. Gaps, study permits and treatment stays are checked first.

2. 2

   Put every renewal on a deadline board at least 40 days before expiry, with the evidence it will need current at that date, and keep residence cards, address records and filings as you go.

3. 3

   Before filing for the permanent permit, have the chain read against the Law as it stands that year; the period has changed before and may change again.

What this article does not answer

It does not describe the temporary routes, their documents, fees or turnover conditions: our guide to a Georgia residence permit through your own company does that. It does not cover the language and history tests for citizenship beyond naming them, or the retention of a second citizenship. We set out the Georgian immigration side in writing for each client; the tax side is a separate question and our article on Georgian tax residency answers it.