NextSpring

No Descent Route to a Permit; Ancestry Reaches Georgia Through the Compatriot Status and Through Citizenship by Exception

Georgia issues no residence permit by descent. Article 15 of the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons is a closed list of the residence permits Georgia issues, and as it stands after the amendments of 15 April and 25 June 2026 it has thirteen entries: work, study, family reunification, former citizen of Georgia, stateless person, special, permanent, spouse of a citizen of Georgia, investment, temporary for a victim of domestic violence, short-term on property, unlimited, and temporary for a person employed in information technologies. Ancestry touches two of them only sideways. Article 15(დ) gives a residence permit to an alien whose Georgian citizenship has been terminated - a route for a former citizen, not for a descendant. Article 15(ვ), the special residence permit, closes with a category that is not about trafficking or government initiative at all: a citizen of another state who holds the status of a compatriot living abroad. That status is created by a separate Law of Georgia on Compatriots Residing Abroad and Diaspora Organisations, which this Law does not define and which we have not read, so this record names the door and not what is behind it. The clearer ancestral route is to citizenship rather than to residence. Article 17 lets the President grant citizenship by way of exception, and article 17(2)(ა) tells the decision-maker to weigh, among other things, that the applicant considers Georgia their homeland and that they or their ancestor lived in an occupied territory, were displaced from it, or emigrated at some time for political opinions or because of hard social and economic conditions. It is a discretion with a statutory list of what counts, not an entitlement - and it is the one naturalisation route that does not require giving up the other citizenship.

Verified with official sourceStable2026-10-11

At a glance

A residence permit granted by descent
None among the thirteen types in article 15 of the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons

The nearest entries are the former-citizen permit in article 15(დ) and the compatriot limb of the special permit in article 15(ვ).

What the compatriot limb says
A special residence permit for a citizen of another state holding the status of a compatriot living abroad

Article 15(ვ) of the Law. The status itself is defined elsewhere and no criterion for it appears in this Law.

Ancestry in the citizenship law
A circumstance the President weighs when granting citizenship by way of exception

Article 17(2)(ა) of the Organic Law on Georgian Citizenship, which names an ancestor who lived in an occupied territory, was displaced from it, or emigrated for political opinions or hard social and economic conditions.

Requirements

  • There is no permit granted on descent: an applicant with Georgian ancestry uses the compatriot status, the former-citizen permit, or citizenship by way of exception
  • Compatriot status is granted under a separate Law on Compatriots Residing Abroad, not under the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons
  • Citizenship by way of exception is a decision of the President, informed by the circumstances listed in article 17(2)

Exceptions by origin

No exceptions recorded

Nothing we have read treats any nationality differently for this topic. The rule above applies to everyone.

What the law says

Text layer - verbatim verifiedუცხოელთა და მოქალაქეობის არმქონე პირთა სამართლებრივი მდგომარეობის შესახებ საქართველოს კანონი · მუხლი 15, ქვეპუნქტი ვ · consolidated to 2026-06-25
«ვ) სპეციალური ბინადრობის ნებართვა, რომელიც გაიცემა უცხოელზე, რომლის შესახებაც არსებობს საფუძვლიანი ვარაუდი, რომ იგი შეიძლება იყოს ადამიანით ვაჭრობის (ტრეფიკინგის) დანაშაულის მსხვერპლი ან დაზარალებული „ადამიანით ვაჭრობის (ტრეფიკინგის) წინააღმდეგ ბრძოლის შესახებ“ საქართველოს კანონით გათვალისწინებულ შემთხვევებში, უცხოელზე, რომელზედაც საქართველოში დროებითი ბინადრობის ნებართვის გაცემის თაობაზე წერილობით ინიციატივას წარადგენს საქართველოს მთავრობის წევრი, ამ კანონის მე-60 მუხლით გათვალისწინებულ პირებზე და უცხოეთში მცხოვრები თანამემამულის სტატუსის მქონე სხვა სახელმწიფოს მოქალაქეზე;»

Our translation - not official

(ვ) a special residence permit, issued to an alien about whom there is a reasonable assumption that they may be a victim of or affected by the crime of trafficking in human beings, in the cases provided for by the Law of Georgia on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings; to an alien in respect of whom a member of the Government of Georgia submits a written initiative on issuing a temporary residence permit in Georgia; to the persons provided for in article 60 of this Law; and to a citizen of another state who holds the status of a compatriot living abroad.

Read it at the source
About this source

The official gazette and consolidated statute book of Georgia, a legal entity under public law under the Ministry of Justice. Every instrument lives at matsne.gov.ge/ka/document/view/<id>: laws, organic laws, Government resolutions, presidential decrees and ministerial orders, each page opening with a metadata block that gives the document number, the issuing body, the date of issue, the source and date of publication, the date of entry into force and the registration code, then listing every consolidated publication by date with its own publication index. Above the body of each page the site states which edition is being shown: კონსოლიდირებული ვერსია (საბოლოო) means the final consolidation, and a different line means it is not. Amending instruments are published separately and in full, each citing the registration code of the act it amends, so a schedule whose consolidation is paywalled can still be reconstructed from the original plus the amendments. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty, including million-character statutes: the Georgian Tax Code comes back at 1,190,393 characters.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: Three things it must not be cited for. First, it is not free for everything: for some Government resolutions - resolution No 255 of 5 June 2015 on visa-free entry, and resolution No 36 of 21 February 2013 on universal health care - the site serves only the text as originally published and prints დოკუმენტის კონსოლიდირებული ვარიანტის ნახვა ფასიანია, that viewing the consolidated version is a paid service requiring registration and the purchase of a viewing right. A reading of such a page is a reading of the original, however many consolidations have followed, and must be labelled as one. Second, it publishes the consolidated law and not the reasoning: no explanatory memorandum, no case law, no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Georgian immigration and tax practice sits in orders of the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Internal Affairs which it holds but which are not linked from the parent act. Third, the Georgian pages are the law and the English pages at the matching address are not the same document - see ge-matsne-en. Pages render statutes inside HTML tables, so stored text carries table pipes and <br> markers around the publisher's own words.

We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedსაქართველოს ორგანული კანონი საქართველოს მოქალაქეობის შესახებ · მუხლი 17, პუნქტები 1 და 2 · consolidated to 2026-06-25
«1\. საქართველოს პრეზიდენტმა საქართველოს მოქალაქეობა საგამონაკლისო წესით შეიძლება მიანიჭოს სხვა ქვეყნის მოქალაქეს, რომელსაც საქართველოს წინაშე განსაკუთრებული დამსახურება აქვს ან რომლისთვისაც საქართველოს მოქალაქეობის მინიჭება სახელმწიფო ინტერესებიდან გამომდინარეობს. 2\. ამ მუხლის პირველი პუნქტით გათვალისწინებული სახელმწიფო ინტერესების შეფასებისას, მათ შორის, მხედველობაში მიიღება შემდეგი გარემოებები: ა) სხვა ქვეყნის მოქალაქეს საქართველო საკუთარ სამშობლოდ მიაჩნია და იგი ან მისი წინაპარი არის:»

Our translation - not official

1. The President of Georgia may grant citizenship of Georgia by way of exception to a citizen of another country who has exceptional merit before Georgia or for whom the grant of citizenship of Georgia arises from state interests. 2. In assessing the state interests provided for in paragraph 1 of this article, the following circumstances are taken into account, among others: (ა) the citizen of another country considers Georgia their own homeland and they or their ancestor is:

Read it at the source
About this source

The official gazette and consolidated statute book of Georgia, a legal entity under public law under the Ministry of Justice. Every instrument lives at matsne.gov.ge/ka/document/view/<id>: laws, organic laws, Government resolutions, presidential decrees and ministerial orders, each page opening with a metadata block that gives the document number, the issuing body, the date of issue, the source and date of publication, the date of entry into force and the registration code, then listing every consolidated publication by date with its own publication index. Above the body of each page the site states which edition is being shown: კონსოლიდირებული ვერსია (საბოლოო) means the final consolidation, and a different line means it is not. Amending instruments are published separately and in full, each citing the registration code of the act it amends, so a schedule whose consolidation is paywalled can still be reconstructed from the original plus the amendments. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty, including million-character statutes: the Georgian Tax Code comes back at 1,190,393 characters.

Standing: Maintains the text in force

Cannot be cited for: Three things it must not be cited for. First, it is not free for everything: for some Government resolutions - resolution No 255 of 5 June 2015 on visa-free entry, and resolution No 36 of 21 February 2013 on universal health care - the site serves only the text as originally published and prints დოკუმენტის კონსოლიდირებული ვარიანტის ნახვა ფასიანია, that viewing the consolidated version is a paid service requiring registration and the purchase of a viewing right. A reading of such a page is a reading of the original, however many consolidations have followed, and must be labelled as one. Second, it publishes the consolidated law and not the reasoning: no explanatory memorandum, no case law, no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Georgian immigration and tax practice sits in orders of the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Internal Affairs which it holds but which are not linked from the parent act. Third, the Georgian pages are the law and the English pages at the matching address are not the same document - see ge-matsne-en. Pages render statutes inside HTML tables, so stored text carries table pipes and <br> markers around the publisher's own words.

We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source

Text layer - verbatim verifiedOrganic Law of Georgia on Georgian Citizenship, English translation · Article 17(1)-(2) · consolidated to 2025-03-07
«1\. The President of Georgia may grant citizenship of Georgia by way of exception to a citizen of another country who has made a contribution of exceptional merit to Georgia. The President of Georgia may also grant citizenship of Georgia by way of exception to an alien based on state interests.»

Known to be out of date. The English text matsne serves at this address is the edition that applied from 7 March 2025 to 26 June 2025. Two later consolidations exist in Georgian and not in English, so this text does not carry Organic Law No 881 of 26 June 2025, which rewrote article 12(4) and article 13(3) with effect from 1 October 2025, or Organic Law No 1820 of 25 June 2026, which added article 29(3) with effect from 1 September 2026.

Read it at the source
About this source

The same publisher's English rendering of Georgian instruments, served at matsne.gov.ge/en/document/view/<id> - the same document id as the Georgian, so the two texts are one address apart. Where an English consolidation exists it is a full translation of that consolidation, with the same article numbering, the same amending-law footers and the same metadata block. For the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons the English kept pace with the Georgian through the amendments of 15 April and 25 June 2026, so the 2026 spouse permit and the interagency marriage commission can be read in both languages.

Standing:

Cannot be cited for: It may never be cited as the law, for four reasons found in the text itself. (1) It lags, silently to a reader who does not look up: on 11 October 2026 the Tax Code in English was the consolidation of 25 June 2026 while the Georgian was that of 30 September 2026, and the Organic Law on Georgian Citizenship in English was the edition of 7 March to 26 June 2025 while the Georgian was 25 June 2026. (2) The newest consolidation of a lagging instrument does not exist in English at all: the English page for Tax Code publication 246 and citizenship publication 12 carries no law, only 'Attention! The consolidation of the document is underway. You are not reading the latest version of the document.' (3) The default English address serves the last complete English edition under the line 'Attention! You are not reading the final edition', which is one line of body text above a million characters of statute. (4) Subparagraph letters are relabelled by alphabetical position rather than transliterated, so Georgian ფ becomes u, ჟ becomes p and თ becomes h - and the trap is live, because the Latin letter that a reader would reach for by sound lands on a different and sometimes repealed subparagraph: English article 99(1)(p) is Georgian 99(1)(ჟ), while Georgian 99(1)(პ) was deleted on 30 May 2018. It also mis-states one amending law's number, printing the law of 30 May 2018 as No 3591 in twelve places and as No 2391 in twelve others where the Georgian prints №2391 throughout, and it loses superscripts: article 21¹ appears as '211' and paragraph 6¹ as '61'. Cite it beside the Georgian, as a translation, never instead of it.

We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source

Practical notes

We did not read the Law of Georgia on Compatriots Residing Abroad and Diaspora Organisations, or article 60 of the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons, so neither the criteria for compatriot status nor the article 60 category is described here.

The absence of a descent permit is read from article 15 as a closed list. It is not a claim that no Georgian instrument anywhere gives a descendant a right we have not seen.

Sources4 · all accessed 2026-10-11
  • consolidates
    უცხოელთა და მოქალაქეობის არმქონე პირთა სამართლებრივი მდგომარეობის შესახებ

    საქართველოს საკანონმდებლო მაცნე (Legislative Herald of Georgia) · consolidated to 2026-06-25

    About this source

    The official gazette and consolidated statute book of Georgia, a legal entity under public law under the Ministry of Justice. Every instrument lives at matsne.gov.ge/ka/document/view/<id>: laws, organic laws, Government resolutions, presidential decrees and ministerial orders, each page opening with a metadata block that gives the document number, the issuing body, the date of issue, the source and date of publication, the date of entry into force and the registration code, then listing every consolidated publication by date with its own publication index. Above the body of each page the site states which edition is being shown: კონსოლიდირებული ვერსია (საბოლოო) means the final consolidation, and a different line means it is not. Amending instruments are published separately and in full, each citing the registration code of the act it amends, so a schedule whose consolidation is paywalled can still be reconstructed from the original plus the amendments. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty, including million-character statutes: the Georgian Tax Code comes back at 1,190,393 characters.

    Standing: Maintains the text in force

    Cannot be cited for: Three things it must not be cited for. First, it is not free for everything: for some Government resolutions - resolution No 255 of 5 June 2015 on visa-free entry, and resolution No 36 of 21 February 2013 on universal health care - the site serves only the text as originally published and prints დოკუმენტის კონსოლიდირებული ვარიანტის ნახვა ფასიანია, that viewing the consolidated version is a paid service requiring registration and the purchase of a viewing right. A reading of such a page is a reading of the original, however many consolidations have followed, and must be labelled as one. Second, it publishes the consolidated law and not the reasoning: no explanatory memorandum, no case law, no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Georgian immigration and tax practice sits in orders of the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Internal Affairs which it holds but which are not linked from the parent act. Third, the Georgian pages are the law and the English pages at the matching address are not the same document - see ge-matsne-en. Pages render statutes inside HTML tables, so stored text carries table pipes and <br> markers around the publisher's own words.

    We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source

  • publishes
    Law of Georgia on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons (matsne English translation)

    Legislative Herald of Georgia, English translation service · consolidated to 2026-06-25

    About this source

    The same publisher's English rendering of Georgian instruments, served at matsne.gov.ge/en/document/view/<id> - the same document id as the Georgian, so the two texts are one address apart. Where an English consolidation exists it is a full translation of that consolidation, with the same article numbering, the same amending-law footers and the same metadata block. For the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons the English kept pace with the Georgian through the amendments of 15 April and 25 June 2026, so the 2026 spouse permit and the interagency marriage commission can be read in both languages.

    Standing:

    Cannot be cited for: It may never be cited as the law, for four reasons found in the text itself. (1) It lags, silently to a reader who does not look up: on 11 October 2026 the Tax Code in English was the consolidation of 25 June 2026 while the Georgian was that of 30 September 2026, and the Organic Law on Georgian Citizenship in English was the edition of 7 March to 26 June 2025 while the Georgian was 25 June 2026. (2) The newest consolidation of a lagging instrument does not exist in English at all: the English page for Tax Code publication 246 and citizenship publication 12 carries no law, only 'Attention! The consolidation of the document is underway. You are not reading the latest version of the document.' (3) The default English address serves the last complete English edition under the line 'Attention! You are not reading the final edition', which is one line of body text above a million characters of statute. (4) Subparagraph letters are relabelled by alphabetical position rather than transliterated, so Georgian ფ becomes u, ჟ becomes p and თ becomes h - and the trap is live, because the Latin letter that a reader would reach for by sound lands on a different and sometimes repealed subparagraph: English article 99(1)(p) is Georgian 99(1)(ჟ), while Georgian 99(1)(პ) was deleted on 30 May 2018. It also mis-states one amending law's number, printing the law of 30 May 2018 as No 3591 in twelve places and as No 2391 in twelve others where the Georgian prints №2391 throughout, and it loses superscripts: article 21¹ appears as '211' and paragraph 6¹ as '61'. Cite it beside the Georgian, as a translation, never instead of it.

    We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source

  • consolidates
    საქართველოს ორგანული კანონი საქართველოს მოქალაქეობის შესახებ

    საქართველოს საკანონმდებლო მაცნე (Legislative Herald of Georgia) · consolidated to 2026-06-25

    About this source

    The official gazette and consolidated statute book of Georgia, a legal entity under public law under the Ministry of Justice. Every instrument lives at matsne.gov.ge/ka/document/view/<id>: laws, organic laws, Government resolutions, presidential decrees and ministerial orders, each page opening with a metadata block that gives the document number, the issuing body, the date of issue, the source and date of publication, the date of entry into force and the registration code, then listing every consolidated publication by date with its own publication index. Above the body of each page the site states which edition is being shown: კონსოლიდირებული ვერსია (საბოლოო) means the final consolidation, and a different line means it is not. Amending instruments are published separately and in full, each citing the registration code of the act it amends, so a schedule whose consolidation is paywalled can still be reconstructed from the original plus the amendments. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty, including million-character statutes: the Georgian Tax Code comes back at 1,190,393 characters.

    Standing: Maintains the text in force

    Cannot be cited for: Three things it must not be cited for. First, it is not free for everything: for some Government resolutions - resolution No 255 of 5 June 2015 on visa-free entry, and resolution No 36 of 21 February 2013 on universal health care - the site serves only the text as originally published and prints დოკუმენტის კონსოლიდირებული ვარიანტის ნახვა ფასიანია, that viewing the consolidated version is a paid service requiring registration and the purchase of a viewing right. A reading of such a page is a reading of the original, however many consolidations have followed, and must be labelled as one. Second, it publishes the consolidated law and not the reasoning: no explanatory memorandum, no case law, no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Georgian immigration and tax practice sits in orders of the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Internal Affairs which it holds but which are not linked from the parent act. Third, the Georgian pages are the law and the English pages at the matching address are not the same document - see ge-matsne-en. Pages render statutes inside HTML tables, so stored text carries table pipes and <br> markers around the publisher's own words.

    We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source

  • publishes
    Organic Law of Georgia on Georgian Citizenship (matsne English translation)

    Legislative Herald of Georgia, English translation service · consolidated to 2025-03-07

    Known to be out of date. The English text matsne serves at this address is the edition that applied from 7 March 2025 to 26 June 2025. Two later consolidations exist in Georgian and not in English, so this text does not carry Organic Law No 881 of 26 June 2025, which rewrote article 12(4) and article 13(3) with effect from 1 October 2025, or Organic Law No 1820 of 25 June 2026, which added article 29(3) with effect from 1 September 2026.

    About this source

    The same publisher's English rendering of Georgian instruments, served at matsne.gov.ge/en/document/view/<id> - the same document id as the Georgian, so the two texts are one address apart. Where an English consolidation exists it is a full translation of that consolidation, with the same article numbering, the same amending-law footers and the same metadata block. For the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons the English kept pace with the Georgian through the amendments of 15 April and 25 June 2026, so the 2026 spouse permit and the interagency marriage commission can be read in both languages.

    Standing:

    Cannot be cited for: It may never be cited as the law, for four reasons found in the text itself. (1) It lags, silently to a reader who does not look up: on 11 October 2026 the Tax Code in English was the consolidation of 25 June 2026 while the Georgian was that of 30 September 2026, and the Organic Law on Georgian Citizenship in English was the edition of 7 March to 26 June 2025 while the Georgian was 25 June 2026. (2) The newest consolidation of a lagging instrument does not exist in English at all: the English page for Tax Code publication 246 and citizenship publication 12 carries no law, only 'Attention! The consolidation of the document is underway. You are not reading the latest version of the document.' (3) The default English address serves the last complete English edition under the line 'Attention! You are not reading the final edition', which is one line of body text above a million characters of statute. (4) Subparagraph letters are relabelled by alphabetical position rather than transliterated, so Georgian ფ becomes u, ჟ becomes p and თ becomes h - and the trap is live, because the Latin letter that a reader would reach for by sound lands on a different and sometimes repealed subparagraph: English article 99(1)(p) is Georgian 99(1)(ჟ), while Georgian 99(1)(პ) was deleted on 30 May 2018. It also mis-states one amending law's number, printing the law of 30 May 2018 as No 3591 in twelve places and as No 2391 in twelve others where the Georgian prints №2391 throughout, and it loses superscripts: article 21¹ appears as '211' and paragraph 6¹ as '61'. Cite it beside the Georgian, as a translation, never instead of it.

    We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source