Permanent residence permit
Indefinite residence status for foreigners who have held temporary residence permits continuously for the preceding ten years.
The only permanent status in the system, and a document audit rather than a points test. There is no income floor, language test or interview on the merits. The Public Service Development Agency examines ten years of permits against entry and exit records, with no gaps. That sounds simple until you count the ways the record fails: a lapse between permits, a year studying, a medical treatment permit, a posting at a diplomatic mission.
Programme snapshot
| Item | Current rule |
|---|---|
| Main audience | Foreigners who have lived in Georgia for the last 10 years on temporary residence permits; spouses of citizens after 5 years; parents and minor children of citizens |
| Route family | Settlement |
| Validity | Indefinite |
| Stay per entry | Not applicable |
| Threshold | None beyond the residence record |
| Renewal | None; the card is replaced periodically |
| Settlement | Direct |
| PR clock | 10 years, excluding time on study permits, medical treatment permits and permits for employees of diplomatic missions |
| Citizenship clock | Starts the 10 year naturalisation count |
| Family | Yes, permanent residents can sponsor family reunification |
| Local employment | Yes, without a separate right-to-work permission |
| Tax headline | 20% flat, with a territorial exemption for foreign-source income (2026) |
| Processing | 30 days standard |
Application flow
- Request your full permit history from the Public Service Development Agency and check the dates against your passport stamps.
- Identify and document any excluded period: study, medical treatment, diplomatic employment. Those years do not count.
- Confirm no gap between permits. A short lapse can reset the count, with no written grace period.
- File the application with the ten year record, proof of continuous residence and the current permit.
- Pay the fee and wait 30 days. The file is an audit, so expect requests for the older permits.
Good fit
Anyone who has held continuous temporary permits for a decade, on the work, IT, family or property routes. Spouses of Georgian citizens qualify after five years of marriage and residence, the fastest genuine route to permanence here. Parents and minor children of citizens also sit outside the ten year rule.
Poor fit
Long-term visa-free residents, who have no qualifying years at all no matter how long they have been here. Students, whose years are excluded even though the permits were real. Anyone who let a permit lapse and restarted, because the clock restarts with it. And anyone who assumed the figure was six years, which it was before the amendment.
Watchpoints
- Only temporary permit time counts. Ten years of 365 day visa-free stays produces zero qualifying time. This is the single most expensive misunderstanding in the Georgian system.
- Study years are excluded. A student who stays twelve years may still be at year seven, with no partial credit.
- Continuous means continuous. A gap between permits, even a short one, can reset the count. The agency checks entry and exit records against permit dates, so a late renewal is visible.
- Medical and diplomatic time are also excluded. Treatment permits and work permits for employees of diplomatic missions do not count.
- The threshold was raised from six years. The rule is ten.
- Permanent residence is not citizenship. It gives indefinite stay and work rights and starts the naturalisation count, but not a passport or a vote.
Sources
- Public Service Development Agency, permanent residence permit requirements, checked 2026-10-22
- Public Service Development Agency, residence permit categories and permit history service, checked 2026-10-22
- Legislative Herald of Georgia, Law on Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons, Article 17, checked 2026-10-22