Last updated: May 2026 — rules may have changed; always verify with a local professional.
If you’ve read our introduction to living in Tbilisi, you’ll know that we chose Georgia partly for practical reasons — it’s one of the few countries where an EU and non-EU couple can live together for up to a year without a visa, and its Individual Entrepreneur (IE) registration offers one of the most efficient tax setups available for remote workers anywhere in the world.
What that introduction didn’t cover in detail is the actual process of getting set up: the registration, the banking, the tax account, and the part that nobody warns you about: what happens when the rules change while you’re in the middle of it.
This is that story.
Why We Used an Agency and Why We’d Do It Again
Before we even arrived in Georgia, we had already made one decision that saved us significant time and stress: hiring a local agency to handle the IE registration and banking setup on our behalf.
We used PB Services, and this is not an advertisement — it’s a genuine recommendation based on our experience. When I first contacted them from Vietnam, before we’d booked flights, they were responsive and knowledgeable from the first message. They answered every question clearly, gave us a transparent breakdown of their fees upfront, and made the whole thing feel manageable from a distance. It immediately felt like we were dealing with people who knew exactly what they were doing.
A good agency in Georgia is worth every euro — or every lari. The process itself is not necessarily complicated, but it involves multiple offices, specific documentation requirements, and a bureaucratic system that rewards people who know it well. Navigating it alone, in a new country, without the language, is possible — but the time and stress saved by having someone who does this every day is disproportionate to the cost.
We’d strongly recommend hiring an agency for anyone planning to register as an IE in Georgia. Whatever it costs, it costs less than the alternative.
The IE Registration: Simpler Than Expected
About a week after arriving in Tbilisi, we called PB Services to arrange an appointment. Everything moved quickly from there.
Step 1: Public Service Hall
Our first stop was the Public Service Hall. A remarkable institution that handles an enormous range of government services under one roof, and does so with surprising efficiency by the standards of most government offices anywhere. Our PB Services representative met us there, knew exactly which desk to go to, and guided us through the whole thing.
Our role in the process was minimal: show our passports, sign a form, pay the registration fee. That was the IE registration done. The whole thing took less time than we expected.
Step 2: TBC Bank
From the Public Service Hall we took a taxi to the main TBC Bank branch. Our PB Services representative met us there as well, led us downstairs, and we waited briefly before being taken into a private office.
The bank account opening involved filling in some forms, answering questions about our line of work, and providing documentation confirming what we do professionally. We set up both personal and business accounts in the same appointment. The process was straightforward and the staff were professional.
Our physical bank cards weren’t issued immediately; we picked those up a few days later from a TBC branch closer to where we were living, which was a minor inconvenience but not a problem.
Step 3: Tax Registration
The final piece was registering with the Georgian Revenue Service through the rs.ge portal. This was handled entirely by PB Services — and notably, they arranged everything before we’d even paid them. Once we settled the invoice, they sent us the login credentials for our tax account. Done.
The whole setup — IE registration, personal and business bank accounts, tax registration — was completed within a week of arriving. For anyone used to the timelines of bureaucratic processes in Western Europe, this is genuinely fast.
What Nobody Tells You: Rules Change Fast
Here is where the story takes a turn, and where the most useful advice in this article lives.
Georgia is a country where rules change quickly. Legislation that didn’t exist last month can be mandatory this month with a five-week compliance window. We experienced this directly, and it was one of the most stressful periods of our time here.
A few months after our IE registration, the Georgian government announced that every Individual Entrepreneur would also need to apply for a work permit. The announcement came with a deadline: five weeks to apply.
Five weeks sounds reasonable until you understand that the standard processing time for a work permit was four weeks — leaving one week of margin — and the fast-track option (processed in ten days) cost 400 GEL versus the standard 200 GEL. We chose the fast track because we wanted the security of having it confirmed well before the deadline.
What followed was not fast.
We got caught in a web of slow communication, government systems that weren’t working properly, and delays at every stage. The process that was supposed to take ten days stretched well beyond that. And at the end of it, our application was rejected.
The reason: we could not provide proof of a minimum income of 50,000 GEL earned since living in Georgia. This threshold had been written into the new law — but we had only been registered as an IE for approximately six weeks at the point we needed to apply. Earning 50,000 GEL in six weeks as a recently registered foreign IE was not realistic, and the law had not accounted for people in our situation.
We lost the 400 GEL fast-track fee. We lost weeks of time. And the stress of navigating a rejection from a government process in a foreign country, in the middle of a period that was already an adjustment, was significant.
Then, in mid-April, the government changed the law again. The work permit requirement for IEs was reversed. We no longer needed it.
All of that time, money, and stress — for nothing.
What This Taught Us
We’re not sharing this to put people off Georgia. We genuinely like it here, and we believe that bureaucratic unpredictability is a reality in most countries where the regulatory environment is still developing. It would likely be similar wherever we moved.
What we learned is this:
Always use a professional agency for anything involving government registration. The work permit process was something we tried to navigate ourselves — partly because the timeline was so short and the situation was so specific that the usual agency support wasn’t available in the same way. We will not make that mistake again. Yes, agencies cost money. The stress of trying to manage these processes yourself, in a foreign country with a language barrier and an unfamiliar system, costs more.
Build in more time and more margin than you think you need. Five weeks felt like enough. It wasn’t. When dealing with Georgian government processes, assume delays, assume system issues, and assume that the timeline you’re given is optimistic.
Keep records of everything. Every communication, every receipt, every document. When our application was rejected, having clear records of every step helped us understand what had gone wrong and respond to it clearly.
Don’t panic when things change. Georgia’s regulatory environment moves fast. Things that are true today may not be true in three months. This is unsettling, but it’s also the reality of living in a country that’s actively developing its systems. The best response is to stay informed, use good local contacts, and adapt when you need to.
What’s Coming Next
Later this year, we plan to apply for a residency card, which, at that point, will also require a work permit. We’ll go through the full process again, this time with the benefit of knowing what we didn’t know before.
When we do, we’ll write a complete guide covering everything. The application, the documentation, the timeline, the costs, and whatever the process actually looks like at that point. Given how quickly things change here, any guide written today might need updating by the time you read it, so we’ll publish that one fresh when we have the current, lived experience to draw from.
In the meantime, if you’re considering moving to Georgia, don’t let any of this put you off. The setup process, when it goes smoothly, is genuinely fast and efficient. The tax benefits for remote workers are real and significant. The country is welcoming to foreigners and the quality of daily life, once you’ve settled in, is genuinely good.
Just hire an agency. Build in extra time. Keep all your documents. And accept that the rules might change while you’re following them.
The Practical Summary
For anyone planning to register as an IE in Georgia, here’s the process as it worked for us:
- Hire an agency — we used PB Services and recommend them without hesitation
- Public Service Hall — IE registration: passport, signature, payment. Fast and straightforward
- TBC Bank — personal and business accounts opened in one appointment. Cards collected a few days later from a local branch
- Tax registration — handled by the agency via rs.ge. Login credentials provided once invoice is settled
- Budget for double fees — as a foreigner, most fees are double the rate listed for Georgian residents
- Expect things to change — Georgia’s regulatory environment moves fast. Stay informed and stay flexible
This is part of our ongoing series on living in Tbilisi and Georgia as long-term expats and remote workers. More guides coming as our experience develops.
Also check out:
- Moving to Tbilisi as an EU and Non-EU Couple: What We Learned
- Wi-Fi, Workspaces and Staying Connected: The Remote Worker’s Guide
- Why Every Airbnb Guest Should Document Everything on Arrival
Because when your Airbnb feels more like home, everyone wins.