Georgia — Visa-Free Stay (365 Days per Entry)

Summary

Allowance

One full year — 365 days

Window

Per entry, not rolling

Reset

Exit and re-entry (border practice)

Rolling cap

None

Breach at

Day 366

Watch out for

183 days = Georgian tax residency

Basis

Government Ordinance No 255 (5 June 2015, as amended)

Citizens of around 94 listed countries may enter Georgia and stay without a visa for one full year. The term runs per entry: the clock starts the day you cross the border, and in established practice leaving and re-entering starts a fresh year. There is no Schengen-style rolling cap. Two caveats carry real weight — the reset is border practice rather than written law, and 183 days in any 12 months makes you a Georgian tax resident whatever your visa status says.

Who it applies to

This matters most if you are:

• A remote worker or founder using Tbilisi or Batumi as a long-term base.
• Someone running annual border runs to Armenia or Turkey to refresh the year.
• Comparing Georgia against Schengen and assuming the same rolling arithmetic applies.
• Approaching 183 days and unaware that tax residency is a separate, automatic trigger.

It applies to citizens of the countries listed in Ordinance No 255. Everyone else needs a visa, which has its own durations and conditions and is not what this counter tracks.

The rule — and why it exists

Government Ordinance No 255 of 5 June 2015, as amended through 2026, lists the countries whose citizens "may enter and stay in Georgia without a visa for one full year". The shape of the allowance is unusual and worth stating precisely:

• Per-entry term. The year attaches to the entry, not to a calendar or a rolling window. This is why Georgia cannot be modelled with Schengen arithmetic.
• Reset on re-entry. Border practice — consistent across every practitioner account — treats a fresh entry as starting a fresh year, with no minimum period abroad. The ordinance itself is silent on the mechanic, so this is convention rather than codified entitlement.
• No aggregate cap. Nothing in the ordinance or in Georgian immigration law totals your separate visits. Claims of a "365 days in any 540" rolling limit circulate online and are not supported by any official text.

Why it exists: Georgia has deliberately built one of the world's most open entry regimes to attract visitors, investment and remote workers. The one-year term is the headline of that policy. The discretion retained at the border is the counterweight — the state keeps the ability to say no without needing a rule that says no.

Counting the days

1. 1Day 1 is the day you cross the border into Georgia.
2. 2Count forward to 365. Day 365 is your last day inside the allowance; day 366 is an overstay.
3. 3Leaving Georgia ends that term. Re-entering starts a new one from zero, in current practice.
4. 4Separate visits are not added together — there is no aggregate limit to track.
5. 5Run a parallel Georgia tax residency counter: 183 days in any rolling 12 months is a different, automatic threshold.

Bounded encodes the allowance as 365 days per visit. A "full year" could arguably stretch to 366 across a leap year; 365 is the conservative reading and the app warns accordingly. If your stay is genuinely near the boundary, confirm the exact date with the Ministry of Internal Affairs calculator rather than relying on any app.

Examples

Example 1 — the clean year

Adam enters Georgia on 12 April 2026 and stays put. His allowance runs to 11 April 2027. He books a flight out on 20 March 2027, well inside the term, and his counter resets on his next entry.

Example 2 — the border run

Sofia has been in Tbilisi for eleven months. She takes a two-day trip to Yerevan and comes back. In current practice her fresh entry starts a new one-year term — but the officer at Sadakhlo is entitled to ask why she has been in Georgia for almost a year and what she does there, and to refuse. She carries proof of income and accommodation for exactly that conversation.

Example 3 — legal on the visa, resident for tax

Marek arrives in February and stays through to September — about 210 days, comfortably inside his visa-free year. He has nonetheless crossed 183 days in a 12-month period, which makes him a Georgian tax resident. His immigration status was never the issue; the tax clock ran independently.

Exceptions & edge cases

• The reset is practice, not text. Ordinance No 255 grants one full year; it does not say what happens when you leave and return. Every practitioner source reports a fresh year on re-entry, and that is what the counter models — but it is not a written entitlement you could point to at the border.
• Amendments happen. The country list and the terms are amended periodically; the February 2026 amendment cut Ukraine's three-year term to the standard one year. Check the current consolidated ordinance before a long stay.
• Tighter enforcement since late 2025. Georgia increased overstay penalties and improved database tracking of entries and exits. The old assumption that nobody was really counting is out of date.
• Tax residency is automatic. 183 days in any continuous 12-month period makes you resident regardless of visa status — see Georgia tax residency. Georgia's territorial system means foreign income is often out of scope anyway, but the status and its filing duties are real.
• Work and residence permits. The visa-free year permits stay; it is not a work authorisation for local employment. Anyone taking a Georgian job or building a local business should look at a residence permit rather than stacking visa-free years.

Common misconceptions

• "Georgia has a 365-in-540 rolling rule." It does not. This claim has been traced to sources that do not contain it. The ordinance grants one full year per entry, with no rolling aggregation.
• "I need to spend X days outside before returning." No minimum period abroad is required by any official source. What you actually face on return is officer discretion, not a waiting period.
• "Visa-free means tax-free." No. 183 days in any 12 months makes you a Georgian tax resident whatever your entry status.
• "The year is a calendar year." It is not. It runs from your entry date, so it can straddle 1 January without any reset.
• "Nobody checks." They do now. Georgia tightened overstay penalties and tracking from October 2025, and the official police.ge calculator exists precisely because the dates are enforced.

Questions fréquentes

Sources

• Legislative Herald of Georgia (matsne.gov.ge) — Ordinance No 255 on approving the list of countries whose citizens may enter Georgia without a visa
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia — visa information
• Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia — legal stay period calculator