Can Georgia deport foreigners for attending protests?: Yes. Under labour migration amendments effective 1 March 2026, foreign nationals who participate in protests in Georgia face deportation and a three-year entry ban.Source: OC Media
Does Georgia inspect foreigners' homes?: Georgia's Ministry of Internal Affairs has authority from 1 March 2026 to conduct unannounced inspections of foreign nationals' homes and workplaces under the amended labour migration law.Source: OC Media
What are Georgia's new fines for foreign remote workers starting May 2026?: Law No.1509, enacted 15 April 2026, creates a fine ladder of 2,000 GEL (first offence), 4,000 GEL (second), and 12,000 GEL (third offence) for labour migration violations, activating 1 May 2026.Source: Lowdown / Georgian MIA
Can Georgia's MIA inspect a digital nomad's home without notice?: Yes. The March 2026 labour migration amendments gave the MIA authority to conduct unannounced inspections of foreign nationals' homes and workplaces. The law's formal scope excludes those working for foreign employers, but the inspection power itself is not conditional on a finding of violation.Source: Lowdown / GYLA
What happens to a foreign worker in Georgia who attends a protest?: Under the March 2026 amendments, foreign nationals who participate in protests face deportation and a three-year entry ban. This clause applies regardless of the individual's formal visa status or employment arrangement.Source: Lowdown

Background

Georgia's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) acquired authority to conduct unannounced inspections of foreign nationals' homes and workplaces under the second-reading amendments to the labour migration law that took effect 1 March 2026. The subsequent Law No.1509, enacted on 15 April 2026, added sub-clauses K, L and T to the labour migration framework and established a fine ladder of 2,000 GEL (first offence), 4,000 GEL (second), and 12,000 GEL (third) that activates on 1 May 2026. Sub-clause T, intended to create a short-term professional activity category, remains inoperable because the implementing decree has not been issued. A separate clause from the March amendments remains in force: foreign nationals who participate in protests face deportation and a three-year entry ban.

The Georgian MIA is the primary law enforcement and immigration enforcement ministry in Georgia. It oversees the national police, border police and immigration services. The ministry sits within a government that has passed a "foreign agents" law modelled on Russian legislation, suspended EU accession talks, and whose Prime Minister has publicly stated Georgia will be "freed from illegal migrants".

The operative mechanism is the gap between legal scope and administrative practice. GYLA's Nika Simonishvili has stated that remote workers for foreign employers are outside the law's formal scope. But the MIA's inspection powers do not require a legal finding of labour-law violation to be exercised: an inspection can be initiated, a protest-participation check can be made, and the threat of deportation operates regardless of whether the underlying law formally applies. An estimated 7,200 remote workers in Tbilisi face interpretive uncertainty; those registered by 1 March 2026 have until 1 January 2027 to comply.

How the World Sees Them

Georgian government

Frames the MIA powers as labour-market regulation protecting Georgian workers; the prime minister has stated the country will be freed from 'illegal migrants'.

Civil society (GYLA)

Legal scope excludes many foreign workers, but MIA administrative practice is independent of formal legal findings; gap between law and enforcement is the risk.

Digital nomad community

Interprets the inspection and protest-deportation clauses as a chilling measure that effectively curtails civic participation and creates legal uncertainty for all 7,200 Tbilisi-based remote workers.

Foreign nationals in Tbilisi

Inspection powers and protest-deportation clause create a hostile environment regardless of whether the labour law technically applies to their contracts.

GYLA (Georgian civil liberties)

Argues remote workers for foreign employers are outside the law's formal scope but cannot rely on that protection if the MIA initiates an inspection.