Migrant Rights

My residence permit is expiring and the extension is still being reviewed — can I stay?

residence-permitextensiondeferraloverstayexpiryforeigners-rights

Only if you have a deferral of the obligation to leave (Article 48 of the Law on Aliens). A "your application has been accepted" receipt is not an extension in itself, and your stay on the permit ends on its last day in any case. You have no visa-free year for this period either (see the FAQ "My residence permit has expired — does the visa-free year start again?").

How the deferral works

  • Article 48(1)(a): the obligation to leave may be deferred if you have applied for a residence permit or for citizenship.
  • Article 48(4): on this ground the Agency considers deferral on its own initiative. It lasts until the permit is issued (or while citizenship proceedings continue).
  • Article 48(7): there is no deferral if expulsion proceedings against you have already begun or an expulsion decision has been made, even if it is being appealed in court.

What follows in practice

  1. Apply early, not on the last day. Article 14(1²): a residence permit is not issued to a person who, at the time of filing, is already in the country on a deferred obligation to leave. An application filed while the permit is still valid does not create that problem.
  2. Ask for the written deferral decision at the Agency (Public Service Hall) and keep it together with your proof of filing. The lawfulness of your stay is shown by that decision, not by the receipt alone.
  3. Do not count on visa-free "just in case". If the permit is refused, the deferral ends and your stay becomes unlawful.

If the permit is refused

The Agency's decision can be appealed only to a court, within 10 calendar days of service (Article 21²(1)). The appeal does not impede the review of expulsion or the enforcement of an expulsion decision (Article 18(4)). If you have not left by then, the fine under Article 191 of the Administrative Offences Code and the entry ban of 6 months, 2 years or 3 years depend on the length of the overstay (see the FAQ "How much is the overstay fine in Georgia, and how is it enforced?"). Contact a lawyer immediately after a refusal.

⚠ To be verified: (1) how many days before the permit expires the extension application must be filed is set by Government Ordinance No 520, which has not been checked; (2) Article 14(1²) speaks of an "application for a residence permit" — whether it applies to extensions and not only to first issuance is not stated expressly; (3) whether a period of deferral under Article 48 counts as lawful stay for the purposes of the fine is not expressly addressed in the law, which is why the written decision matters.

Sources

Provisions in the versions in force from 1 September 2026 may be fully reflected only in the Georgian text on matsne.gov.ge.

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