Retreat Paperwork in Georgia (the Country) 2026: Visas, Insurance and Invoicing

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Published 6 November 2026·16 min read·Prices and facts checked: November 2026

Most foreign facilitators need no Georgian company and no work permit for a retreat in Georgia: a visa-free passport, 30,000 GEL insurance for everyone, a free short-term activity registration filed by a Georgian party, a local hiking guide and a clear venue invoice.

A foreign facilitator can run a retreat in Georgia without a Georgian company and, in most cases, without a work permit. What you do need: a passport that enters visa-free (or an e-visa), a health and accident insurance policy of at least 30,000 GEL for you and every participant, a free short-term activity registration filed by a Georgian party before your first session, a licensed local guide for any hike, and a clear contract and invoice with the venue.

This guide walks through each item in the order you deal with it, with the official source for every rule and the 2026 costs. We host retreats of up to 30 people at Glamping Tago in the mountains of Adjara, and these are the questions organisers send us every week.

Five things: entry, insurance, the right to lead sessions, tax at home, and a venue contract you can pay from abroad. A company, an individual entrepreneur registration or a Georgian bank account are not on the list for a one-off retreat.

Yes, if your passport is on Georgia's list: citizens of 94 countries and territories, including every EU state, the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, Israel and Ukraine, can enter and stay for a full year without a visa under Government Ordinance No. 255. EU citizens can travel on their national ID card.

Participants with other passports apply for an e-visa online at evisa.gov.ge: the fee is US$20 plus a 2% service charge, and a decision takes at least five working days (The Georgian Guide). Holders of a valid US, UK or Schengen visa or residence permit get 90 days in any 180 without one (The Georgian Guide).

Yes. Since 1 January 2026 every foreign visitor needs health and accident insurance with a limit of at least 30,000 GEL that covers the whole stay in Georgia, under Government Decree No. 602. The policy can be paper or electronic, in Georgian or English, from a Georgian insurer or any foreign insurer licensed in its own country.

What the policy has to show: the insured person, Georgia as the territory, start and end dates covering your full stay, the risks, the limit and the premium. The Patrol Police can ask for it at any border crossing point, and airlines may check it at check-in. Germany's Foreign Office puts the 30,000 GEL at about 10,000 EUR.

Your own travel policy from home counts when its medical limit is 30,000 GEL or more, it covers Georgia and it runs for the whole stay. If not, a local visitor policy costs very little. These are the prices for a 14-day stay on the toola.ge comparison:

Brokers resell the same visitor policies at large markups (Batumi Investment Club), so buy direct from the insurer's own site.

The decree sets no fine for arriving without a policy, but you can be refused entry or sent to buy one on the spot (tbilisi.work). Officers do not ask everyone: some 2026 arrivals were checked, many were not, and practice varies by airport, airline and day (Georgia Expats). Collect a PDF from every participant a week before arrival and the question never comes up.

Usually not. Since July 2026 a foreigner who comes for a specific, short project, event or service needs no right to work and no residence permit, as long as a Georgian party registers the activity before it starts. Leading a week-long retreat at a venue fits that description; without the registration, it is unauthorised work.

The rule since 1 March 2026

From 1 March 2026 most foreigners need a "right to work" before they take a job or work as self-employed in Georgia (Relocation.ge). The Labour Migration Law treats a foreigner who provides paid services in Georgia as a self-employed alien. A self-employed applicant applies in person, pays 200 GEL for a decision in 30 calendar days or 400 GEL for 10 working days, and sits a video interview in Georgian or English (Georgia Guidebook).

The right to work is built for people who live here. Once it is granted, you apply for a D1 visa within 30 days from abroad, or for a residence permit within 10 days if you are already in Georgia (Investor.ge). For one or two retreats a year, that is the wrong tool.

The short-term professional activity route

A law change of 15 April 2026 added Article 13-9: short-term professional activity tied to a specific project, event or service during a temporary visit needs no right to work (Labour Migration Law, Art. 13-9). Ordinance 321, in force since 10 July 2026, sets the limits:

• At most 4 months in total in a calendar year, counted from the day the activity starts, and never longer than your lawful stay.
• The local employer or service organiser registers you in the labour migration e-system before the activity starts. Registration is free.
• It only counts once the agency confirms the registration. Unregistered, it is not short-term activity, and both you and the Georgian party are liable.
• It never covers the quota professions: couriers, passenger transport, and tour, mountain, alpine and ski guiding (Andersen).

Who registers you

The Georgian side does. The Labour Migration Law defines a service organiser as any person or company that enters a transaction with you from which you receive money, and the ordinance puts the registration on the local one. When a Georgian company pays you, such as a co-host, a studio, a tour operator or a venue that pays you a commission, it files the registration. When every payment comes from participants abroad and no Georgian party pays you, get the registration route in writing from a Georgian immigration lawyer before you sell places.

No. From 1 March 2026 the annual quota for foreign tour guides is zero, and mountain, alpine and ski guides share 200 permits a year (Nairametrics). Because guiding is a quota profession, the short-term route does not cover it either. Lead the yoga, the breathwork or the workshop, and hand the trail to a local guide.

Georgian guides now register in the GNTA database of tourism businesses, and from 1 January 2027 operating unregistered costs 500 GEL, 1,000 GEL on a repeat (Eventive). Mountain, ski and alpine guiding is a high-risk service that needs a certificate: from 1 June 2027 guiding without one costs 3,000 GEL, 6,000 GEL on a repeat (Eventive, Patroni). Ask your venue for a guide who is already registered.

At Glamping Tago our guide from the village is 150 GEL for a half day and 200 GEL for a full day (hiking from the camp), and five marked routes start at the tents.

No, not for a retreat you run from abroad. Your contract with the venue can sit with your home company or with you as a private person, and the venue invoices it.

An individual entrepreneur (IE) registration is cheap, 26 GEL in one working day or 75 GEL the same day at the National Agency of Public Registry, with an LLC at 200 or 400 GEL. It brings the 1% small business tax on turnover up to 500,000 GEL a year (PwC). But an IE needs a real legal address in Georgia (Best Accountants Tbilisi), and a foreigner without permanent residence running an IE is self-employed and needs the full right to work. That makes sense if you move to Georgia and run retreats all season. For a week in June, it adds paperwork and solves nothing.

If you do settle here, the registration happens at a Public Service Hall. In Batumi it is at 18 Pirosmani Street, open Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 18:00; bring your passport.

Money you earn for leading sessions in Georgia is Georgian-source income, wherever your participants pay you and whichever account it lands in (legali.ge). Which country finally taxes it depends on the tax treaty between Georgia and your home country.

• Georgia taxes individuals at a flat 20% (PwC).
• You become tax resident after 183 days in Georgia in any continuous 12 months (PwC); a retreat leader on short visits stays non-resident.
• A Georgian company paying a non-resident company for services rendered in Georgia withholds 10% (PwC). If a venue pays you a commission, agree before signing whether it is paid gross or net and which treaty form it needs from you.
• Georgia has double tax treaties in force with Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and many more: the full list is on the Ministry of Finance site, and the UK treaty has applied in Georgia since 1 January 2006.

Georgian VAT is 18%, and hotels and guesthouses charge it on accommodation like any other service (GE Coast). A business only has to register for VAT once its turnover passes 100,000 GEL in any 12 months, so a small family guesthouse often charges none (PwC).

What that means for you:

• Ask for the invoice format at booking. If your company needs VAT shown separately, say so before you pay the deposit. A business that is not VAT-registered cannot issue a VAT invoice.
• Accommodation is not VAT-exempt. The exempt list covers mainly financial services and certain medicines; exports are zero-rated (Grant Thornton). Tourist packages sold by tour operators to foreign tourists get 0%, a venue's room invoice does not (CCI France Georgia).
• EU companies can reclaim it. Under Article 181 of the Tax Code, a taxable person from an EU member state that is not VAT-registered in Georgia can reclaim Georgian VAT on purchases used for its taxable business at home (CCI France Georgia).
• Your invoice to a Georgian company carries no Georgian VAT. When a Georgian VAT payer buys your services, it accounts for the VAT itself under the reverse charge (Relocation.ge).
• Tax-free shopping does not cover the stay. Foreigners get VAT back only on goods taken out of Georgia, from 200 GEL on one receipt (Legal.ge).

Prices in Georgia must be advertised in lari, and a repeat breach costs the business 1,000 GEL (Legal.ge). Your contract can still be in euros: the price is set in EUR or USD, and a payment inside Georgia goes in lari at the official rate (Bauer Group).

By SWIFT bank transfer, Wise or card, in GEL or in euros from abroad. Payments inside Georgia are made only in lari, but money sent from abroad in foreign currency does not have to be converted (JUST Advisors).

The two big banks' SWIFT codes are BAGAGE22 for Bank of Georgia and TBCBGE22 for TBC Bank (Georgia Expats). Always copy the full IBAN and beneficiary name from the venue's invoice rather than from an old email.

One contract, one invoice and a clear payment schedule. We are a small family venue in Adjara, and the whole camp belongs to your group for the stay.

Glamping Tago (our venue), Adjara

• Where: on the ridge above Village Tago, Khulo municipality, at about 1,200 m
• From the airport: 87 km, about 2 hours from Batumi
• Capacity: retreats of up to 30 people; a whole-camp buyout takes 12 to 33, all sleeping on site
• Price from (2026): the whole camp from 1,962 GEL a night in April to 4,488 GEL in July and August; food 100 GEL per person a day
• Season: April to the end of October

The contract is with Glamping Tago LLC, a company registered in Georgia, and our terms set out the schedule: 30% of the total confirms your dates and is not refundable; the accommodation balance is invoiced when you confirm final numbers 14 days before arrival and is paid before you arrive; food and extras are settled at the end of the stay. Dates can be held for one week without a deposit. For a last-minute booking inside about 60 days of a June to August date, at least 50% is paid upfront, non-refundable, and the rest within a week. Our prices are in GEL and include Georgian taxes, company invoices come in GEL or EUR, and bank charges on a transfer are paid by the sender. As the organiser you eat free for the whole stay, and a 10% organiser commission is paid against your commission invoice.

Book the whole camp if you want it to yourselves. A partial booking works for small groups, but then the hill, the sauna and the yoga spaces are shared with other guests on a schedule. You practise on a 138 m² platform under a sailcloth tent or in the 38 m² heated yoga dome, guests mention the views first in their reviews, and the evening sauna is free for everyone staying. Starlink Wi-Fi runs at about 300 Mbps, enough for online forms, signatures and video calls from the camp.

By transfer or marshrutka to Khulo, then a 4x4 up the last stretch. From Batumi airport it is 87 km by road, along the Batumi to Akhaltsikhe road to Khulo, about 2 to 2.5 hours in all.

• Private 4x4 straight to the camp: 265 GEL per car of up to 4 people from Batumi, 465 GEL from Kutaisi (how to get here).
• Marshrutka to Khulo: from Batumi bus station every 30 minutes, 08:00 to 20:00, about 10 GEL and 2.5 hours, then our 4x4 taxi up for 75 GEL per car.
• Group minibus: we arrange it for the whole group, quoted with your retreat.

Transfers are paid in cash at our reception, never to the driver. Flights and arrival times for a group are in our guide to flights to Batumi and Kutaisi.

1. 6 to 12 months ahead: fix dates and sign with the venue. June to September dates for whole-camp groups go 6 to 12 months ahead. We hold dates for a week without a deposit; the 30% deposit then confirms them.
2. Straight after booking: settle who registers your short-term activity, and in what name. If you need a right to work instead, apply at least two months out.
3. 4 months ahead: check every participant's passport against Ordinance 255; anyone who needs an e-visa applies now.
4. 3 months ahead: send your home tax adviser the dates, who pays you and the venue contract. Book the local guide with the venue.
5. 60 days ahead: last day to remove tents freely; from 60 to 30 days up to 2 tents come off free, from 30 to 14 days one more.
6. 30 days ahead: send the venue your programme. Ask the Georgian party for the confirmed registration.
7. 14 days ahead: confirm the final headcount in writing; the accommodation balance is invoiced and paid before arrival.
8. 7 days ahead: send the tent list and collect every participant's insurance PDF. Anyone buying a local policy buys it at least 24 hours before landing.
9. On site: food, extras and transfers are settled at the end; keep the confirmed registration and your policy on your phone.

Glamping Tago for this

A retreat at Glamping Tago, with the paperwork kept simple

We are Jonas and Lisa, a Belgian couple who fell in love with Georgia and opened Glamping Tago in 2021. We built it for retreats of up to 30 people: the whole camp belongs to your group, everyone sleeps on the ridge, and you bring your own programme and teachers.

You sign one contract with Glamping Tago LLC, a Georgian company. 30% of the total holds your dates, the accommodation balance is invoiced 14 days before arrival, and food and extras are settled at the end. Company invoices come in GEL or EUR, and you pay by bank transfer, card or a 24-hour payment link without commission.

Three vegetarian meals a day come from Yurtalicious, our yurt restaurant, and the evening sauna, campfire, coffee and tea are included.

Group size

Retreats of up to 30; whole-camp buyout 12 to 33, all sleeping on site

Whole camp, 2026

From 1,962 GEL a night in April to 4,488 GEL in July and August

Food

100 GEL per person a day, three vegetarian meals

Payment

30% deposit holds dates; balance invoiced 14 days before arrival

Invoices

Company invoices in GEL or EUR; transfer, card or payment link

Organiser

Eats free all stay; 10% commission on your invoice

From Batumi airport

87 km, about 2 hours; private 4x4 265 GEL per car of 4

Season

April to the end of October

Plan your retreatContact us