GEN 1.3 Entry, transit and departure of passengers and crew

1 General

Foreign aircraft, their crew and passengers arriving to or departing from Georgia, as well as their belongings imported in or exported from Georgia by air are subject to relevant passport, customs, monetary, health, agricultural quarantine and other requirements for entry and departure, as well as for importation and exportation of goods (property) and transit through the territory of Georgia.

2 Customs requirements

2.1 Aircraft entering Georgia are subject to customs examination.
2.2 Baggage, cabin-carried articles, currency and valuables of passengers and crews carried across the frontier of Georgia are the subjects to a customs clearance.
2.3 Passengers carried across the frontier of Georgia whose cabin-carried articles and baggage are not exempted from customs examination shall complete a customs declaration.
2.4 Cabin-carried articles and baggage to be in possession of passengers, with the exception of articles prohibited from being taken in or out of Georgia, shall be cleared in quantities needed for personal needs, in accordance with the rules of Customs Control over cabin-carried articles and baggage in possession of persons carried across the frontier of Georgia.
2.5 Customs examination of cabin-carried articles and baggage in possession of passengers is carried out in the presence of the passengers in clearance rooms, storage and directly in transportation facilities.
2.6 Foreign passengers are prohibited to carry, while on flight in the airspace of Georgia, as cargo and/or baggage:
  • military supplies or military equipment;
  • explosives, toxic agents, radioactive materials, narcotics, as well as articles of contraband;
  • animals suffering, or suspected of suffering, of infectious diseases, as well as produce and/or raw material of animal origin and forage that may be carriers of infectious diseases;
  • quarantinable materials, soil living plants with soil from countries whose territory is not free from quarantine pests and
  • diseases, as well as quarantinable materials, soil or living plants with soil infected by quarantine pests and/or diseases.
2.7 Sporting guns and ammunition for these, as well as fire-arms and ammunition for these and hunters’ knives, with the consent of the carrier, may be carried as registered baggage, provided these have been placed in baggage-cargo compartments of the aircraft inaccessible to passengers. At that, sporting guns and/or hand fire arms shall be unloaded and ammunition for these appropriately packed separately.
2.8 Cameras and video cameras shall be kept in suitcases. Photographing from the board of an aircraft is prohibited.
2.9 Radio sets, including those of small dimensions, may be carried only if packed into baggage.
2.10 Jettisoning from aircraft any objects and the use of parachutes in the airspace of Georgia are permitted only in distress. A parachute may be carried on board of an aircraft only if an instruction to this effect is contained in the flight clearance documentation.

3 Immigration requirements

3.1 Entry into and departure from Georgia of passengers is cleared by border control points, provided they are in possession of relevant and valid entry/exit documents.
3.2 Arrived passengers can purchase visa at Tbilisi/Tbilisi Airport.
3.3 When entering or leaving Georgia, every passenger shall be in possession of a valid national passport with a valid Georgian visa or another permission to enter the Georgia, unless international treaties to which Georgia is a party stipulate otherwise.
3.4 If a foreign aircraft has carried to Georgia a passenger without regard to the procedures provided in paras 3.1 and 3.2, the operator of the aircraft shall remove this passenger from territory of Georgia. All costs for re-moving the passenger shall be borne by the operator who has flown this passenger to Georgia.
3.5 Transit of passengers through the territory of Georgia with one stopover shall be carried out in accordance with the provisions of para 3.2.
3.6 Passengers carried through the territory of Georgia in transit are exempted from the need to hold visas for Georgia:
  • if they are on a nonstop flight in transit across Georgian territory;
  • when being citizens of a State with which Georgia has signed appropriate interstate agreements.
3.7 Disembarkation and/or embarkation of passengers at airport are carried out with the permission of the border control points.
3.8 Arrivals to Georgia and/or departures from Georgia of crew members of foreign aircraft are to be carried out in accordance with the provisions of para 3.3, unless international agreements to which Georgia is a party stipulate otherwise.

4 Public health requirements

4.1 Sanitary-quarantine measures in Georgia are taken in compliance with the regulations of the World Health Organization and the Main Department for Sanitary and Epidemiology within the Ministry of Health and Social Care of Georgia.
4.2 Every passenger arriving in Georgia from quarantine disease infected countries (cholera, plague, yellow fever) shall be furnished with international Certificate of Vaccination against these diseases.
4.3 Certificate of vaccination is deemed as valid if it is in a form and of a term of validity approved by the World Health Organization.
4.4 Any change of the form of Certificate or blankness of one of the necessary items may make the Certificate invalid.
4.5 With regard to passengers arriving from cholera, the following measures shall be taken:
  • passengers who are not in possession of a valid international vaccination certificate shall be isolated;
  • passengers who are in possession of a valid certificate shall be medically supervised.

The duration of isolation and supervision shall constitute five days from moment of leaving the cholera infected country.

4.6 If an aircraft has been announced by the public health authorities to be infected with cholera or if it has arrived from a cholera infected area and carries non-hermetically packed fish, crabs, shellfish, crawfish, fruit or vegetables eatable uncooked, or beverages, the public health authorities shall have the right to prohibit these from being unloaded or to seize these for disinfection or destruction.
4.7 If a crew member or passengers is/are observed during flight to have one or more of the following symptoms: sickness, diarrhea, rash, jaundice, bleeding (haemorrhage), swelling of the lymph nodes, rise in body temperature to 38 degrees C or higher, the pilot-in-command of the aircraft shall report to ATC and the medical authorities while still in flight or after landing. The same applies if dead rodents have been observed in the aircraft.
4.8 On arriving to the airport, the pilot-in-command (or his confidential agent) must complete and furnish the public section of the general declaration.
4.9 In case of a forced landing of an aircraft on an international flight at an airport that does not handle international traffic or a place other than an airport the pilot-in-command shall take measures preventing the crew and/or passengers from being in contact with the local population. The pilot-in- command shall immediately report the forced landing to the local authorities.
4.10 Passengers showing symptoms of acute diseases shall, on arriving to Georgia, be forwarded without delay to the nearest medical institution.
4.11 Passengers under medical supervision shall enjoy the freedom of movement, but shall notify the public health authorities of their moving on to other places.
4.12 A standard certificate shall be issued to the pilot-in command of an aircraft, attesting any medico-sanitary measures on board the aircraft.