The C5 Visa: Long-Stay Access for Remote Work with Foreign Clients

The C5 visa, introduced in April 2026, gives foreign nationals who do not have Georgia's 1-year visa-free access a clean way to spend extended time in the country while working remotely for clients outside it. It sits in Georgia's short-stay visa category — a C visa, not a residence permit — but with a far longer validity window than a typical short-stay visa: a 5-year multiple-entry permit allowing up to one year of cumulative stay during the period.

What the C5 Visa Is

The C5 is a sub-category of Georgia's ordinary (C) short-stay visa. It was introduced on 15 April 2026 by amendment to the law governing the legal status of foreigners. The visa is issued for non-tourist purposes to foreign nationals who will perform entrepreneurial activity in Georgia exclusively for the benefit of a non-resident client whose business operations are located outside Georgia.

Two features make the C5 unusual for a short-stay visa. First, its validity period: up to 5 years, with multiple entries permitted throughout. Second, its stay allowance: up to 1 year cumulative physical presence in Georgia during those 5 years — distributed across as many trips as you like. That combination — long visa life plus generous stay budget — is designed for people who want a stable, predictable basis for spending substantial time in Georgia without committing to a residence permit.

Who the C5 Visa Is For

The audience for the C5 visa is foreign nationals whose home country's passport gives them only 90/180-day visa-free access to Georgia, or no visa-free access at all. For these readers, the prior options were limited: visa-on-arrival or e-visa for short trips, or the immigration visa and residence permit framework if they were ready to commit to formal residency. The C5 fills the gap — extended legal stay tied to remote work for foreign clients, without the residence permit pipeline.

The activity test is the same one that drives the April 2026 labour migration carve-outs: your work must benefit a non-resident person whose business is outside Georgia. A consultant in a 90/180 nationality serving clients in their home country, a freelance designer working on contracts for a US agency, a remote employee of a European employer — all fit naturally. The structural test is whose business benefits from your work, not where you happen to be physically located while doing it.

Spouses and minor children of the principal applicant are eligible for C5 visas of their own, on the same basis. This is significant for families: a single application track covers the whole household rather than requiring separate visa categories for dependents.

Who the C5 Visa Is Not For

Three groups should look elsewhere. Reading these before you start an application saves time.

1-year-visa-free nationals

Citizens of the 95+ countries on Georgia's 1-year visa-free list — including all EU member states, the UK, US, Canada, Australia, and Japan — already have what the C5 offers, and more. Their existing visa-free status permits up to one year of stay from each entry, with the clock resetting on re-entry, and allows operating an Individual Entrepreneur or registering an LLC during that stay. Applying for a C5 visa adds paperwork without changing your access. See Visa-Exempt Entry for the current rules and country list.

People relocating to Georgia long-term

The C5 caps cumulative stay at 1 year over its 5-year validity. If you are planning to live in Georgia rather than visit it for extended periods, the C5 is the wrong instrument. What you want is a residence permit — work residence, IT residence, investment residence, or one of the other pathways — which gives you the legal right to live continuously in the country and renews on its own cycle. The April 2026 amendments simplified the residence permit framework substantially for most foreigners. If you are weighing long-term relocation rather than extended-stay foreign-client work, see Working in Georgia for the full breakdown of the post-amendment regime.

People earning Georgian-source income

The C5 is conditioned on activity that benefits a non-resident client whose business is outside Georgia. Earning income from Georgian clients or working for a Georgian employer takes you outside the C5 framework. In that situation, the relevant question is whether you fall under the Right to Work permit regime introduced in March 2026 — which itself includes broad carve-outs for many work patterns. The Working in Georgia page covers that decision tree.

Validity, Family, and Renewal

The C5 is issued as a multiple-entry visa with a validity period of up to 5 years. During that 5-year window, the holder may stay in Georgia for a total of up to 1 year — counted cumulatively, not from each entry. There is no minimum-stay requirement and no obligation to use the full year; the cumulative cap is a maximum.

Spouses and minor children of the main applicant qualify for C5 visas of their own, with the same validity and stay terms. The application can be submitted alongside the principal applicant's or after it, depending on circumstances.

When the 5-year period ends, the holder may apply again. The C5 is not, in legal terms, a residence permit and does not produce a path to permanent residence by itself; if your situation changes and you decide to relocate to Georgia long-term, you would transition to a residence permit through one of the standard pathways at that point.

How to Apply

Applications are submitted electronically through Georgia's e-visa portal at geoconsul.gov.ge. The portal handles the C5 alongside Georgia's other visa categories. There is also an expedited procedure available alongside standard processing.

Supporting documentation typically includes a valid passport with sufficient remaining validity, evidence of the qualifying activity (a service contract, employment letter, or invoice history demonstrating that the work is for a non-resident client whose business is outside Georgia), proof of financial means to support the stay, and standard application materials such as photographs and biographical data. Family applications additionally require documents establishing the relationship — marriage and birth certificates, properly translated and apostilled.

The application fee is set by government decree, which at the time of this page's last review was still being finalized. Check the e-visa portal for the current published tariff before submitting. Processing times are generally fast for e-visa applications; the portal will show the current expected timeframe at the moment you apply.

Limitations Worth Knowing

A few practical points are worth understanding before you apply.

Activity confined to non-resident clients.The C5 is structurally tied to work that benefits a non-resident. Picking up Georgian clients or shifting into work for a Georgian employer takes you outside the visa's purpose. If your situation evolves in that direction, you would need to look at the Right to Work and residence permit framework instead.

Refusals are not subject to appeal. A C5 visa application can be refused on broad immigration-policy grounds, and such refusals are not appealable. The practical implication is to apply with complete, well-documented evidence of the qualifying activity and financial means; a thin file is the most common avoidable cause of refusal.

Some pending detail. Two parts of the C5 framework are being filled in by future government decrees: the precise application tariff and the official list of nationalities for whom C5 is the recommended or required visa category. The structural rules — validity, stay allowance, eligibility test, family inclusion — are settled in primary law. Specific numbers and the exact nationality scope will be confirmed when the implementing decrees publish.

What to Do Next

• If you are unsure whether your nationality has 1-year visa-free access to Georgia, check the Visa-Exempt Entry page first. C5 is unnecessary if 1-year visa-free already applies to you.
• If you are considering long-term relocation rather than extended-stay foreign-client work, see Working in Georgia for the post-April-2026 work permit and residence permit framework.
• If you are still choosing among Georgia's residency and stay options more broadly, the residency overview compares the available pathways.
• For the e-visa portal and other official government endpoints — including the consular affairs portal and the labour migration application portal — see Useful Links.