Bilateral Visa Exemption Agreement between Georgia and People’s Republic of China (PRC) takes effect today on May 28, enabling Georgian citizens to travel to PRC without a visa and stay for up to 30 days per visit, without exceeding 90 days within any 180-day period.
The stay cannot be extended unless its necessary for the humanitarian purposes or force majeure. Georgians who are planning to live, work or engage in activities that require permission from the relevant Chinese authorities still need to obtain visas.
Georgians traveling to PRC within the visa-free regime must have a valid passport, a hotel reservation, and a travel insurance. The Georgian MFA warns that it is the border officers’ discretion to permit or deny entry.
The agreement comes in the midst of what pundits see as Georgian Dream’s intensified efforts to change the country’s foreign policy direction, and against the backdrop of a general democratic backsliding in the country and unprecedented domestic and Western pressure over the Foreign Agents Law. The Georgian Dream majority is preparing to override the presidential veto of the law in parliament today.
The agreement was signed on 10 April 2024, by the Georgian FM Ilia Darchiashvili and Chinese Ambassador to Georgia Zhou Qian. Earlier on February 26, the Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze had announced PRC’s decision to grant Georgians visa-free travel. Last year the two countries established Strategic Partnership focusing on political, economic, cultural and people-to-people domains.
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