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Which documents to prepare for a residence permit consultation

This is for people considering an application for a residence permit in Georgia who want to arrive at the consultation prepared. It does not replace an examination of your own situation: the set of documents depends on the basis, on citizenship, on the history of your stay in the country and on how you entered. But when what is listed below has been gathered in advance, the consultation turns from a general account of "how this works" into an examination of a particular file and its weak points.

What follows: the bases for residence in outline, the body that takes the decision, the basic set of documents, the rules on translation and legalisation, the differences between bases and the common reasons for refusal.

Who takes the decision

Applications for a residence permit are considered by the Public Service Development Agency of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia. Documents are accepted through service centres; the decision is the Agency's. Three practical consequences follow for the reader:

• the form of the application, the requirements for the photograph and for the completeness of the file are set by that body and its acts, not by some universal "world standard";
• the law sets a maximum review period, which may be extended in the cases provided for, and the list and content of documents requested is in practice added to;
• a refusal is challenged in court; the time limits for challenge are short and run from receipt of the decision, so the date the decision is served matters in its own right.

A separate question worth clarifying for your own situation is what happens to your right to stay while the application is under consideration. That depends on the basis on which you were in the country when you filed.

Where preparation starts: establishing the basis

A residence permit in Georgia is not issued "in general" but on a specific basis. The basis determines the file, the logic of the review and the risks. In outline, the bases group as follows:

• Employment - working for a Georgian employer or carrying on business in Georgia.
• Study - studying at an accredited educational institution in Georgia.
• Family reunification - for family members of a Georgian citizen or of a residence permit holder.
• A permit connected with ownership of property - this is not an "ordinary residence permit for a flat" but a distinct kind of permit with its own duration and its own consequences. The value of the property must be no lower than the threshold set by legislation; the threshold has been revised and is checked on the date of filing, as is the recognised way of evidencing value.
• Investment - for investment in the Georgian economy in the amounts and forms defined by legislation and revised periodically.
• Special categories - former citizens of Georgia, stateless persons, people coming for medical treatment, and other special cases.
• Permanent residence - granted after the period of residence in the country on a temporary permit set by law, and also to a parent of a minor Georgian citizen and to a minor child of a Georgian citizen.

About permanent status, the key limitation to understand: not every period lived in Georgia on any permit counts towards the qualifying time. Periods on several kinds of permit do not count - in particular study permits, permits connected with medical treatment, and the short-term permit based on property. The calculation that treats buying a flat as a first step towards permanent status often turns out in practice to be mistaken, and it is sensible to check that before the purchase rather than after.

The list of bases and their requirements change periodically. Before filing they are checked as at the current date - not least because the practice of applying a rule can change faster than its text.

Another common mistake is choosing a basis on the principle of "whichever needs fewer documents". The basis has to match the actual state of affairs: the reviewing body looks at the substance of the relationship, not at how it is papered.

A residence permit, the right to work and tax residence are three different things

These are regularly conflated, and as a result people obtain a status that does not solve their problem.

Residence and work. A common expectation is that besides a residence permit you have to obtain a separate "work permit" document. In Georgia the relationship between the right to work and the right to stay is arranged differently from jurisdictions that have a separate work permit - exactly how is clarified for your particular basis.

Residence and visa-free stay. Citizens of a significant number of countries enjoy a long visa-free stay in Georgia. Some of the people who come asking about residence are lawfully in the country without it, and the question then is not "how do I get the status" but what it is for: a bank, a long lease, family, a future permanent status. That is worth talking through at the consultation before a file is assembled.

Residence and tax. A residence permit does not in itself make you a tax resident of Georgia, nor does it end your tax residence in another country. Tax residence is determined under the rules of tax legislation, and it is established separately from immigration status. Holding a Georgian residence permit while remaining tax resident of another state is a regular occurrence.

Documents needed almost always

Whatever the basis, the following are most often required:

1. An international passport - valid. The authority has requirements as to how much validity must remain on the date of filing, and they are checked beforehand.
2. Evidence of lawful presence in Georgia at the time of filing - entry stamps, a previous residence permit, documents on status.
3. A photograph in the format prescribed by the authority.
4. An application on the authority's form.
5. A document showing your address in Georgia - a lease or an extract from the register confirming ownership.
6. Documents evidencing the basis - an employment contract, a work permit, company documents, a certificate from the educational institution, a marriage or birth certificate, an extract from the register for the property and a valuation report prepared by a certified body.
7. Proof of payment of the state fee. The fees, and the tariffs for expedited review, are set by regulation and revised periodically, so their amounts are confirmed on the date of filing.

It is also worth keeping to hand what is not always formally on the list but is regularly requested or helpful: evidence of a source of income, bank statements, documents on previous applications and refusals, medical insurance.

An important practical point: many certificates have a validity period running from issue. A file assembled far too early loses its value just as one assembled at the last minute does. In practice the order of gathering runs from the slowest document to the most perishable.

A separate deadline is the end of your current lawful stay. The application is filed while your lawful presence has not yet expired, and in practice filing slips to the last day most often because of a missing apostille or translation. The date your current status runs to is the sensible starting point for the whole preparation.

Translation, apostille and legalisation

Documents issued outside Georgia are as a rule not accepted as they are. The general logic:

• Legalisation or apostille. Georgia is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so for documents from member states an apostille affixed in the issuing country is usually enough. For other countries - consular legalisation.
• Exceptions under international treaties. Georgia has legal assistance treaties with a number of states which may exempt documents from the apostille requirement. This is checked for the particular pair of countries and the particular type of document; there is no general list that applies to every situation.
• Translation into Georgian with subsequent notarial certification in Georgia.
• The order of steps. It is not the same in every case: an apostille may be affixed to the original, to a notarised copy, and in some countries to a notarised translation. The order is determined by the rules of the issuing country and by the type of document, and redoing what has already been done usually means going through the procedure again. So the sequence is established before the first visit to a notary, not after.

Where the documents physically are also matters. An apostille is affixed in the issuing country, and if you are already in Georgia while the document stayed at home, that adds weeks rather than days. It is one of the main reasons filings get postponed.

What is worth gathering in advance

Before the consultation it helps to prepare not only papers but facts:

• A chronology of your stay - dates of entries and exits, and the status you held each time. Gaps and periods when the terms of stay were breached are part of that chronology: they affect the assessment of prospects, and without them the picture is incomplete.
• The history of previous applications - whether documents were filed before, whether there was a refusal, whether the decision was kept.
• Scans of every document in legible quality, including passport pages with stamps.
• Family details, if an application for family members is planned: their documents are prepared in parallel, not "later".
• A clear view of your aim: a permit for a year, a route to permanent status, tax questions, banking - these are different objectives, and they affect the choice of basis.

How preparation differs between bases

Work and business. The key thing is to show the activity is real. That means the employment contract, the employer's documents, the company's registration details, evidence of turnover and tax filings. An employer engaging foreign staff faces requirements of its own, including turnover figures per such employee; their current values are checked on the date of filing. A company that exists on paper with no signs of activity is a weak position.

Study. The main document is confirmation of enrolment or study from an accredited institution. The accreditation status of the programme and the period of study are also checked; the term of the permit is usually tied to it. It is worth remembering here that a period of study does not count towards the qualifying time for permanent status.

Family reunification. Documents on relationship or marriage are needed - marriage and birth certificates, and where relevant change-of-name certificates. This is where apostille and translation requirements most often surface, along with discrepancies in the spelling of names between documents of different years. An important feature: family members' status is derived from that of the main applicant. It is issued for the term of their permit and ends with it, rather than existing independently.

Property and investment. Besides title, the value of the property is evidenced. A valuation is mandatory and is not accepted from just anyone: it is done by a valuer meeting the requirements of the authority - so the choice of valuer is checked before the valuation is paid for. In addition, the origin of the funds is generally evidenced.

What can cost you a status already granted

A residence permit once granted is not a permanent full stop. Besides expiring, it can be revoked. The situation most common among people who relocate is a long absence from the country: the law ties retention of the status to actually living there, and a prolonged departure can be grounds for revocation. The second typical ground is the basis falling away: an employment contract ending, being expelled from a course, a divorce, disposing of the property. For family members this works through the derived nature of their status.

Common reasons for refusal

A refusal in Georgia does not always come with detailed reasoning: some decisions are taken by reference to the interests of the state without disclosing the details. Even so, recognisable problems recur in practice:

• An incomplete file or documents not prepared to the rules: no apostille, an uncertified translation, an expired certificate.
• Discrepancies between documents - a name spelled differently, dates that do not match, contradictions about the address or the employer.
• The basis is not borne out in fact: there is a contract but no activity.
• Breaches of the terms of stay, or filing at a point when lawful presence has already ended.
• False information in the application - the worst of them, because it affects future applications too.
• A refusal on the security services' assessment - the reasons for such a decision are as a rule not disclosed.

The decision in a particular case cannot be predicted: it is taken by the authority, and no lawyer can guarantee the outcome. What is within your control is the quality of the file and the absence of formal grounds for refusal.

If a refusal has already happened, the decision itself is the key document to work from: what it says and when you received it determine which options remain open at all. A challenge in court is limited in time, and in parallel there is the option of filing afresh - including on a different basis. Which route applies is determined by the content of the decision and the circumstances of the case.

What to prepare for the consultation

• An international passport (and a domestic one if you have it) - the original or a good scan of every used page.
• All current and previous Georgian documents: residence permit, ID card, registration certificates.
• A chronology of entries and exits over recent years.
• Documents for the intended basis: employment contract, company documents, certificate from the educational institution, marriage or birth certificate, extract from the register for the property.
• A lease or a document confirming ownership of a home in Georgia.
• Documents on income and its source, if the basis involves that.
• Family members' documents, if a joint application is planned.
• Any previous refusals and the decisions on them, with the date you received them.
• Details of which documents have already been apostilled and translated and which have not.
• Timing: the date to which your current lawful status in the country runs.

Not having some of the items on this list does not prevent a consultation. It is often at the consultation that it emerges half of what you gathered is not needed and what is needed is missing.

Disclaimer. This material is for reference, sets out the general procedure and is not legal advice. It has been prepared without regard to the circumstances of any particular matter and cannot serve as a basis for decisions on filing documents, entering transactions or taking other legally significant steps. Reading this text or relying on it does not create a lawyer-client relationship. Document requirements, the list of bases, fee levels and time limits are set by Georgian legislation and secondary rules; the law and the practice of applying it change, so the currency of any information is checked on the date of the enquiry. The decision on an application is taken by the competent state authority, and no outcome can be guaranteed. To assess a particular situation, an individual consultation is the sensible step.