Gita Edibekyan
“Radiolur” – Tbilisi
The regulation of Georgia’s migration policy is not directed against any country or any foreigner, an official from Georgian Foreign Ministry told “Rradiolur”, referring to the recently adopted law on “the legal status of foreign citizens and stateless people, which will be put into effect from September 1. This is a common regime that applies to all foreign citizens entering Georgia.
Effective from September 1, Georgia sets a new rule for the citizens of al countries. Only the citizens of the countries, with which Georgia had free visa regime, are allowed to enter the country without entry visa, and Armenia is among those countries. However, as the Head of Georgian Foreign Ministry’s Consular Department, Georgi Tabatadze mentioned, the citizens of Armenia may enter Georgia without visa, still the duration of their stay in the country should not exceed 90 days within 180 days period. This means that there is no visa requirement for working trips, meetings or leisure purposes.
According to Tabatadze, this is a standard regime, applied by the European Union (EU), when a foreigner wishes, for instance, to enter a shengen zone. Georgia will, henceforth, apply such a rule for all foreign citizens. However, the new visa regime will be put on all those, who will visit Georgia for a long time.
“Those, who will visit Georgia for the purposes of education, work or family reunification, will need to apply for visa to the embassy of their respective country in Georgia, based on which they will then receive a residence permit”.
The residence permit may, in turn, be temporary (from 1 to 6 years) or permanent.
According to the Head of Georgian Foreign Ministry’s Consular Department, such amendments of Georgia’s Migration Policy aim at making these processes more efficient and bring into conformity with state benefits. Besides, as Tabatadze mentioned, Georgia has started a dialogue with EU, which has requested to bring the migration policy of Georgia into compliance with European standards.
