Georgia Restores One-Year Visa-Free Rules

Nine months after tightening visa rules, Georgia made a U-turn and re-introduced one-year visa-free stay for citizens of over 100 countries and territories.

Under rules introduced on September 1, 2014, citizens of those countries were able to stay in Georgia without visa for 90 days in any 180-day period.

But in early May, 2015 the Parliament passed amendments to the law that made it possible to extend visa-free stay from 90 days to one year.

The government was responsible for compiling the list of eligible countries. The list was published on the state online registry of legal acts on June 8.

The list includes EU and NATO-member states, as well as members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Among other countries in the list are: Argentina, Australia, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Brunei, Botswana, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Montenegro, Mauritius, New Zealand, Oman, Panama, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Switzerland, Turkmenistan, Thailand and United Arab Emirates.



When tightening visa rules in September, 2014, Georgia also scrapped the visa waiver for citizens of 13 countries: Iraq, Bolivia, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Commonwealth of Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Suriname and Saint Lucia.

These countries are still absent in the list of countries whose citizens can enter Georgia without visas.