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

Summary

Allowance

One full year — 365 days (China: 30 days per stay)

Window

From entry, not rolling

Reset

Exit and re-entry (reported border practice, not written law)

Rolling cap

None (China: 90 days in any 180)

Breach at

Day 366

Watch out for

183 days = Georgian tax residency

Entry condition

Health & accident insurance, min. GEL 30,000 (since 1 Jan 2026)

Basis

Government Ordinance No 255 (5 June 2015, as amended); Law on the Legal Status of Aliens, Art. 10(3)

Citizens of more than 90 listed countries and territories may enter Georgia and stay without a visa for one full year (Chinese citizens get 30 days per stay, at most 90 in any 180). The clock starts the day you cross the border, and widely reported practice treats leaving and re-entering as starting a fresh year. For the one-year list there is no Schengen-style rolling cap. Two caveats carry real weight — the reset is reported practice rather than written law, and 183 days in any 12 months makes you a Georgian tax resident whatever your visa status says. Since 1 January 2026 every tourist must also carry health and accident insurance covering the whole stay.

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. Other visa-exempt foreigners are limited to 90 days in any 180 (Law on the Legal Status of Aliens, Art. 10(2)), and everyone else needs a visa — neither is what this counter tracks.

The rule — and why it exists

Government Ordinance No 255 of 5 June 2015, last amended by Ordinance No 80 of 24 February 2026, lists the countries whose citizens "may enter and stay in Georgia without visa for one full year", as Article 10(3) of the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons provides. The shape of the allowance is unusual and worth stating precisely:

• Term from entry. The year runs from the date you cross the border, not from a calendar date or a rolling window. This is why Georgia cannot be modelled with Schengen arithmetic.
• Reset on re-entry. Widely reported border practice treats a fresh entry as starting a fresh year, with no minimum period abroad. No official text says so: the ordinance is silent on re-entry, and the law defines the period of stay as counted from the date you first cross the border (Art. 2). Treat the reset as convention, not a codified entitlement.
• No aggregate cap. Nothing in the ordinance or in the law totals separate visits for the one-year list. 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 stay. Re-entering is reported to start a new year from zero — practice, not written law.
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 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 reported practice her fresh entry starts a new one-year term — but the officer at Sadakhlo decides whether to admit her and may ask why she has been in Georgia for almost a year and what she does there. She carries proof of income and accommodation for exactly that conversation.

Example 3 — legal on the visa, resident for tax

Marek arrives on 1 March and stays through 30 September — 214 days, comfortably inside his visa-free year. He has nonetheless reached 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, and the law counts the period of stay from your first border crossing. A fresh year on re-entry is what is widely reported and what the counter models — but it is not a written entitlement you could point to at the border.
• China: 30 days per stay, 90 in any 180. China is on the list, but its citizens may stay visa-free for 30 days and for tourism only. Since 28 May 2024 the Georgia–China visa exemption agreement also caps the total at 90 days in any 180-day period and does not cover work, study, media activities or residence.
• Mandatory insurance since 1 January 2026. Under the Law of Georgia on Tourism, every tourist entering Georgia must hold health and accident insurance with cover of at least GEL 30,000 for the entire stay, arrival and departure days included. A Georgian or foreign policy in Georgian or English, on paper or electronic, is accepted.
• Amendments happen. The country list and the terms are amended periodically — most recently by Ordinance No 80 of 24 February 2026. Ukrainian citizens who entered before 24 February 2025 currently have their stay extended to 24 February 2027. Check the current consolidated ordinance before a long stay.
• Overstay fines and bans. Article 191 of the Code of Administrative Offences, as amended by Law No 875 of 26 June 2025, sets fixed fines with entry bans: GEL 1,000 and 6 months for up to 3 months over, GEL 2,000 and 2 years for up to a year, GEL 3,000 and 3 years beyond that. An unpaid fine blocks any new visa or entry until it is paid.
• Tax residency is automatic. 183 days in any continuous 12-month period makes you resident regardless of visa status — see Georgia tax residency. A resident individual's foreign-source income is exempt from Georgian income tax (Tax Code Art. 82(1)), but Georgian-source income and your treaty position still depend on the status.
• 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 does not appear in the ordinance or the law. The ordinance grants one full year, 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.
• "An overstay is just a small fine." Not any more. Since the 2025 amendments every overstay carries an entry ban of at least six months on top of a fine of at least GEL 1,000.

Frequently asked questions

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
• Legislative Herald of Georgia — Ordinance No 359 of 11 September 2023 amending Ordinance No 255 (China: 30 days, tourism only; Georgian)
• Legislative Herald of Georgia — Ordinance No 98 of 2 April 2025 amending Ordinance No 255 (Ukrainian citizens; Georgian)
• Legislative Herald of Georgia — Ordinance No 80 of 24 February 2026 amending Ordinance No 255 (Ukrainian extension to 24 February 2027; Georgian)
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia — Georgia–China visa exemption agreement in force from 28 May 2024
• Legislative Herald of Georgia — Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons (Arts. 2 and 10)
• Legislative Herald of Georgia — Code of Administrative Offences, Art. 191 (overstay fines and entry bans)
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia — Entering Georgia (consular portal)
• Embassy of Georgia in Australia (MFA) — Mandatory health and accident insurance for tourists from 1 January 2026