Gita Elibekyan
Public Radio of Armenia
The Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has published the list of countries with which it will keep visa-free regime, Armenia among them. The recently adopted law on the “Legal status of foreign citizens and persons with no citizenship” comes into force from September 1. Under the law, all foreign citizens, who arrive in Georgia for a long stay, have to have visas.
Although Georgia will keep visa-free regime with Armenia, some provisions of the new law will apply to Armenian citizens. The latter will be eligible to stay 90 days in Georgia within the period of 180 days. This mostly applies to those, who visit the neighboring country for vacation or as a guest.
However, those, who visit Georgia for education, business or to join their families, have to apply to the Georgian Embassy in their country to get visa, and on that basis receive residence permit in Georgia, Georgy Tabatadze, Head of the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, told Public Radio of Armenia.
The residence permits, in turn, will be either temporary (from 1 to 6 years) or permanent. Those who have had Georgian citizenship before will get permanent residence permits through a facilitated procedure.
Thus, Georgia is going to implement visa regime with 24 countries from September 1, while visa free regime will still be in force for 94 countries, including NATO and EU member states and the neighboring countries, from where many tourists visit Georgia.
According to Georgy Tabatadze, the changes aim to regulate the migration processes that emerged as a result of extremely open visa policy. Besides, Georgia has launched visa talks with the European Union, which requires to bring the Georgian migration policy into compliance with European standards.
