Investment Residence Permit in Georgia

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From July 1st it’s going to be harder for foreigners to get residence permit in Georgia. From this day president’s new ordinance goes into force. IMPORTANT NOTE: This article is related to Investment Residence Permit. There are some other types of Residence Permits in Georgia, which can be reviewed on the bottom of this article.

Changes in Minimum Capital Requirements for Investment Residence Permit

From July 1st it’s going to be harder for foreigners to get investment residence permit in Georgia. From this exact day presidents new ordinance goes into force. According to the current law, a person can be granted the right of residence if they make an investment or buy real estate of not less than 300 000 GEL The draft law increases the amount of an initial investment to $300 000 equivalent in GEL.

Changes in Residence Permit Validity

Here is a good news for Non-Residents, validity period of the Permit increases from 3 to 5 years.

Changes in Permanent Residence Permit Requirements

Granted Based on Business Investment

Holder of Investment residence permit is obligated submit annual accounting reports to Revenue House of Georgia. Permanent Residence Permit Can be granted to alien, who was already holding investment residence permit for past 5 years and can prove the following :

1st Year Turnover is less than 50 000 USD equivalent to GEL.
2st Year Turnovers is less than 100 000 USD equivalent to GEL.
3nd t Year Turnovers is less than 120 000 USD equivalent to GEL

On the other hand, In case your company does not reach these threshold your Investment Residence Permit may be Terminated.

Granted Based on Real Estate Investment

This type or residence permit can be granted to non-residents investing not less than 300 000 USD in Real Estate in Georgia. Residence Permit holders must stay in ownership of the property during the validity of the Permit to be eligible for permanent residency. After five years of holding such residency you become eligible for permanent residency.

Key Fact About Business Immigration in Georgia

Citizens of 95 countries can arrive and stay in Georgia for up to a year without a visa. A person is perceived as an immigrant if they stay in Georgia for 183 days in the last 12 months and have spent 183 days in other countries in previous 12 months.

From those nationalities who buy real estate in Georgia, 53% of them are Russians and they occupy the first place. Then come citizens from the Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Israel. Between 2014 and 2018 70,508 foreigners were granted a right of residence.
Citizens of Azerbaijan occupy the first place among them who received the right of residence. Then come Russia, Turkey, Armenia, Ukraine, India, China and Iran.
The majority of labour residence permits are mostly granted to the citizens of Turkey, India, China, Ukraine and Iran.
Permanent residence rights are granted mostly to the citizens of Azerbaijan, Russia, Armenia, Ukraine and Turkey.
Educational residence permits are mostly granted to the citizens of India, Iraq, Nigeria, Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Due to family reunification residence rights are mostly granted to the citizens of Azerbaijan, Russia, Armenia, Ukraine and Turkey.

Between 2014 and 2018 only 9,408 applications were rejected. This equated to 12% of the total number of applications. ne of the initiators of the draft law and a lawmaker Ilia Tsulaia says that it was conceived following an incident when it was discovered that one flat was being used by 10 or 15 foreign families to try and get permanent residence rights- by cheating of course. A foreigner would by a flat and receive residence rights, then they would re-register it to the other family and they would receive the right of residence as well and for as long. So the idea of a draft law is to avoid such accidents and deter foreigners from cheating the State. He says that if one buys real estate and they re-register it to someone else, they will lose their right of residence automatically. Soso Archvadze, another initiator of the draft law emphasizes that a state should protect the rights of its citizens and entrepreneurs and this should not be perceived as a xenophobic act, but as an action to protect interests the State’s market

Types of Residence Permit in Georgia

Georgia issues several types of residence permits. However, these are the types which most probably reader of my blog would be interested:

• Work residence permit is issued to persons coming to Georgia for entrepreneurial or labour activities as well as to freelancers;

• Study residence permit is issued to persons coming to Georgia to study at authorized educational institutions;

• Special residence permit is issued to a foreign citizen who, based on a reasonable doubt, might be a victim of human trafficking. Such instances are specified in the Law of Georgia on Combating Human Trafficking. A special residence permit is also issued to a foreign citizen who has written endorsement from a member of the government of Georgia, asking to issue a temporary residence permit to the person. It can also be issued to a foreigner subject to expulsion, after 5 years since he/ she was granted the right of temporary stay, and to the citizen of foreign country who has a status of Compatriot Residing Abroad;

• Permanent residence permit is issued to a spouse, parent and child of citizen of Georgia; also to a foreign citizen who, holding a temporary residence permit, has resided in Georgia during the preceding 6 years. The period of staying in Georgia for educational purposes or medical treatment, or working for a diplomatic or equivalent mission will not be counted;

• Investment residence permit – Discussed in this chapter

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Be aware that resent changes also apply on other two types of residence permits: Work Permit and Temporary Residence based on Real Estate. Read more…. for Compete Extract from the law click here