Overall9/10Among the 5% easiest cities for visas
Good to know
Good to Know
- Most Western passport holders (EU, UK, US, Canada, Australia, NZ, etc.) can simply fly in and get stamped in for up to 365 days with zero paperwork — one of the easiest and longest visa-free allowances anywhere, which is a big part of why Georgia (and Kutaisi as an entry point) is popular with nomads.
- Since January 1, 2026, everyone entering Georgia — visa-free or not — must carry proof of travel medical/accident insurance covering at least 30,000 GEL for the length of their stay. Sort this out before you fly; buying a compliant policy at the border, if even possible, will cost more.
- The 365-day period is per entry, not a hard annual cap — leaving and re-entering resets the clock — but border officers can refuse entry if they suspect someone is using repeated visa-free entries to effectively live in Georgia long-term without proper residence status.
- Although not strictly required by law, having at least 3-6 months of passport validity left, plus a hotel booking or address to show, makes the Kutaisi airport border check smoother.
- Almost nobody actually applies for the formal "Remotely from Georgia" program anymore — most Western nomads just use the 365-day visa-free entry, which covers the same length of stay with far less paperwork.
- If you plan to stay more than roughly 6 months, you become a Georgian tax resident automatically at 183 days in any rolling 12-month period — this happens whether you're on a tourist stamp or a formal visa, and it's a legal filing obligation, not optional.
- Since March 2026, entering visa-free no longer automatically means you're cleared to work — check current guidance if you're a remote employee (not a freelancer/business owner), since this area is newly formalized and still settling.
- The 1% Individual Entrepreneur tax regime is popular and easy to set up (even remotely via power of attorney), but it doesn't by itself make you a Georgian tax resident or protect you from being taxed again at home — those are two separate legal statuses.
- Kutaisi specifically has no separate local nomad-visa process — all of the above is handled at the national level (evisa.gov.ge or a Public Service Hall), the same as anywhere else in Georgia.
Visa Free Entry
- Country
- Georgia
- Baseline Regime
- Georgia has one of the most generous visa-free regimes in the world. Citizens of a large list of countries (roughly 95-98, including the entire EU/Schengen area, UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Israel, UAE and other Gulf states, Turkey, Ukraine, and others) can enter without a visa and stay for up to 365 days (one full year) per entry — no visa application, sponsor, or paperwork needed beyond a valid passport.
- EU ID Card Rule
- EU and Swiss citizens (plus a few others such as Turkey, Armenia, Ukraine in some cases) may enter using a national ID card instead of a passport.
- Stay Period Type
- per entry (not cumulative per year) — travelers can exit and re-enter to reset the clock, though immigration officers can refuse entry if they believe visa-free status is being used as a substitute for long-term residence
- Not Visa Free Process
- Nationalities not on the visa-free list can typically apply for an e-Visa online (processing around 5 business days, expedited options available) or must obtain a sticker visa in advance from a Georgian embassy/consulate; India, China, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are commonly cited as needing this route.
- Who Qualifies 365 Days
- Citizens of the countries on Georgia's official visa-free list (set by government ordinance/decree, most recently amended in 2026). This covers essentially all Western passport holders that make up the bulk of digital nomads.
- Official Government Source
- https://www.geoconsul.gov.ge/en/visa-free-travel
- Max Stay Days For 365 Day Group
- 365
- Kutaisi Specific Note
- The same national visa-free and insurance rules apply uniformly whether entering at Tbilisi, Batumi, or Kutaisi International Airport (KUT) — Kutaisi's airport is itself a major low-cost entry point into Georgia (notably via Wizz Air routes from Europe), so many nomads clear border control there directly rather than in Tbilisi.
Other Shorter Regime
- Period
- within any 180-day period
- Max Stay Days
- 90
- Description
- A separate, smaller group of nationalities are visa-free only via holding a valid Schengen/US/UK/etc. visa or residence permit, or fall under a shorter allowance.
Documents Typically Checked At Border
- Valid passport (ID card only for the specific EU/Swiss exception noted above)
- Proof of accommodation (hotel booking, rental agreement, or invitation letter) is sometimes asked
- Evidence of onward/return travel is sometimes asked
- Mandatory travel medical/accident insurance (see below) — checked at both air and land borders
Mandatory Travel Insurance Since 2026
- Exemptions
- Diplomats, certain treaty-country nationals, and air transit passengers who do not clear passport control
- Legal Basis
- Decree No. 602 of the Government of Georgia, adopted 26 December 2025
- Requirement
- All foreign nationals entering Georgia — including visa-free travelers — must hold travel medical/accident insurance valid for their full stay.
- In Effect Since
- 1 January 2026
- Minimum Coverage
- GEL 30,000
- Note
- This insurance rule is separate from and additional to the visa-free entry rule itself — meeting the visa-free entry criteria does not exempt a traveler from this insurance requirement.
Digital Nomad Visa And Tax
- Program Name
- "Remotely from Georgia"
- Renewal Path
- The digital-nomad stay route is granted for up to 12 months and does not renew in place; long-term presence beyond that is generally achieved by exiting and re-entering to restart the visa-free clock, or by moving into Georgia's separate work-residence-permit track (6-12 months, extendable up to 12 years, requiring income of 5x the subsistence minimum and GEL 50,000 turnover) rather than by renewing the nomad stay itself.
- Program Status
- Launched in 2020 as a COVID-era route into the country; multiple current guides describe it as largely superseded and functionally obsolete now that the underlying visa-free stay covers the same length of time for most nationalities. As one 2026 guide put it: "the program is no longer relevant... it's being phased out and is now largely obsolete" and "the official government e-visa website no longer even lists this program." In practice, almost all nomads in Kutaisi/Georgia simply rely on the baseline visa-free entry rather than formally applying to this program.
- Visa Ease Tier
- high
- Application Path
- Application is submitted online (evisa.gov.ge) or in person at a Public Service Hall; processing has typically taken around 7-10 working days, and the route is free of charge for eligible nationalities.
- Income Requirement
- $2,000
- Territorial Taxation
- Georgia applies territorial taxation to individuals: Georgian tax residents are generally taxed on Georgian-source income (standard personal income tax rate 20%), while many categories of genuinely foreign-sourced income for a tax resident can fall outside the Georgian tax base — though this depends heavily on how income, invoicing, and banking are structured, and it is not an automatic blanket exemption.
- 2026 Work Permit Change
- Georgia's parliament approved labor migration amendments (June 26, 2025) that created a new work-permit framework effective March 1, 2026. This split visa-free/long-stay entry from the automatic right to work: a foreign national can still enter or stay visa-free or under "Remotely from Georgia," but working may now fall under a ministry-reviewed labor permission or work-residence-permit framework, leaving remote employment for a foreign employer in a legally ambiguous middle ground for some nomads.
- Baseline Visa Free Stay
- Citizens of 95+ countries (including the US, Canada, UK, EU, Australia) can enter Georgia visa-free and stay up to 365 days, which is the mechanism most digital nomads actually use rather than a dedicated nomad visa.
- Visa Ease Tier Rationale
- Georgia combines a very generous 365-day visa-free stay for 95+ nationalities and a low-documentation, low-income-bar digital-nomad route with an attractive 1% small-business tax regime, but a new March 2026 work-permit framework and an automatic, hard-edged 183-day tax-residency trigger add real compliance complexity that keeps it just short of the “Very high” tier.
- Crypto Note
- Multiple Georgia-tax-focused sources state that personal cryptocurrency trading gains are treated by Georgia's Ministry of Finance as not Georgian-sourced income for individuals and are therefore untaxed — but this comes from tax-advisory blog sources rather than a primary government citation we could directly verify, so it should be confirmed with a Georgian tax professional before relying on it.
Tax Residency Trigger
- Detail
- Under the Georgian Tax Code, an individual is considered a tax resident for the current tax year if physically present in Georgia for at least 183 days during any continuous 12-month period ending in that year. This applies automatically regardless of what visa or entry status (even a plain visa-free tourist stay) was used to be physically present.
- Period
- any continuous 12-month period ending in the tax year
- Alternative Route
- A separate High-Net-Worth-Individual rule lets someone become a tax resident without meeting the 183-day count, but this requires either verified assets over 3,000,000 GEL or verified annual income over 200,000 GEL in each of the last 3 years.
- Day Count Threshold
- 183
Documents Typically Required
- Passport valid at least 3 months beyond planned departure
- Proof of remote employment/business: work contract, business incorporation certificate, or employer letter
- Financial proof: bank statements or employment certificate showing income/savings threshold
- Health insurance covering the stay
- Criminal background check (clean record)
- Accommodation proof (rental agreement or hotel booking)
- Travel itinerary/flight bookings
Small Business 1 Percent Regime
- Tax Rate
- 1% of turnover up to the threshold, rising to 3% above it
- Exclusions
- Certain activities are excluded from SBS eligibility, including (as of Feb 2025) construction-related services supplied to Georgian recipients, which get taxed at the standard rate instead.
- Who Qualifies
- Individual Entrepreneurs (a simple, remotely-registerable business form) who obtain Small Business Status (SBS)
- Turnover Threshold
- GEL 500,000
- Residency Requirement
- Registering as an Individual Entrepreneur or obtaining SBS does not itself require Georgian tax residency and does not itself create tax residency — but without becoming a tax resident (183+ days or the HNWI route), the same income taxed at 1% in Georgia may still be taxed again by an applicant's home country.
AI-generated estimateData refreshed July 2026
Sources cited for this category
These are the sources cited in this visas research for this city. Individual figures may not each trace to one of them.
More About Kutaisi
Data last updated July 2026 · Verify anything important.