A Work Permit That Starts at Six Months, and an IT Permit That a Sole Trader on the 1% Regime Can Hold
Article 15(ა) issues a work residence permit to an alien who has obtained the right to carry out labour activity, with the documents set by a Government ordinance, and article 16(1)(ა) issues it first for between six months and one year. Extensions run under article 16(3) on the same conditions as the original grant and may not take the total past twelve years. The interesting one is article 15(მ), the permit for a person employed in information technologies, which the 2021 amendment wrote to reach three different people: a labour immigrant, an alien registered in Georgia as an entrepreneur natural person holding Small Business Status, and a person authorised to manage and represent an international company working in information technologies. The first two must show at least two years' experience in the field and a certificate that their annual remuneration from it is not less than USD 25 000 equivalent in GEL. It is issued for three years at first and extended three years at a time to a maximum of twelve. That a sole trader on the 1% Small Business regime is named in the immigration statute is the join between the tax story and the residence story, and it is written into the Law rather than left to practice.
At a glance
- First term of a work residence permit
- 6 months to 1 year
Article 16(1)(ა) of the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons, which covers the work, study and family reunification permits together.
- First term of the IT residence permit
- 3 years
Article 16(1)(თ) of the same Law; article 16(3¹) extends it by 3 years at a time.
- Maximum total length of a temporary permit
- 12 years
Article 16(3) for most temporary permits and article 16(3¹) for the IT permit. Both state the same ceiling.
- Income floor for the IT permit
- USD 25 000 equivalent in GEL a year
Article 15(მ) of the Law. It is remuneration from labour or economic activity in information technologies, certified, not a bank balance.
- Experience required for the IT permit
- At least 2 years in information technologies
Article 15(მ) of the Law, evidenced by a document filed with the Agency.
- Small Business Status as a route to the IT permit
- Named in the statute itself
Article 15(მ) extends the permit to an alien registered in Georgia as an entrepreneur natural person with Small Business Status who carries on an IT activity defined by Government ordinance.
Requirements
- Work permit: the right to carry out labour activity, and the documents set by a Government ordinance
- IT permit: two years' experience in information technologies and annual remuneration of at least USD 25 000 equivalent in GEL
- IT permit, alternative route: registration in Georgia as an entrepreneur natural person with Small Business Status, carrying on an IT activity named by Government ordinance
- IT permit, third route: authority to manage and represent an international company operating in information technologies, evidenced by a document filed with the Agency
- Application in person or through a representative to the Public Service Development Agency, in Georgian
Country-level policy
The regime people are sent to is three articles of the Tax Code and they do not say what the advertisements say. Article 88(1) makes it available to an entrepreneur natural person and to nobody else, so it is a status attached to a sole trader registration rather than to a residence permit or a nationality. Article 90(1) taxes taxable income at 1%. Article 90(2) does not withdraw the status at GEL 500 000: it raises the rate to 3% from the beginning of the month in which the limit is passed until the end of that calendar year, with GEL 700 000 for wine tourism and agro tourism operators. Losing the status needs two years, not one - article 89(2)(a) revokes it where gross income exceeded the limit in each of two calendar years, and article 89(3) then dates the revocation from the start of the following year. Article 90(3) is the limb nobody quotes: the taxable income of a small business consists of income from a Georgian source, excluding salary income. Read with article 104(1)(გ.ზ), which makes a cross-border service Georgian-source when the provider is a Georgian resident, that is what puts a resident freelancer's foreign invoices inside the 1% rather than outside the tax.
Article 23 of the Tax Code creates a status for a Georgian enterprise that carries on activities defined by an ordinance of the Government and earns income solely from them. The Government grants the status and the Government writes the list; the Code supplies only the consequences. Profit tax is 5% rather than the ordinary rate, income earned from working for hire at an international company is taxed at 5%, and a dividend it pays is not taxed at source and is not included in the recipient's gross income. The status cannot be held inside a Free Industrial Zone, and carrying on an activity outside the Government's list cancels it retroactively to 1 January of the year that activity began. The 5% on employment income is the part that matters to a person rather than a company, and it is the reason the residence permit for people employed in information technologies, in article 15 of the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons, names international companies by reference.
The IT status that circulates as a personal tax route is neither personal nor an income tax provision. Article 8(35) of the Tax Code defines a virtual zone person as a legal person which carries out information technology activity and has been granted the corresponding status, and article 8(36) defines that activity as studying, supporting, developing, designing, producing and introducing computer information systems that result in software products. The benefit is in article 99(1), the list of profit tax exemptions: profit, and the distribution of profit, from the supply outside Georgia of information technologies created by a virtual zone legal person. So it exempts a company's profit distribution, it only reaches supplies made outside Georgia, and it does nothing at all for an individual's income tax. A natural person who holds the status is holding it through a company.
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
«ა) შრომითი ბინადრობის ნებართვა, რომელიც გაიცემა უცხოელზე, რომელმაც მიიღო შრომითი საქმიანობის უფლება.»Our translation - not official
(ა) a work residence permit, which is issued to an alien who has obtained the right to carry out labour activity.
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
«მ) ინფორმაციული ტექნოლოგიების (IT) სფეროში დასაქმებული პირის დროებითი ბინადრობის ნებართვა, რომელიც გაიცემა შრომით იმიგრანტსა და საქართველოში მცირე ბიზნესის სტატუსის მქონე მეწარმე ფიზიკურ პირად რეგისტრირებულ უცხოელზე, რომელთაც მიღებული აქვთ შრომითი საქმიანობის უფლება და რომლებიც ახორციელებენ საქართველოს მთავრობის დადგენილებით განსაზღვრულ საქმიანობას ინფორმაციული ტექნოლოგიების სფეროში, და მათი ოჯახის წევრებზე, აგრეთვე ინფორმაციული ტექნოლოგიების სფეროში მოქმედი საერთაშორისო კომპანიის ხელმძღვანელობასა და წარმომადგენლობაზე უფლებამოსილ პირზე, რომელმაც მიიღო შრომითი საქმიანობის უფლება, და მისი ოჯახის წევრებზე. ინფორმაციული ტექნოლოგიების სფეროში მოქმედი საერთაშორისო კომპანიის ხელმძღვანელობასა და წარმომადგენლობაზე უფლებამოსილი პირი სააგენტოს წარუდგენს ინფორმაციული ტექნოლოგიების სფეროში მოქმედი საერთაშორისო კომპანიის ხელმძღვანელობასა და წარმომადგენლობაზე უფლებამოსილების დამადასტურებელ დოკუმენტს. შრომითი საქმიანობის უფლების მქონე შრომითი იმიგრანტი, აგრეთვე შრომითი საქმიანობის უფლების მქონე უცხოელი, რომელიც საქართველოში რეგისტრირებულია მცირე ბიზნესის სტატუსის მქონე მეწარმე ფიზიკურ პირად და ახორციელებს საქართველოს მთავრობის დადგენილებით განსაზღვრულ საქმიანობას ინფორმაციული ტექნოლოგიების სფეროში, სააგენტოს წარუდგენს ინფორმაციული ტექნოლოგიების სფეროში შრომითი ან ეკონომიკური საქმიანობის განხორციელების არანაკლებ 2 წლის გამოცდილების დამადასტურებელ დოკუმენტს და ცნობას, რომლითაც დასტურდება, რომ მის მიერ ინფორმაციული ტექნოლოგიების სფეროში შრომითი ან ეკონომიკური საქმიანობის განხორციელების შედეგად მიღებული ანაზღაურების ოდენობა წლიურად 25 000 აშშ დოლარის ლარში ეკვივალენტზე ნაკლები არ არის.»Our translation - not official
(მ) a temporary residence permit for a person employed in the field of information technologies (IT), issued to a labour immigrant and to an alien registered in Georgia as an entrepreneur natural person with small business status, who have obtained the right to carry out labour activity and who carry on activity in the field of information technologies determined by an ordinance of the Government of Georgia, and to their family members, and also to a person authorised to manage and represent an international company operating in the field of information technologies who has obtained the right to carry out labour activity, and to their family members. ... A labour immigrant with the right to carry out labour activity, and an alien with the right to carry out labour activity who is registered in Georgia as an entrepreneur natural person with small business status and carries on activity in the field of information technologies determined by an ordinance of the Government of Georgia, shall submit to the Agency a document confirming at least 2 years of experience of labour or economic activity in the field of information technologies and a certificate confirming that the amount of remuneration received by them as a result of labour or economic activity in the field of information technologies is not less than the GEL equivalent of USD 25 000 a year.
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
«l) a temporary residence permit of a person employed in the field of Information Technologies (IT) to be issued to a labour immigrant and an alien registered in Georgia as an Individual Entrepreneur with Small Business Status, who have obtained the right to labour activities and carry out activities determined by an ordinance of the Government of Georgia in the field of information technologies and their family members, as well as a person authorised for the management and representation of international companies operating in the field of information technologies, who has obtained the right to labour activities, and his/her family members. A person authorised for the management and representation of international companies operating in the field of information technologies shall submit to the Agency a document confirming his/her authority for the management and representation of international companies operating in the field of information technologies. A labour immigrant entitled to engage in labour activities, as well as an alien entitled to engage in labour activities, who is registered in Georgia as an Individual Entrepreneur with Small Business Status and carries out activities in the field of information technologies determined by an ordinance of the Government of Georgia, shall submit to the Agency a document confirming at least 2 years of experience in labour or economic activities in the field of information technologies, alongside a certificate confirming that the annual remuneration received by him/her as a result of conducting labour or economic activities in the field of information technologies amounts to not less than the equivalent of USD 25,000 in GEL.»The English writes the figure as USD 25,000 with a comma; the Georgian writes 25 000 with a space. Same number.
Read it at the sourceAbout 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
«3\. The validity period of temporary residence permits provided for by paragraph 1 (except for paragraphs 1(d1), (e) and (h)) and paragraph 2 of this article may be extended for up to not more than 12 years,»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
«Labour activities of aliens shall be governed by the legislation of Georgia.»The Law itself says nothing about what work an alien may do. It delegates, principally to the Law of Georgia on Labour Migration, which we have not read.
Read it at the sourceAbout 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
The Government ordinance that lists the documents for a work permit, and the ordinance that names the IT activities for article 15(მ), have not been read here. Neither the document list nor the activity list is published on this record.
Article 15(ა) and article 15(მ) both carry a carve-out for people whose activity the Law of Georgia on Labour Migration does not cover; we have not read that Law, so we do not say who those people are.
- consolidatesუცხოელთა 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
- publishesLaw 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.
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