Given the forum, maybe I should add that Thai people seem to get through pretty easily--they're on the visa-free list and there are more Thai restaurants here than almost any other type of international food except Italian 😃

@Natalie *********

It wasn't something I thought about much either until I started running this group--then I noticed it coming up all the time because Georgian immigration specifically has a big problem with discrimination against darker-skinned people with weaker passports.

@Dca ****

I happen to be the admin of Tbilisi Digital Nomads so I am uniquely qualified to answer this question 😃

And the answer is yes! You basically come in visa-free, leave at any point before the 365 is up, then come back in. You can turn around at the Armenian border if you want. I even know someone who technically never crossed that border--the person who drove them had a border guard buddy and my friend got their passport stamped out and in without ever leaving the Georgian side haha

That said, your mileage may vary. Politics are turbulent here at the moment, and there are a lot of much more restrictive laws coming down the pike right now. The visa-free year hasn't been touched yet, but they did recently propose a new bill that regulates foreign workers in Georgia, potentially including self-employed freelancers.

Should also mention that your nationality/skin color are absolutely considerations. People from lower-income countries, people from countries that Georgians don't like, or brown-skinned people with weaker passports are fairly routinely denied entry. Some countries are definitely targeted more than others, and having the visa-free year makes you a lot more likely to get through regardless of passport/color, but it's good to remember that a racist border guard can turn you around for no reason at all.

Overall, I'd say the "free lunch" period of Georgia seems to be wrapping up for the moment, but from a purely functional perspective it looks like it'll remain a reasonably easy/cheap place to live and work--just not as easy as it was before.

They're also done 180s on a few of their previous liberal policies, like weed decriminalization and rights for queer people, so be aware that it's becoming a conservative state legally as well as culturally. I know some people who moved here specifically because they were hoping to live in a theocracy, though, so if you're that type of person, you'll love it here 😃

As bleak a picture as I might paint, though, it's a beautiful country and so many things about it are amazing. I absolutely encourage everyone who can to visit Georgia. Building a life here is a bit of a risky proposition, but you certainly won't regret staying for a while.

Haven't done it myself but may in the future--from what I've seen, it looks like the cheapest way to fly would be to go to Udon Thani, take the bus to Nong Khai, and cross the border there. Flying directly into Vientiane is actually quite pricey, I think because they restrict the airlines that can fly there.