Work permit · Individual Entrepreneur · 2026
Work permits for foreign Individual Entrepreneurs: who needs one in 2026, and who does not
The rule is simple to state and contested in practice: a foreign national without permanent residence who works with residents of Georgia (the country) needs a work permit. What follows is what “working with residents” means, how to tell yourself apart from a remote worker with foreign clients, and what to do if you land on the wrong side of the line.
Checked 4 September 2026. General information, not tax or legal advice — your own case deserves a separate look.
Chapter one
What changed and who it caught
Not long ago the question barely came up. A foreigner arrived visa-free, registered an Individual Entrepreneur, invoiced whoever they liked and got on with life. The rule now reads differently. A foreign national without permanent residence who carries out employment or business activity with residents of Georgia needs a work permit.
“Works” here is wider than employment. Three roles fall inside the rule: an Individual Entrepreneur serving a Georgian client; a director of your own Georgian company; an employee under a contract with a Georgian employer. Different legal forms, one shared feature — a Georgian resident on the other side of the contract.
The reverse side matters more than the front. If your clients and your employer sit outside Georgia and you simply live here working from a laptop, a permit is generally not required. The requirement attaches to who you work with, not to your presence in the country. The tax side of that has its own subject — covered separately — but no permission-to-work question arises from it.
And the honest part. As of 4 September 2026 the practice is still settling: the wording admits interpretation, clarifications appear gradually, and borderline cases are decided on their facts. We describe what we see in real filings and we date every statement. Anyone promising you complete certainty here is selling confidence, not a legal position.
Chapter two
How to tell which side of the line you are on
The rule sounds abstract but is tested with three concrete questions, answered in your contracts and bank statements rather than in interpretations.
First: who pays you. A Georgian resident is a Georgian company, a Georgian IE or a resident individual. Such a payer has a Georgian identification number, visible on the contract, the invoice and the payment reference. A foreign client paying into your Georgian account does not become a resident by doing so: what counts is the status of the payer, not the bank of the recipient.
Second: where the contract was made and under which law. A contract with a Georgian counterparty, governed by Georgian law, with a Georgian address and Georgian courts for disputes, is a strong marker. A framework agreement with a company in Berlin or Austin creates no such marker.
Third: who the invoice is addressed to. Take the last twelve months of invoices and read the recipient details. If even one carries a Georgian tax number, the question needs closing rather than postponing.
There is a fourth, trap question people rarely think about: you are the director of your own LLC. The reasoning goes “I am my own employer, so there is no relationship here”. The rule sees one: the company is a Georgian resident and you are a foreigner appointed to run it. This is the most commonly missed case of all.
Chapter three
How the filing works: portal, grounds, timing
The application goes through the labour migration portal — electronically, with documents attached. Its key element is the grounds: the thing that shows which activity you intend to carry out. For an IE that is the registration extract and your contracts; for a director, the appointment decision and company documents; for an employee, the employment contract.
Processing takes 10 to 30 days, depending on the agency’s workload and on whether it has to come back for something missing. Asking cannot speed it up; your only lever is a complete file at the first attempt.
The usual order: the grounds come into existence first (registering an IE takes 1–2 business days), then the permit application is filed. Doing both at once puts them in one quote — 400 ₾ for the IE with Small Business Status and 350 ₾ for the permit, with state fees as separate lines paid by receipt.
The checkable outcome: you should be holding a document that names your activity and your counterparty. If it does not exist, it is too early to apply.
Chapter four
A work permit and a residence permit — two different documents
They get confused constantly. A residence permit answers “may I live here”. A work permit answers “may I work here with locals”. Different procedures, different grounds; one does not stand in for the other.
The practical link: a residence permit on entrepreneurial grounds rests on a working IE with turnover. If that turnover comes from Georgian clients, the permit question arises automatically — better closed before the residence file is opened than surfaced inside it. A residence permit on employment grounds rests on a contract with a Georgian employer, which is exactly the structure that requires a permit.
The reverse holds too: a work permit by itself grants no right to stay long-term and does not extend a visa-free period. It is permission to carry out an activity, not a residence status.
One question checks you: which two documents are in your folder, and until what date does each run. If there is one document and your activity is two-sided, something is missing.
Chapter five
What happens if you simply do not file
Working without a permit carries fines — for the foreigner and for the Georgian side that engaged them. We deliberately do not quote figures: they are set by secondary legislation and get revised. We look up the amount in force on the day of your assessment and show you the source.
The second consequence is less obvious and more often painful: questions when you apply for a status. When you file for residence, the agency sees your activity whole — turnover, counterparties, contracts. Work with residents and no permit looks inconsistent there, and can cost you not a fine but a refusal and a lost month.
Third is risk for your Georgian counterparty. A local company that engages a foreigner without a permit answers for that itself. Larger clients know it and increasingly ask for the document before signing. No permit quietly narrows the range of clients you can take.
The checkable conclusion: if you work with residents of Georgia, the cost of doing this properly is known in advance and modest. The cost of not doing it is neither.
Check yourself
Six questions that settle it
- Do you hold permanent residence in Georgia? If so, the rule does not reach you — a temporary permit does not count here.
- Among the people who paid you over the last 12 months, is there even one with a Georgian identification number?
- Have you signed a contract where the other party is a Georgian company, a Georgian IE or a resident individual?
- Are you listed as a director or an employee of a Georgian legal entity — including your own LLC?
- Do you have grounds to file: an IE registration extract, a director’s appointment decision, or an employment contract?
- Do you know the date your current stay runs to, and when the visa-free period expires?
If any of questions 2–4 is a yes while the first is a no, you most likely need a permit. We check that against your documents on the free assessment and say plainly when there is nothing to file.
Questions
Common questions about IEs and work permits
As a rule, no: it concerns work with residents of Georgia, not the fact that you live here. That changes the moment a Georgian company appears among your clients. Check your contracts and invoices, not your impressions.
No. What counts is the status of the payer, not the bank of the recipient. A foreign company transferring money to your account in Tbilisi remains a foreign client.
Most likely yes: you are a foreigner running a Georgian legal entity. No salary does not remove the relationship with a resident company. This is the case most often missed when a company is registered.
Processing runs 10 to 30 days. Our work on the permit costs 350 ₾, IE registration with Small Business Status 400 ₾. State fees are paid separately by receipt and appear as their own line in the quote.
As of 4 September 2026 the practice is still forming, and borderline situations are decided case by case. We follow the clarifications, date the statements on this page, and do not present our own assumptions as the rule.
Related pages: work permit — service and price, IE registration, LLC registration, working from Georgia for a foreign company, tax guide.
The next step
Does the 1% tax fit you — we'll check on a free assessment
A guide can't see your passport, your client list or your calendar. One call maps these rules onto your facts: whether your work clears the 1% exclusions, whether the 183-day residency line helps or hurts you, what year one costs. Free, and specific.