A digital nomad in Georgia: how to work remotely and legally in 2026

Visa-free stay: who qualifies, for how long and how to extend it

Georgia grants visa-free entry and stay of up to 365 consecutive days to citizens of most CIS countries, including Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia and Azerbaijan. This is not a 90-day tourist visa: you are lawfully in the country for a full year with no paperwork at all.

Once the 365 days are up, the simplest way to reset the counter is to leave and re-enter. The border with Armenia (the Bagratashen / Sadakhlo crossing) is open in both directions, and the round trip takes a few hours. The border with Turkey (the Sarpi crossing) works the same way.

Formally, however, a second visa-free year is not guaranteed: the border service is in principle entitled to refuse entry if it sees a constant chain of exits and re-entries with no official ground for long-term stay. In practice such refusals were isolated cases between 2023 and 2025, but the risk is real — particularly for Russian citizens in the current geopolitical climate.

For anyone who wants a stable status without an annual border run, the correct solution is a formal residence permit. More on that in the residence section below.

One important point: a visa-free stay in Georgia does not give you the right to work for Georgian companies. To work inside the country you need either a work permit or your own legal entity. If you work remotely for foreign employers, there are no restrictions.

Territorial taxation: 0% on foreign income

Georgia applies the territorial principle of taxation. Income from sources outside Georgia is not subject to Georgian income tax. For a remote professional working for foreign clients or a foreign employer, the effective tax rate on professional income is zero.

An individual without a sole tradership needs no tax registration at all: if the income arrives from abroad and is not Georgian-source income, there is nothing to declare and nothing to pay. It is worth understanding the trade-off, though: you also have no official confirmation of your tax position in Georgia, which can become a problem when you need to prove tax residence — for instance, to be released from tax in your country of citizenship.

For a clearer legal position, most professionals register as an Individual Entrepreneur and apply for Small Business Status, which carries a rate of 1% on turnover up to 500,000 lari (about $185,000) a year. This gives you a formal taxpayer status in Georgia, which in turn makes opening accounts and obtaining residence considerably easier.

Georgia has double taxation treaties with Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and a number of other CIS countries. To rely on them in practice, however, you have to confirm tax residence in Georgia — that is, spend more than 183 days a year in the country and hold documents showing that your centre of vital interests is here. Without that, your country of citizenship may continue to treat you as its tax resident.

A separate category is the Virtual Zone regime for IT companies. If you register a Georgian company and supply IT services exclusively to foreign clients, corporate tax on that income is 0%. This is a more complex instrument, relevant to those who want to operate through a legal entity.

Sole tradership in Georgia: registered in one day

Registering as an Individual Entrepreneur in Georgia is one of the fastest procedures anywhere. The whole process takes one working day and requires a minimal set of documents.

What registration requires:

• A travel passport (for several CIS countries, a national passport is accepted).
• A registration address in Georgia (the address of a rented flat is sufficient).
• An application form, completed on the spot at the Public Service Hall.

The procedure: you come to a House of Justice (there is one in every large city), file the application for registration and receive the certificate the same day or the next working day. The state fee is 20 lari (about $7). No share capital, notarial certification or prior permits are required.

Registration automatically gives you a taxpayer number, and a settlement account is opened against it. The next step is to obtain Small Business Status from the tax service through the RS.ge portal. That status brings the rate down to 1% on turnover instead of the standard 20% income tax for a sole trader.

There is a restriction: Small Business Status is not available for a number of activities, among them consulting, brokerage and legal practice. Those categories fall under Micro Business Status, with turnover up to 30,000 lari (about $11,000) and a zero rate — or under standard income tax at 20%.

A Georgian sole tradership is also a ground for residence in its own right. After a year of active operation you are entitled to apply for temporary residence, which is a far more reliable status than an annual visa-free entry.

Banking in Georgia: TBC and Bank of Georgia

Between 2022 and 2025, banking became the decisive question for many people relocating from Russia. Georgia turned out to be one of the few countries where Russian citizens can open an account relatively easily, unlike most European jurisdictions.

TBC Bank is the largest retail bank in Georgia and a public company (LSE: TBCG). Opening a personal account takes one to three working days on a personal visit with a passport. The bank offers Visa and Mastercard debit cards, internet banking and an app in Georgian, English and Russian. Outgoing and incoming international transfers work. One caveat: TBC is an international bank and has to observe sanctions requirements, so transfers to and from sanctioned Russian banks do not go through, while transfers via intermediaries — Armenian and Kazakh banks — do.

Bank of Georgia is the country's second largest bank. The account-opening terms are similar and the product range comparable. Its compliance policy is slightly more conservative than TBC's.

A business account for a sole trader is opened at the same banks. You will need the registration certificate and the taxpayer number; this normally takes two to five days.

On savings: Georgia is not an offshore jurisdiction, but its banks are sound and covered by the deposit insurance scheme. Holding dollars or euros in a Georgian account is a normal and comparatively safe practice for anyone looking for an alternative to Russian banks.

On cryptocurrency, Georgia takes a permissive line. Exchange offices operate legally and P2P trading is unrestricted. Crypto income is cashed out both through exchanges and through OTC desks in Tbilisi.

The cost of living in Tbilisi: the real figures

Tbilisi remains one of the most affordable cities for remote professionals anywhere in the post-Soviet space. Prices have nevertheless risen by 30 to 50% since 2022 because of the large inflow of new arrivals.

Housing:

• A studio or one-bedroom flat in the centre (Vake, Saburtalo, Isani) — $300 to $600 a month.
• A two-bedroom flat in the centre — $500 to $900 a month.
• Premium apartments in Mtatsminda or in new developments — $800 to $1,500.

Food: dinner in a local cafe costs $5 to $10; in a mid-range restaurant, $15 to $25 per person. Supermarket groceries (Carrefour, Fresco) are 40 to 50% cheaper than in Moscow.

Transport: the metro and buses cost 1 lari (about $0.37) per journey. A taxi across the city through Bolt is $2 to $5. Car rental starts at $300 a month.

Internet: fibre at 100 to 300 Mbit/s costs $15 to $25 a month. Mobile internet through Magti or Geocell is $10 to $20 for an unlimited plan.

Co-working: Impact Hub, Fabrika (a space with a bar and cafe) and Ziferblat charge from $5 for a day pass to $100–150 a month for a fixed desk.

A comfortable monthly budget in Tbilisi comes to $1,200–1,800.

Residence through property: from $100,000

Buying property in Georgia worth $100,000 or more opens the way to a temporary residence permit. In terms of the entry threshold, this is one of the most accessible investment residence routes in the region.

The procedure for residence through property:

• Find and purchase a property worth at least $100,000 (market valuation, not cadastral).
• Register title at the House of Justice.
• File the residence application with the Public Service Development Agency, enclosing the property documents, your passport and medical insurance.

Residence is granted initially for one year and can be extended. As long as the property remains in your ownership, the status can be renewed repeatedly.

What $100,000 actually buys in Tbilisi: a one-bedroom flat in Saburtalo or Didube, a studio in a new building in the centre, or a two-bedroom flat in an outlying district. The market is active and foreigners may buy property without restriction.

Letting the property out yields 5 to 8% a year in dollars, particularly in the tourist areas — the Old Town and the Mtatsminda district. A property purchase therefore solves the residence question and produces passive income at the same time.

One material restriction: agricultural land is not sold to foreigners. Urban property carries no such limitation.

Risks and limitations: an honest assessment

Georgia is an excellent operating base, but it is not the right long-term answer for everyone. The risks are worth stating plainly.

Political instability: the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025 were marked by mass protests after disputed parliamentary elections. The foreign agents law, modelled on the Russian one, was passed in 2024 and drew criticism from civil society. The country's stated course towards the EU has not changed, but the political situation is volatile.

Outside the EU: Georgian residence does not give you the right to live in the European Union. A Georgian passport gives visa-free entry to the Schengen area, but not the right to reside there. For anyone planning to settle in the EU in the long run, Georgia is a temporary base rather than a final destination.

Healthcare: Georgian medicine is well below European standards. State hospitals are overloaded. Private clinics (Evex, Caucasus Medical Centre) work well, but for serious treatment it is better to travel to Turkey or Europe. Good private medical insurance is essential, at $50 to $100 a month.

A limited labour market: there are few well-paid vacancies inside Georgia. The country works precisely as an operating base for work with foreign clients, not as a place to build a career locally.

Seismic activity: Georgia lies in an earthquake zone. Tremors occur regularly, most of them of low intensity.

Armenia as the neighbouring alternative

For anyone looking at the South Caucasus as a region, Armenia is often mentioned alongside Georgia — with good reason. The two countries have a great deal in common for remote professionals, but they also differ in ways that matter.

Shared advantages: visa-free entry for Russian and Kazakh citizens for 180 days (extendable), a comparatively light tax regime, an affordable cost of living in Yerevan, sole-trader registration in a day and sound banks (ACBA, Ameriabank, IDBank).

Differences from Georgia: the Armenian tax system is not territorial. Armenia taxes income by source, and tax residence implies paying tax on foreign income, though the rates are relatively moderate at 20 to 23%. A sole trader with turnover up to AMD 115 million (about $290,000) nevertheless pays only 5% under the turnover tax regime.

Yerevan is slightly more expensive than Tbilisi for housing ($400 to $700 for a one-bedroom flat) but cheaper for food. Internet reaches 1 Gbit/s in new buildings. Co-working spaces include Synergy and Impact Hub Yerevan.

In terms of political stability, Armenia moved actively towards the EU in 2024 and 2025 and was in a less turbulent position than Georgia. Residence through a property purchase from $150,000, or through a sole tradership, is available on comparable terms.

For many remote professionals the optimal strategy is to move between Georgia and Armenia, spending three to six months in each country and drawing on the advantages of both jurisdictions.