Changes to visa laws give foreigners new benefits

The Government of Georgia has approved amendments to the recently-imposed law on Legal Status of Foreigners and Stateless Persons and gave foreigners the new deadline on March 1, 2015 to sort out their documents.

After today’s Governmental meeting, Justice Minister Thea Tsulukiani noted that the new changes applied only to the foreigners who did not manage to obtain new documents before the new law came into effect in September.

New deadline

One advantage of the changes will see eligible foreigners able to obtain a relevant visa without returning to their homeland. This option will only be available until March 1, 2015.

"They will have the opportunity to get the appropriate residency permit at the House of Justice if they have enough documents for this,” Minister Tsulukiani said.

"In addition, an amendment has been approved today, according to which all Ingilos [native Georgians living on the territory of Azerbaijan] or other children of our country who has the other conuntry's citizenship, if they have a compatriot’s status, will be able to apply for a special residency permit to the Public Service Development Agency, so that they don’t have to go back to their homeland,” she said.

"These benefits will allow our foreigners to sort out their documents until March 1 and in a way that the visa liberalisation process with the European Union is not damaged,” Tsulukiani noted.

See the full list of countries eligible in the visa-free regime here.

Transit Visa

She said there would be also change to visa rules at Georgia’s borders, where the five-day transit visa will become a 10-day visa. This would combat the possibility of a transit vehicle being damaged on Georgian territory and the extra time will allow drivers to repair their cars without having to leave the country.

Other planned amendments will simplify the process of obtaining visas for tourism agencies.

Tourist Visa

After today’s Ministers cabinet meeting Deputy Economy Minister Dimitri Kumsiashvili told media that the first draft project on accreditation of tourism agencies was ready and would soon be discussed with business representatives.

"Tourists from about 100 countries can now stay in Georgia for 90 days without a visa. There are some countries we had a regulated visa regime with before. The difference is that now visas cannot be issued at the border – they should be obtained at Georgian [representations] abroad. We cooperate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to simplify the tourist visa obtaining process through accredited tourism agencies,” Kumsiashvili said.

The new law on Legal Status of Foreigners and Stateless Persons came into effect on September 1, 2014. Visa free travel with Georgia was revoked for 24 countries and citizens from 94 countries were now eligible to enter Georgia without a visa for a short stay.

Under the old rules, citizens from 118 countries were able to enter Georgia without a visa and stay for a maximum of 360 days. But from September, citizens from 94 countries were allowed to enter Georgia without a visa for a maximum of 90 days in a 180 day period.