Georgia

Georgia lets citizens of roughly 94 countries enter and stay for 365 days without a visa — and, unusually, the permission covers residing and working, not just visiting. That single rule is why the country appears on every remote-work list. What those lists mostly get wrong is what happens next: the tax position is narrower than advertised, the banks stopped being easy in 2026, and the politics have been unresolved for two years.

Georgia at a glance

The three things most guides get wrong

1. “Foreign income is tax-free”

Half true, and the wrong half is the half that applies to most readers. Georgia taxes on a territorial basis, but source is decided by where the work is performed — not by where the client sits, what currency you invoice in, or which country’s bank receives the money. A remote worker at a desk in Tbilisi billing a US client has Georgian-source income, taxable at 20%.

That is precisely why nearly every serious freelancer here registers for Small Business Status and pays 1% on turnover — not because their income is exempt, but because it is not. The genuinely exempt categories are passive and situated abroad: dividends from foreign companies, interest on foreign accounts, gains on foreign assets, rent from property overseas. And the 1% covers business turnover only; rent, capital gains, interest, dividends and royalties are taxed at 20% regardless.

2. The digital nomad visa no longer exists

“Remotely from Georgia” is suspended and has been off the government e-visa portal since 2025. The 365-day visa-free rule made it pointless. Any guide still describing its $2,000-a-month income test as a live application route is sending readers to a dead form — and it is the fastest way to tell whether a Georgia guide has been updated this decade.

3. Two immigration facts changed in 2026

• Property residency now costs $150,000, not $100,000. The threshold rose on 1 March 2026. Existing holders may keep renewing on the old basis; new applicants cannot. Every guide still quoting $100k is wrong by half.
• Travel medical insurance became mandatory on 1 January 2026 — minimum ₾30,000 of cover for the whole stay, checked at the border. Residence permit holders are exempt. Almost no English-language guide mentions it, and it is the one new rule that can turn someone around at the airport.

Who Georgia suits

It suits self-employed people whose income is portable and modest enough to sit under the ₾500,000 Small Business ceiling; anyone who wants to try a country for a year without paperwork; and budget-minded people who want European-adjacent living at a third of Western European cost. Tbilisi has fibre, 5G, private hospitals, international schools and an established foreign community.

It suits less well retirees with family in North America — there are no direct flights and the realistic door-to-door from the US East Coast is 14 to 20 hours. It is a poor fit for anyone who needs the state to underwrite their healthcare: the system is about 90% privatised and foreigners are outside the state programme unless they hold a residence permit and meet low-income criteria. Local insurance runs $15–25 a month, international plans $200–500.

The risk nobody weights properly

Not crime — Georgia is genuinely safe and holds a US Level 1 advisory, which few countries do. The risk is political, and it is structural rather than immediate.

A “foreign agents” law passed in May 2024 forced 400-plus NGOs and media outlets to register. Protests have run continuously since November 2024 — past their 600th day as of mid-2026 — with more than 3,000 detentions. The European Commission’s November 2025 enlargement report called Georgia a candidate country in name only, citing serious democratic backsliding; accession talks have never opened and the government has suspended its own efforts until 2028.

Day to day this touches foreign residents very little. Demonstrations are geographically contained, mostly to Rustaveli Avenue and Parliament, and are not directed at foreigners. Two practical points: the UK FCDO warns that foreigners who attend protests risk questioning or refusal of re-entry, and the medium-term concern is that the visa-free, low-tax settlement which makes Georgia attractive is itself a policy choice by a government under pressure. The 2026 changes — a 50% higher property threshold, a new insurance mandate, stricter banking, monthly tax filings — are all consistent with slow closing rather than opening.

Separately, Abkhazia and South Ossetia are occupied by Russia and carry Level 4 “do not travel” status. The administrative boundary lines move: Russian forces periodically shift fencing deeper into Georgian-controlled territory, and people have been detained for crossing a line that was not there the week before. Stay well clear of both.

Where expats actually go

Three cities carry essentially all of it. Tbilisi is the only place with the full stack — hospitals, schools, banks, the Revenue Service, long-haul connections — and its weakness is air quality, which runs about 3.4 times the WHO guideline. Batumi is the Black Sea alternative: rent about 30% cheaper, winters that never freeze, and 2,435 mm of rain a year across 140 rainy days, which is roughly four times London. It is a subtropical rainforest coast that happens to have a beach, and it empties out of season. Kutaisi is the value option, and the reason is the airport — a Wizz Air focus city with two dozen European routes, which is why Georgia is cheap to reach from Europe.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Government of Georgia Ordinance No. 255 — visa-free country list, last amended 24 February 2026
• US Department of State — Georgia country information and travel advisory, Level 1, reaffirmed 10 March 2026
• UK FCDO — Georgia travel advice, updated 27 July 2026
• PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries — Georgia, reviewed 2 September 2026
• Georgian Revenue Service Order No. 999, 7 March 2026 — monthly declaration requirement for Small Business Status
• Geostat — 2024 Population Census, final results published 22 June 2026
• European Commission — 2025 Enlargement Report on Georgia, 4 November 2025
• Climates to Travel — Tbilisi and Batumi, 1991–2020 normals
• Numbeo — Tbilisi and Batumi cost of living, retrieved late August 2026 (crowdsourced; treat as order of magnitude)
• EF English Proficiency Index 2025