The 2026 Work Authorisation Rule: What Foreign Individual Entrepreneurs in Georgia Must Do
For years a foreigner could register as an individual entrepreneur, take the 1% small business status and start invoicing the same week. From 1 March 2026 a government resolution adds a step: a right-to-work authorisation for labour immigrants and self-employed foreigners. Who it covers, what the file contains, the transition deadlines, and what it changes for the freelancer on 1%.
Georgia's openness to foreign freelancers rested on a simple sequence: register as an individual entrepreneur at the registry, apply for small business status at the Revenue Service, invoice. A government resolution adopted on 20 February 2026 and in force from 1 March 2026 inserts a new element into that sequence for foreign nationals: a right-to-work authorisation, obtained under the labour migration framework, for labour immigrants employed in Georgia and for self-employed foreigners. It does not close the route, but it is no longer only paperwork: since the amendment of 9 July 2026 an individual entrepreneur registered for more than three months must show annual turnover of at least GEL 50,000 in most fields, at the time of writing. It adds a file, a decision and a deadline that a foreign founder who lives in Georgia now has to plan for.
1 March 2026
Rule in force
Government resolution adopted 20 February 2026
1 May 2026
Transition for those already active
Self-employed foreigners operating on 1 March had until then before enforcement
GEL 2,000
Fine for working without authorisation
Applies to the employer, employee or self-employed person and rises on repetition; confirm the current figure
Who the rule covers
- Labour immigrants: foreign nationals employed by a Georgian employer, whose employer applies for the authorisation as part of hiring. Since the amendment of 9 July 2026 the employer files proof of its own annual turnover of at least GEL 50,000 per foreign applicant (GEL 35,000 for educational and medical institutions), unless it employs no more than three foreigners and no more than three months have passed since its registration.
- Self-employed foreigners: foreign nationals carrying out economic activity in Georgia in their own name, which includes individual entrepreneurs. Partners in a company are no longer named: the word was removed by the 2026 amendments, and what the Rule now names is a foreigner who manages a fourth-category enterprise, who files as self-employed.
- Foreign nationals already active on 1 March 2026, who were given a transition period, and those registered in the labour ministry's database, who have until 1 January 2027 to obtain authorisation and the corresponding residence permit.
- Not everyone: only a permanent residence permit puts a person outside the Law altogether, and the Law's exemption list, as amended in 2026, is specific. At the time of writing it includes holders of an investment residence permit, short-term professional activity registered in advance, fully remote work for a local employer that does not require entering Georgia, work or services for a non-resident connected with that non-resident's activity outside Georgia, and managers of first to third category enterprises. The current list is the first thing to check.
A foreign national carries out labour activity in Georgia, as an employee or as a self-employed person, on the basis of the right to work granted under this Rule, save for the categories the legislation exempts. A self-employed foreigner applies in their own name and evidences the activity and its economic basis.
What a self-employed foreigner files
- 1
Register as an individual entrepreneur, or confirm the existing registration, since the authorisation is tied to a registered activity.
- 2
Obtain the Revenue Service document showing turnover: your own as an individual entrepreneur, or the company's if you apply as the manager of a fourth-category company. Since the amendment of 9 July 2026 it must show annual turnover of at least GEL 50,000 per foreign applicant (GEL 35,000 for educational and medical institutions). It is not required while no more than three months have passed since the entrepreneur's registration or the company's founding, and a business not registered for VAT files instead certificates showing the same level over the previous 12 months. The business plan for a new activity is no longer on the list. Figures at the time of writing; confirm against the Resolution.
- 3
Assemble identity and status documents: passport, current legal basis for being in Georgia, and any residence permit already held.
- 4
Apply personally, not through a representative, to the competent authority under the labour ministry: the 2026 rules add a compulsory video interview in Georgian or English with the original passport. Pay the service fee and answer requests for clarification within the deadlines set.
- 5
On approval, keep the authorisation current alongside the residence status it accompanies, and renew before expiry; the authorisation is not a one-off formality.
| Situation | What applies |
|---|---|
| Foreign freelancer living in Georgia, registered as IE with 1% status | Within the self-employed rule unless an exemption applies. If every client is a non-resident and the work relates to its activity outside Georgia, the Law exempts it, but the Rule withholds that exemption from an individual entrepreneur who needs a residence permit to stay lawfully: have the case checked before relying on either answer |
| Foreign founder who lives abroad and owns a Georgian LLC managed by a local director | Generally outside the rule: no labour activity carried out in Georgia by the founder |
| Foreign founder living in Georgia and working as director of their own LLC | Within the framework where the company is a fourth-category enterprise: its manager files as self-employed with the company's registry extract. A manager of a first to third category enterprise is exempt. Confirm the category before the first salary |
| Foreign employee hired by a Georgian company | Labour immigrant: the employer applies as part of onboarding |
| Holder of a residence permit in an exempt category | Check the exemption: the exempt permits are few (the investment permit, the special permit issued on a Government member's initiative and the temporary-stay right). An ordinary residence permit is held together with the right to work, not instead of it |
The 1% small business status has not changed. What changed is the order of events for a foreigner who lives here: the Revenue Service still grants the status, but carrying on the activity without the right to work is now an offence unless an exemption applies. Plan the authorisation into the setup timeline instead of discovering it at the first fine.
Next step
Setting up as an Individual Entrepreneur under the new rule
The right-to-work authorisation is now part of the sequence rather than an afterthought, and unless an exemption applies it sits before the first invoice. Trustlex registers the Individual Entrepreneur, applies for Small Business Status and puts the steps in the right order.
See the 1% routeWhat it changes for the freelancer on 1%
For a foreign freelancer who lives in Georgia and invoices foreign clients as an individual entrepreneur, the tax position is untouched: 1% on turnover up to the small business ceiling, the same monthly filing, the same bank account. Unless an exemption applies, the compliance position has a new item on the list, sitting alongside the residence permit rather than the tax registration, and the two are linked: the authorisation accompanies a legal basis for staying, and a residence permit obtained through the activity assumes the activity is authorised. A freelancer who operates from abroad and merely holds a Georgian IE registration is in a different position, and so may be one whose clients are all non-residents: the Law exempts work for a non-resident's activity outside Georgia, while the Rule keeps an individual entrepreneur who needs a residence permit inside the regime. The exemption list and the meaning of activity in Georgia decide it.
The developer who registered in February and read about the rule in May
A foreign software developer registers as an individual entrepreneur in Tbilisi in February 2026, obtains 1% status and starts invoicing. In May she learns that a right-to-work rule came into force in March.
- 1As a self-employed foreigner already active on 1 March, she fell within the transition period that ran to 1 May; she has passed it and needs to regularise promptly.
- 2Her file is straightforward: the IE registration, the Revenue Service turnover document for the months since February, her passport and her current basis for staying.
- 3She applies, answers one request for clarification about her clients, and receives the authorisation, which she diaries for renewal alongside her residence permit.
- 4Her tax position never changed; the risk was the fine and, more seriously, a question mark over a residence permit built on an activity that was briefly unauthorised.
In May 2026 the rule added a file, not a barrier, for a freelancer with a real activity and evidence of it. Since the amendment of 9 July 2026 the same file must also show annual turnover of at least GEL 50,000 once the registration is more than three months old, and, as the Rule reads, a renewal updates the same documents. The cost of missing the rule is a fine and an untidy immigration history; the cost of meeting it is now a turnover figure as well as a few documents most freelancers already hold.
Illustrative, and it assumes no exemption applies to her: a freelancer whose clients are all non-residents should have the exemption checked first. Her file is the one asked for at the time, before the amendment of 9 July 2026 added the turnover threshold described above. Deadlines, exemptions and the application route are set by the Law, the resolution and the ministry's rules and should be checked at the time of applying.
Next step
Setting up as a foreign freelancer in Georgia
We register the individual entrepreneur, apply for the small business status and prepare the right-to-work file in one sequence, so the tax registration and the authorisation arrive in the right order.
Start the applicationGeneral information, not legal advice. The right-to-work rules are set by Georgian labour migration legislation and the Government's resolution of 20 February 2026, with exemptions and deadlines that are subject to change; verify the current position before relying on any date or figure here.