Georgia used to be loose about foreign hires. If you found the right person, you hired them, registered what you needed, and moved on. That is not the reality anymore. In 2026, the employer side of the new Right to Work system became a real compliance process: vacancy posting, labour market test, candidate review, justification if locals are rejected, permit application, and then a second immigration step for the employee. If you are hiring a foreign worker in Georgia now, the main risk is not salary. It is timeline failure.
Fast Summary
- • Georgian employers now apply for foreign employees through labourmigration.moh.gov.ge
- • Before that, you usually need a Worknet labour market test
- • Standard processing is 200 GEL / 30 days; expedited is 400 GEL / 10 business days
- • The hire can be blocked if the agency decides a Georgian candidate was unfairly rejected
- • After approval, the employee may still need a work residence permit or D1 visa step
- • Treat the realistic end-to-end timeline as 4 to 8 weeks, not 10 days
Who This Guide Is Actually For
This guide is for employers in Georgia: LLCs, IEs, partnerships, local branches, and founders who want to hire a foreign national under a real employment relationship in Georgia.
If the person is not your employee, this may not be the right path. A foreign founder applying for themselves usually belongs in the self-employment registration flow. A remote worker abroad contracted through a foreign entity is a different situation again. The first step is getting the classification right. If you get that wrong, every document after that is built on sand.
Shortcut Rule
If a Georgian company will pay salary under an employment contract, think employer portal. If the foreigner is working for themselves through an IE or their own company, think self-employment portal. Mixed setups are where you stop guessing and get legal advice.
What Changed in 2026
Before the 2026 rollout, hiring foreigners in Georgia was far looser. Now the state explicitly inserted itself between employer and employee. That means two major changes.
First, a foreign hire is no longer just an HR decision. It became a regulated approval process. Second, Georgia introduced a labour market protection layer. In plain English: the state wants evidence that a local worker could not reasonably fill the job before you bring in a foreigner.
That is the real philosophical shift here. The old Georgia logic was speed. The new Georgia logic is permission.
| Then | Now |
|---|---|
| Employer-driven hiring with minimal friction | Agency-reviewed hiring with pre-application steps |
| Foreign employee compliance was simpler and often reactive | Work authorization is now a formal upfront requirement |
| You mainly thought about contract and payroll | You now think about Worknet, timelines, evidence, and immigration follow-through |
When You Need the Employer Path
You are in the employer-side Right to Work process when all of the following are true:
- a Georgian employer is hiring the person under employment contract
- the worker is a foreign national without an exemption
- the work is tied to your Georgian business activity
Typical cases:
- a local startup hiring a foreign product manager in Tbilisi
- a restaurant or hotel wanting a foreign specialist on payroll
- an LLC in Georgia employing a foreign commercial director
- a Georgian branch hiring a foreign technical lead
Typical non-cases:
- a foreign founder applying for themselves through their own IE
- a contractor invoicing you from abroad through a foreign company
- a remote worker living abroad who never enters Georgia and is not being onboarded into Georgian immigration status
The Real Sequence: How the Process Actually Flows
Most employers make the same mistake: they look only at the permit fee and processing time. That is not the timeline. The permit fee is just one slice of the process. The actual sequence is longer.
Step 1: Prepare the role properly
Define the job in real terms: duties, salary, skills, language requirements, and why this role exists in Georgia.
Step 2: Post on Worknet
Publish the vacancy and allow the labour market test to run. This is where the clock really starts.
Step 3: Review local candidate outcome
If local candidates are proposed, you may need to justify why they were not suitable.
Step 4: File permit application
Only after the pre-step clears do you submit the Right to Work request through the labour migration portal.
Step 5: Approval
If approved, you have work authorization on paper — but that may still not be the final immigration step.
Step 6: Visa or residence follow-through
If the employee is in Georgia without residence status, you usually need to move straight into the work residence permit track.
The Worknet Labour Market Test, Without the Sugarcoating
This is the part employers hate, mostly because it turns a normal hiring decision into a quasi-administrative argument.
The basic idea is simple: before the state lets you hire a foreign worker, it wants the vacancy visible in the local labour system. That means posting it on Worknet and allowing the agency time to see whether there is a suitable Georgian candidate for the role.
| Phase | What happens | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Vacancy publication | Employer posts the role on Worknet before permit filing | This creates the state record that the role entered the local market first |
| Candidate search window | Agency has time to identify suitable local candidates | You cannot treat this as a same-day formality |
| Employer response | If candidates are proposed, employer may need to explain refusal | Bad reasoning here is where approvals can die |
| Agency assessment | Agency decides whether you can continue with the foreign hire | This is the state’s choke point |
Brutal truth: if your vacancy is vague, inflated, or obviously written to exclude locals without saying so, you are asking for trouble. “Must speak flawless English” is defensible for some roles. “Must have my exact favorite profile from another country” is not.
The State Can Block the Hire
If the agency concludes that a Georgian candidate was reasonably suitable and your rejection was not justified, the foreign-hire route can stop right there. This is why the vacancy, candidate notes, and refusal logic matter so much.
How to Structure the Role So It Survives Review
Write the role like a serious employer, not like someone reverse-engineering bureaucracy. You want the vacancy to look commercially normal and operationally necessary.
Weak approach
Generic title, vague duties, no salary logic, and subjective requirements like “perfect cultural fit” or “international mindset.”
Strong approach
Clear duties, measurable skills, necessary language requirements, business reason for the role, and a compensation range that makes sense for the market.
If the foreign candidate is being hired because they bring something genuinely rare, state that in concrete terms. Examples:
- five years running a specific export market the Georgian company is entering
- native-level language needed for a customer base the company already serves
- technical certification or product expertise directly tied to the employer’s contracts
- group-internal transfer into a specialist role with existing systems knowledge
What you should not do is pretend a random mid-level generalist is somehow irreplaceable. That reads badly, because often it is bad.
Documents You Should Have Ready Before Filing
The portal step goes much faster if the employer package is already clean. By “clean” I mean readable, current, and internally consistent.
| Item | Why it matters | Practical note |
|---|---|---|
| Employer registration details | Proves the business exists and can hire legally | Keep company name and ID formatting consistent everywhere |
| Draft employment contract | Defines role, salary, and basis of employment | The contract should match the Worknet role description |
| Job description | Explains why the role exists and what the worker will actually do | Avoid bloated copy-paste HR jargon |
| Foreign employee passport data | Core identity matching | Use the same spelling/transliteration in every file |
| Qualification / CV support | Helps justify why this candidate fits the role | Best used to support your business logic, not as decorative paperwork |
| Payment receipt | Proof official fee has been paid | Save it immediately and label it clearly |
Fees and the Real Timing You Should Budget For
The formal permit fees are easy enough:
- 200 GEL for standard processing
- 400 GEL for expedited processing
But the part that trips up founders is the total timeline. You are not just paying for the agency decision window. You are paying with management time while the entire chain runs.
Realistic Employer-Side Timeline
That means a “fast” hire can still easily become a month. A more realistic one is often six weeks. If you promise a foreign candidate they can start next Monday, that is usually fantasy.
When Expedited Processing Is Actually Worth It
Paying double is worth it when the permit phase is the only remaining bottleneck. It is not worth it when the employer is still disorganized.
Pay the 400 GEL
The role is urgent, the Worknet step is done cleanly, the contract is ready, and the candidate’s immigration timing matters.
Save the money
Your job description is still moving, internal approvals are messy, or the candidate cannot onboard yet anyway. Fast-track a bad file and you just pay extra to be rejected sooner.
What Usually Gets Employer-Side Cases Blocked
- The role description is too vague. If the state cannot understand what problem the hire solves, that is on you.
- The refusal logic is weak. “Not a good fit” is not a serious justification.
- Contract and vacancy do not match. Different salary, title, or duties creates needless suspicion.
- The employer tries to move too fast. Hiring urgency does not erase the sequence.
- The employee side is ignored. Even after permit approval, immigration follow-through can still fail.
Write Your Refusal Notes Like They May Be Read Again
Because they may be. If you reject proposed local candidates, keep the reasoning factual: missing required language, no sector experience, no relevant certification, wrong seniority, unavailable for the actual schedule. Avoid emotional or fluffy language.
What Happens After Approval
This is another place employers get sloppy. The Right to Work permit is not always the final practical step. Depending on where the worker is and what status they already hold, the person may need to move into a visa or residence process immediately after approval.
| Employee situation | Likely next step | Why you should care as employer |
|---|---|---|
| Inside Georgia, no residence permit | Apply for work residence permit | Your hire can still stall if the person misses this stage |
| Outside Georgia | D1 visa path may apply | Onboarding dates should account for consular timing too |
| Already holds residence status | Less friction after permit approval | This is usually the cleanest hire from an admin point of view |
If you want the full second-stage playbook, read the work residence permit guide. A lot of employers stop too early and think “permit approved” means “done.” It often does not.
Founders and Small Companies: What Matters Most
If you are a small founder-led company, you probably do not need a huge HR machine. You do need discipline.
- pick one owner for the file
- keep the role description, contract, and salary aligned
- do not promise impossible start dates
- keep notes on candidate review and rejection logic
- prepare the residence step before the permit is even approved
The main small-company mistake is treating this like a “later” problem because Georgia used to be forgiving. The system is now formal enough that sloppy founders get punished faster than large companies with admin staff.
DIY, Consultant, or Lawyer?
This depends less on intelligence and more on case complexity.
| Option | Best for | Honest take |
|---|---|---|
| DIY | Straightforward role, clear need, organized employer | Completely realistic if you are detail-oriented |
| Consultant / admin support | Busy founder who wants process help | Useful for packaging and sequencing, less so for true legal ambiguity |
| Lawyer | Mixed employment status, tricky refusals, sector-risk cases | Worth paying for when the core question is legal, not clerical |
Practical Employer Checklist
Before Worknet
During Worknet Review
After Permit Approval
Final Word
Hiring a foreign employee in Georgia is still possible. It is just no longer casual. The winner in this system is not the most sophisticated company. It is the company that stays organized, writes clearly, and understands that hiring now has an administrative narrative the state expects to see.
If you run the process like a real employer, this is manageable. If you wing it, it becomes the kind of Georgian paperwork problem that eats weeks and leaves everyone annoyed.
Written by The Georgia Expats Team
We have spent years dealing with Georgian business setup, payroll, and residency friction points from the expat side. This guide is built for founders and operators who need the employer path explained in plain English, not legal theater.
Last updated: March 2026.
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