A Georgia Residence Permit Through Your Own Company: Routes, Conditions and Honest Odds
The work residence permit through your own Georgian LLC, the investment and property routes, family reunification, the legal framework behind them, what each one actually requires, and the reasons applications fail - with worked examples and our fixed fees.
Registering a Georgian company and living in Georgia are two different legal questions, and founders regularly conflate them. The company takes a day; the right to reside is governed by the Law of Georgia on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons, decided by the Public Service Development Agency, and granted on conditions - the most important of which is that your company actually trades. This guide sets out the routes, the conditions in outline, and where applications genuinely fail.
Many nationalities may stay in Georgia visa-free for a full year, which means a permit is often about stability - a residence card, breaking the annual reset, a path to permanence - rather than about lawful presence tomorrow. Knowing which problem you are solving changes which route is worth paying for.
Who decides, and under what law
Residence permits in Georgia are issued under the Law of Georgia on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons. The deciding body is the Public Service Development Agency, an agency of the Ministry of Justice. It is an administrative decision made on documentary evidence: the agency is not persuaded by intention or by the fact of incorporation, only by what the file proves. That framing matters, because it explains why a company with no trading history fails the work route no matter how genuine the founder's plans are.
The routes, side by side
| Route | Basis | Ordinary validity | The condition that decides it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work permit | Employment or entrepreneurial activity in a Georgian entity | 6-12 months, renewable | The entity's real turnover, at the statutory level per foreign employee |
| Investment permit | Investment above the statutory threshold (commonly cited at USD 300,000+) | 5 years | Evidenced investment in defined assets |
| Short-term (property) | Residential property above the threshold (commonly cited at USD 100,000+) | 1 year, renewable | Accredited market-value appraisal and continued ownership |
| Family reunification | Family member of a permit holder | Matches the principal | Legalised, translated proof of relationship |
| Permanent residence | Long lawful residence or investment-route maturity | Indefinite | Continuity of lawful residence |
The founder route: a work permit through your own LLC
The standard path for our clients is the work residence permit on the basis of entrepreneurial activity in their own company. Its real test is economic: the legislation ties eligibility to the Georgian entity's demonstrated turnover per foreign employee, with a higher bar for entrepreneurial founders than for hired staff. A newly registered company with an empty bank account does not meet it - which is why the honest sequence is company first, genuine trading next, permit application after the turnover exists.
A work residence permit is issued to an alien carrying out labour activity or entrepreneurial activity in Georgia, subject to the conditions established by legislation, including evidence of the activity of the employing or founded enterprise.
The documents a work-route file has to carry
Beyond the turnover evidence, the file is judged on ordinary but unforgiving formalities. The recurring requirements are these:
- A passport valid well beyond the permit period requested, with clean margins for the visa or card.
- Bank statements and tax filings evidencing the company's turnover, tying the figures to the statutory level per foreign employee.
- Proof of the company's activity and the applicant's role in it - founder, director or employee, consistently across the documents.
- A criminal-record certificate where required, legalised (apostille or consular legalisation) and translated by a certified translator.
- Proof of address in Georgia, and the standard identity and photograph requirements the agency sets.
Timing and the two tracks
Applications are filed at the Public Service Development Agency, which offers a regular and an expedited track at different state fees; the faster track shortens the decision window but does not change the evidence required. Renewals are applications in their own right, not administrative rollovers, and should be started well before expiry so the same current evidence can be assembled without a gap in status. We start renewals at least 40 days before expiry for exactly this reason.
An IT founder who timed it right
A founder registers an LLC in month 0, invoices real EU clients from month 1, and banks steady revenue through month 3. In month 4 they apply for the work residence permit on the entrepreneurial basis, with bank statements evidencing the turnover condition.
- 1Eligibility pre-check against the statutory turnover level - before any state fee is paid.
- 2File build: passport margins, legalised and translated criminal-record certificate where required, proof of the company's activity, proof of address.
- 3Filing at the Public Service Development Agency on the regular or expedited track, with the state fee paid.
- 4Decision; on grant, the residence card is issued and the renewal date goes onto the deadline board.
- 5The spouse and children file for family reunification against the principal permit.
Permit granted on the strength of three months of genuine trading. The same file submitted in month 1, before the turnover existed, would have been refused.
Illustrative. Eligibility is decided on the facts and the thresholds in force at the time of filing.
Why applications fail
- A company with no real activity - the turnover condition is the test, not the certificate of incorporation.
- Documents that are not legalised or not translated by a certified translator.
- Applying on the wrong basis, or from the wrong immigration status.
- Passport validity margins that do not cover the permit period requested.
- Renewals started too late: a renewal is an application, not a formality, and it needs the same evidence current.
No provider controls the outcome, including us. The Public Service Development Agency decides. Anyone selling a "guaranteed" Georgian residence permit is selling something they do not have.
Residence permit is not tax residency
The permit refused because the company looked like a shell
A founder registers an LLC specifically to support a work-route residence permit, with no employees, no office and minimal activity.
- 1The route expects a genuine enterprise employing the applicant, and the file is assessed on whether the company is real.
- 2The reviewer sees a company incorporated weeks earlier, no turnover, no premises beyond a registered address and no evidence of operations.
- 3The application is refused, and a refusal sits on the applicant's record for the next attempt.
- 4The company itself remains, with its filing obligations, serving no purpose it was created for.
The company has to exist for a business reason that survives inspection. A company built solely as a permit instrument tends to fail as a permit instrument, and leaves compliance obligations behind when it does.
Illustrative. Criteria and evidentiary expectations for each route change and are applied case by case.
A residence permit is an immigration status; Georgian tax residency ordinarily follows from presence for more than 183 days in any continuous 12-month period, with a separate high-net-worth route. You can hold a permit and remain tax-resident elsewhere, or become Georgian tax-resident with no permit at all on visa-free presence. Model the two questions separately - the article on Georgian tax residency covers the second.
What Trustlex does, and our fees
€120
Eligibility pre-check
Written route and odds; credited against the full service
From €650
Founder / work route
File build, filing and follow-up to decision
From €300
Renewal
Started 40+ days before expiry, tracked on the deadline board
Family members are from €350 each; investment-route advisory is quoted after legal review. Government fees are passed through at cost, and VAT applies to Trustlex professional fees only. Where we assess your odds as poor, we say so in the pre-check and decline to invoice the full service - a refusal costs you a state fee and months, and costs us a client.