If your way into Georgia runs through a Gulf residence permit, it has to have a year left on it

The rule covers citizens of seventeen countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Uganda and Yemen. For these nationalities, Georgia's visa-free door is not opened by the passport itself but by a document issued elsewhere — and since the amendment, specifically by a multiple-entry visa or a residence permit from one of the six Gulf Cooperation Council states: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait or Oman. If you are a citizen of one of the ninety-odd countries Georgia exempts outright, none of this is your problem; you are on the ordinary route.

Before the amendment, the test was simply whether the Gulf visa or residence permit was valid. There was no minimum remaining validity, which meant a permit with two months left on it worked exactly as well as one with three years. The change, adopted in April 2025 and in force from 16 May 2025, introduced that minimum: the document must still be good for at least one year on the day you present it at the Georgian border, and a single-entry visa no longer qualifies at all. The stated purpose was to reduce irregular migration. The practical effect is that the people most likely to be caught out are exactly the ones who travel on an expiring permit and have done this trip before without trouble.

The second thing people get wrong is the length of stay. Georgia is well known for letting visa-exempt nationals remain for up to a year at a time, which is unusually generous and is a large part of why so many people base themselves here. That is not what this route gives. Entry on the strength of a Gulf document comes with a limit of 90 days within any 180-day period — the same shape of allowance as a Schengen short stay. If you are planning several months of scouting property, or a stretch of remote work, the difference between one year and ninety days is the difference between staying and leaving, and it should be settled before you book anything.

This rule dates from May 2025, and the Georgian visa framework has kept moving since — a separate requirement for all arriving foreign nationals to hold travel medical insurance covering at least 30,000 lari came in from 1 January 2026. Entry rules are the one area where reading a summary is not enough, because the cost of being wrong is being turned around at the airport. Before buying a ticket, check your own nationality and your own document against the Georgian foreign ministry's published visa information, and if your permit falls anywhere near the one-year line, treat that as a reason to apply for a visa rather than a reason to try your luck at the counter.