If you are a foreigner who founded a Georgian company and signed on as its director, the 2026 work-permit rules created a question that catches many people off guard: does your directorship need a work permit, or does owning the company already cover you? The short answer is that ownership and management are treated separately, and the size of your company can decide the whole thing. This post focuses specifically on the director’s position. It does not re-explain the law from scratch — for the full picture, see our overview of the 2026 work-permit law in full. Here we zoom in on the one issue that trips up founders: the link between your role, your company’s category, and whether a permit applies.

Owner and director are two different hats

The most important distinction is that owning a Georgian company and running it are not the same thing in the eyes of the rules. As of 2026, simply being a shareholder, partner or founder of a Georgian company does not, on its own, require a work permit. The April 2026 amendments made this explicit by removing “partner” and “founder” from the definition of a self-employed foreigner, so establishing a company, holding shares and investing capital are not, by themselves, treated as paid local work.

Acting as the company’s director is a different matter. A director is the person who manages and legally represents the company, and that managerial activity can fall inside the permit regime. The practical trap is that the same individual is often both the founder and the director of a small Georgian business. The ownership half is fine; it is the directorship half that needs checking. If you only own shares and someone else manages the company, your position looks very different from a founder who is also the active director.

Why company category decides it

The 2026 rules tie a director’s exemption to the category (size) of the company. Georgian enterprises are sorted into categories broadly reflecting their size and turnover. As a general rule and as of 2026:

• Directors of larger companies — Category I, II and III — are generally exempt from the work permit in their capacity as directors (this typically extends to supervisory board members too).
• Directors of the smallest companies — Category IV — are generally not exempt, and a foreign director of such a company will usually still need a work permit.

This is the detail that surprises founders. The instinct is “I own the company, so I must be covered.” But a newly formed small Georgian business almost always starts life as a Category IV entity, and that is precisely the category where the director is not exempt. So the founder who sets up a small LLC and appoints themselves director can land squarely in the group that needs a permit — not because they own the company, but because they direct a small one. Where your business sits depends on objective criteria such as turnover and headcount, and categories can shift as a company grows, so you should confirm your current category rather than assume it.

How directors differ from regular employees

A director’s situation is not the same as that of an ordinary foreign hire, and the difference matters when you map out the application route.

• The category test. For a regular employee, the question is mostly “is this paid work for the local market?” For a director, the company’s category is the deciding factor — a director of a Category I–III company can be exempt where an ordinary employee doing local work would not be.
• Who applies. A standard employee is typically sponsored by the employer, and the employer often runs a labour-market test. A founder-director is, in effect, applying in connection with their own company, which changes the practical mechanics.
• The self-employed overlap. A director of a Georgian company can be treated as self-employed for these purposes — even when they are also a founder — so the director route can look more like the self-employed path than the classic employer-sponsored one.

If you are still deciding between business structures, our comparison of LLC vs IE is a useful starting point, because the vehicle you choose affects whether you are a “director” at all. An Individual Entrepreneur, for example, has no director role in the corporate sense.

Remote directors vs directors working in-country

Another question founders ask is whether physically being abroad changes things. Many foreign founders run a Georgian company remotely and rarely set foot in the country, while others are based in Tbilisi or Batumi and manage the business day to day.

As a general principle, the work permit is about the right to work, while a residence permit or D1 visa is about the right to be present. A director who lives outside Georgia and manages the company remotely has a different presence question from one who lives and works in the country. But being remote does not automatically remove the directorship question — the company-category analysis above still applies to the director role itself. Because the remote-versus-local treatment is one of the areas still being clarified, a remote director should not assume distance alone settles the matter. Confirm both pieces: whether the director role needs a permit, and what status (if any) your presence requires.

A practical example

Imagine you register a small Georgian LLC to invoice a mix of local and international clients, and you list yourself as the sole director. As an owner, you are fine — ownership alone triggers nothing. But your new company is a Category IV entity, and as its director you generally fall into the group that needs a work permit. The fix is rarely complicated, but it has to be done on purpose: identify the requirement early, before you are operating and before any deadline applies. Founders who plan for this at registering your Georgian company stage avoid scrambling later.

How Georgiafy helps

The director question is exactly the kind of edge case where the difference between “exempt” and “needs a permit” comes down to your company’s category and your precise role. Georgiafy confirms your company’s category, separates your owner hat from your director hat, tells you whether your directorship needs a permit, and handles the application through our work-permit service — coordinating any residence permit or D1 visa so your role, your company and your status all line up. Rules are still settling, so we verify the current position before advising.

This post is general information, not legal advice, and reflects our understanding as of 2026. The work-permit rules are new and still being clarified by ordinance — verify the current requirements with official sources or a qualified Georgian lawyer before acting. No outcome is guaranteed.