Georgia's Parliament enacted Law No.1509 on Wednesday 15 April 2026, adding three remote-work exemption sub-clauses to the labour-migration framework and setting a fine ladder that activates on Friday 1 May 2026. First offence: 2,000 GEL (Georgian lari, roughly €670). Second offence: 4,000 GEL. Third offence: 12,000 GEL1. Foreign nationals already registered in the labour-migrant system by 1 March 2026 have until 1 January 2027 to comply; arrivals after that date are on the May timetable.
Sub-clause K exempts foreign nationals performing work "entirely remotely" for Georgian employers where no physical presence is required. Sub-clause L exempts foreigners rendering services to non-residents where the activity sits outside Georgia. Sub-clause T creates a new "short-term professional activity" category, but the implementing decree has not been issued, leaving anyone who would rely on T without a usable instrument before the deadline2. The Tbilisi nomad community of around 7,200 is reading those clauses now.
The law sits on top of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) inspection regime that came into force in March, and on top of the protest-deportation clause that runs alongside it. Foreign nationals participating in any street demonstration, including unrelated housing or environmental ones, still face deportation and a three-year entry ban. Sub-clause K therefore reduces the legal risk to true remote workers on paper without changing the enforcement risk in the street.
Georgian Dream's pattern through 2024 and 2025 has been to legislate narrow instruments and leave enforcement discretion with the MIA. Hungary used a similar architecture between 2018 and 2020, producing a foreign-resident chilling effect without a headline restriction on any particular visa category. The 1 May date is when Georgia's version of that template starts producing receipts.
