[GEORGIA] The underrated pearl of the caucasus

[Lyes_G3]

Hi bros !

https://campaignagainstimpunity.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/bn2.jpg?w=994

Do you see this picture ? That’s how I thought about Georgia before Didier talk about it (live #45). Really, a misery piece of land !

It’s the reasoning of lot french persons, especially when watching movies or turn BFM on (immigration from east, suffering, war, corruption, blabla, etc…)

Here is what I seen first time I was going to my window

Since I came here, at Tbilisi. I fell in love with this country. So, let me introduce to you why Georgia is a great country and everyone should visit this piece of land. To live / make business here or just for vacation / discovery.

VACATION & DISCOVERY

People

• Georgian are very friendly and hospitable persons, and major people I’ve met speak english So, georgian mentality is simple, if you respect country and people, you’ll find a place here. If you behave like the stereotype of french tourist, you’ll be rejected. “Respecte Tamar, et tamar te respectera.” (Tamar is a great georgian queen from medieval era)

• About girls, they are beautiful and lovable. And they have a kind of smart and empathy I never seen in France, except maybe one time. It’s pleasant to stay with them, compared with the waste of time inflicted by majority of french girls

Nature

• Georgia is a little country with lot of mountains at one side (for example, Tbilisi is surrounded mountains and hills) and beach at other side (Batumi and Poti for the most famous cities)

• The country is also greenful. Even at Tbilisi and Batumi where are botanic gardens

Architecture & Monuments

• Tbilisi is a subtle mix between past and modernity and we can retrace all the story of the city through the architecture, especially at some district like “Old Tbilisi”, “Sololaki” for traditional architecture and “Vake” for modern architecture.

European Union

• Georgia is not in EU, but relations between both entities are too well to travel from EU to Tbilisi and vice versa almost like schengen space

• It’s a good place to escape the EU dictature

LIVING IN GEORGIA

Cost of life

• Cost of life is very cheap, if you come with a SMIC here, you’ll be the gas king. And if you earn 700€/months, you could living well. For me, the vital minimum is 500€/month, it’s the strict minimum

Sojourn formalities

• Diplomatic relations between Georgia and France are very cordial. Enough to permit the entry in the georgian country only with your ID (not drive agreement, just ID), ID works as passport at airport and georgian borders. Really, entering in Georgia is as easy as to buy a beer pack at your supermarket !

• French citizens can stay 1 year in Georgia without VISA. And from memory, the reverse is true for Georgian citizens too (to recheck)

BUSINESS & TAXES

Create business

• It needs 1 day to start a business in Georgia, you fill a form at Public Service Hall and your business is open 1 day later,

• It can be opened the same day for few GEL (local currency)

Taxes and types of business

• 15% income tax on remuneration, that’s all. There isn’t brut / net remuneration

• 15% tax on the business benefits which are distributed. no distribution, no tax. it means you can have 0% tax on your benefits if you reinvest all on your business

• You can start business in free zone, there is no tax and TVA in this case (18% TVA otherwise)

• You can give the “virtual zone” status for IT business (online business notably), no tax & TVA for foreigner customers (If the customer isn’t georgian)

Banking system and fiscal paradise

• I am not expert of banking, but I seen on my researches about Georgia (before expatriation) that we can easily transfer money from EU banks to Georgian banks. This information was confirmed by JM (live #06), thanks to him.

• Georgia is not apart of OECD, and especially of the Automatic Bank Data Exchange agreement. It means that georgians respect your money as they respect you. It also means that this country is a great place to create business and / or escape the french fiscal tyranny

OTHERS

Minuses

• It’s hard to come in Georgia by air because of Covid, you have to take direct flights. If you want to come here, contact me and we will find a solution for you

• Public transport are closed but taxi works and they are rather cheap. Personnally I prefer walking so I don’t know exactly the price of taxi, but I remember that it cost maybe 5€ for a drive from airport to Tbilisi ~20km (to recheck)

• Restaurants & bars are closed

But The restrictions are starting to be lifted. Transport, schools and fairs reopening is planned for february 15th and will be followed by restaurants and bars

To finish, here is some bonus pictures of Tbilisi, I snapped all of them by myself

20Lari bill

Summit of my building with hill in background

A mountain in the city

View to Tbilissi from my balcony

The mountain at dusk

A river, the interest is especially on the landcape which is more beautiful at spring with flowering

A first point of view to the capital from the mountain (we can see the trinity cathedral illuminated on the right)

A second point of view to the city from the mountain

And a little bonus here because I like this picture :

You have any question about Georgia ? Contact me in the topic or directly by DM !

You want to come at Tbilisi ? You already have a friend to welcome you here

That’s all for now, greetings from Georgia !

P.S. Thanks to @Didier-G2 for making me discover this country !

[Baptiste.n_G3]

Hello Lyes,

After the live with Didier, i took the idea of expatration more seriously and decided to go to batumi for my first expatriation at the end of the year, but before i have a few question.

• do you need to learn georgian before going there ? i know how to speak english and i’m learning russian but if that’s not enough…

• i’ll go there with my car, do you know the price of gas ?

• are georgian willing to take foreigner for ‹ summer job › like bartender or server ?

• since batumi is about 30 km of turkey border, what is the population in Tbilissi and Batumi ?

Thank for the topic

best regards .

[Lyes_G3]

Hello Baptiste,

Good choice ! Expatriation is more and more necessary. Seeing it at every french news (yuriy, government, taxes, etc…)

Well, to answer to your questions :

• Absolutely not. Georgian is a bonus, but everybody speak english, russian will can help you with elders, but youngs speak english.

• Just seen gas prices at Tbilisi. And from memory, it costs ~2GEL/L (~0.50€). I’ll share exact prices next time I’ll see gas station (but pertinent question)

• I don’t know about the georgians willing to take foreigners for job. But I advice you to consider working here as timespending and / or as a complementar income, because Georgian SMIC is not the same that french SMIC. It’s less than 400$ -> 337€ -> 1351L.

Here is a source for this information : https://www.worlddata.info/cost-of-living.php

Cheap cost of life means low income

• At Tbilissi, you’ll find lot of Georgians and few Tourists, I seen few turkish living here too, but the major population is georgian. I don’t know about Batumi population but guess for a lot of tourists

You’re welcome !

[Maxime.G_G4]

Hello Lyes,

After searching on google, I saw that more than 50% of Georgians speak Russian, can you confirm this? My brother and I are hesitating between Ukraine and Georgia in order to consider going to Russia afterwards. We have been learning Russian for almost 4 months and we want to migrate to a Russian speaking country.

Thank you for all this useful information

[Lyes_G3]

Привет, брат

In georgia, people speak georgian (logic), russian and english.

From what I’ve seen, russian is very present here, especially about store products. Elders speaks russian better than english and reversely among youngers, due to the history of the country (russian empire + USSR)

Finally a little information, now I’m here, I get some russian vocabulary as a result of being confronted with russian writing.

Spoiler : Here are little pics with russian language that I've met

Don’t know about Ukraine, think it’s same. But by chauvinism, I’ll say you that Georgia is a better choice

Hope helped you bro

[Maxime.G_G4]

Of course! I hope we will see each other, we will certainly come this summer with my brother. Do you know if getting the “Virtual Zone” status is easy? After researching, it seems that you have to ask for it and that it can be refused. We’re dropshippers.

Thanks a lot bro

[Lyes_G3]

Yes, if you come here we’ll plan a meeting with pleasure, don’t forget to apply the expatriation protocol. It’s the best way to plan your expatriation in georgia or ukrainia and finally to Russia.

Ah the famous 0% tax ! I’ve made some personal researches about it too. By memories, yes, it’s easy. You just need to got a georgian IT business and foreign customers. Here are some links from my old researches :

General informations about virtual zone status (benefits / conditions to get it) → https://expathub.ge/virtual-zone-georgia-tax/

Portal to ask for the status and get some informations about asking process → Virtual Zone - Home Page

So, it’s easy in theory. But as yours, my researches told me that it can be refused. They told me too that nowadays, recruit one or more georgian employee improve your probability to be admit in this status (seems logic, with georgians employees, you are not a vulture at administration eyes)

Keep in mind that admitted or rejected for virtual zone status, georgian business stay better than french company

PS : just found it while I was searching my old links. Called ICS, it isn’t interesting for me, but maybe it will for you → https://expathub.ge/international-company-status-georgia/

[Maxime.G_G4]

https://virtualzonegeorgia.com/

According to this website we have the criteria to obtain the status, since yesterday I was reading the documents you sent me and the situation is indeed unclear. Thank you for the information, we will see more clearly once we are there. The problem that this poses for us is that the status of sole proprietorship seems more interesting than the LLC if ever we are not entitled to the “virtual zone”.

Last question that may seem stupid to you and I apologize for that: We wanted to hire a personal assistant under the good advice of J.M., do you know if it is possible to obtain the status thanks to that?

Thanks a lot

[Lyes_G3]

To be honest, I don’t know. If the legal hiring is for the business, why not. I mean, an assistant for the business and for house in parallel (double job you know, or simply a tip for the employee).

You’re welcome !

PS : Hope that I didn’t confuse the situation to you with all this documentation, I know that’s an unknown ground and worrying so. But as you said, everything will become clearer when you’ll be here. Maybe Didier will can help you for business in georgia and clarify some points which are out my range. Can you @Didier-G2 please ?