Georgia's C5 visa is law. The e-visa portal is silent
Caliber.Az and others are circulating Georgia's new digital nomad visa after final parliamentary approval. The Law on the Legal Status of Aliens now defines a C5 category. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs e-visa portal still tells applicants it is for stays under 90 days, and it does not name C5.
What Parliament and the gazette actually say
On 15 April 2026 the Parliament of Georgia adopted, at the third reading, amendments to the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons. The Parliament’s own notice is here: Parliament Approved the Introduction of a New C5 Category Ordinary Visa.
The consolidated English text on the legislative gazette carries the same category. In Law of Georgia on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons (Matsne document 2278806):
- C5 is an ordinary short-term visa for people arriving for short-term tourism who may work only for a non-resident, and only where that work relates to the non-resident’s activities outside Georgia.
- The visa may also go to the applicant’s spouse and minor children.
- A multiple-entry short-term visa may run for five years with a right of stay of one year — but that one-year stay exception applies only to C5.
- A C5 may be refused for Georgia’s immigration policy, and that refusal cannot be appealed.
That is the statute. It is a remote-work permission wrapped in a tourist ordinary visa, not a residence permit and not a permanent-residence clock.
What the e-visa portal shows today
The hit points at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs application site: e-VISA PORTAL.
That page opens. It still describes a three-step short-term e-visa. The English application instructions say the portal must be used for short-stay visits only (less than 90 days). There is no C5 heading, no “digital nomad” wording, and no published income test on the home or application screens we can read without starting a country-specific file.
So: the category is in the law. A clear, labelled path to apply for C5 on the portal the ministry points the public to is not.
Secondary outlets have claimed fees, review times and “safe country” lists. Parliament’s first- reading notice tied a reviewing-and-issuing fee band of USD 20 to USD 500 to related consular- fee amendments; that is a fee range for the category, not an income threshold. We are not treating unofficial $300 application stories as the bar until a ministry page or government ordinance prints one.
What is missing for a remote worker who wants to decide
Everything you would need to treat this like Croatia’s temporary stay page or Portugal’s D8 list:
- No income threshold in the statute or on the e-visa portal.
- No document checklist for C5 on that portal.
- No published nationality list on the pages above — first-reading debate language about “safe countries” is not the same as a decree you can check.
- No labelled C5 product on
evisa.gov.gethat contradicts the “under 90 days” instruction.
Until one of those appears, “Georgia launched a digital nomad visa” is the headline version of a law change, not proof you can file this week.
What a remote worker can actually do in Georgia today
For many nationalities the practical answer is still the long visa-free stay, not a C5 file. The Georgia page still marks no programme: the old “Remotely from Georgia” story is not an open digital nomad permit in this dataset, and C5 does not replace that row until an official application path is checkable.
A C5, even when issuable, is a short-term ordinary visa. It is not, on the face of the aliens law, a temporary residence permit that would start the permanent-residence clock the way a work or entrepreneur residence route can.
If you want a Caucasus or nearby route that already takes applications, look at countries this site marks active — Georgia is not one of them on the strength of this amendment alone.
We will update this post when the e-visa portal, a government ordinance, or a ministry page names C5, the fee that actually appears at payment, and any income or nationality rules. If you spot that before we do, tell us.
The row behind this
Every figure this post relies on lives on a country page with its source and its confidence grade beside it. That is where it gets corrected, and where it stays current after the post stops being news.
- Georgia — None (365-day visa-free stay)
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