Georgia residence permit renewal, and the gap that breaks it

Why the date matters more than the paperwork

Permanent residence is granted after six years of continuous residence on a permit. Continuous is the word that does the work. A gap between one permit ending and the next beginning breaks the chain, and the count starts again from the new permit.

People discover this in year seven, when they expect to apply for permanent residence and find they have four qualifying years.

Georgia residence permit renewal: what you file again

• Proof of the ground you are renewing on, current rather than historical: the employment, the study place, the company, the marriage.
• Health insurance covering the new period, not the one that just ended.
• Proof of address, and the registration that goes with it.
• The fee, which depends on how fast you want the decision.

Documents issued abroad need an apostille and a certified Georgian translation, exactly as they did the first time. An apostille from three years ago is still valid; a police certificate from three years ago usually is not.

The part that is easy to get wrong

If the ground has changed, say your job ended and you now run your own company, that is a different permit rather than a renewal of the old one. Filing it as a renewal invites a refusal on a technicality. Say so at the counter and apply on the right ground.

Practical order

Start about two months out. That leaves room for the slowest decision option, for a document the office asks for that you did not expect, and for the apostille that has to come from your home country. Leaving it to the last fortnight means buying the fastest fee tier and hoping.