Georgia celebrates visa-liberalization
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, March 24
As Georgia’s visa-liberalization with the European Union (EU) will go into force on March 28, the country will celebrate the historic event for three days: on March 26, 27 and 28.
The information was announced by the Prime Minister of Georgia, Giorgi Kvirikashvili, at a governmental session on Thursday.
“In a few days, a visa-free regime will go into force with the EU…Georgia will mark this event with special festivities,” the PM said.
Kvirikashvili said that on March 28 he will leave the country with Georgian students in order to arrive first in Athens, then in Brussels.
“This is a very important event and we are grateful to our partners,” the PM added.
He said that visa-liberalization is a significant achievement and Georgian citizens should do their best to keep it.
“We will install a special program at the border crossing points and in case a person violates the dates, Georgia’s Justice and Interior Ministries will be informed about it immediately,” Kvirikashvili said.
The PM added that the information about the person, who violated the visa-liberalization terms, will be sent to the EU states and a search will be launched on this individual.
He also said that the costs of the search procedure will be financed by the state, however, later the violator will be charged to pay the expenses.
“It is also important that we do our best to work with the EU states to get the status of a safe country,” the PM added.
Once the visa-free regime goes into force, biometric passport-holder Georgians will be able to enter the European Union for 90 days within any 180-day period for a holiday, business or any other purpose, except working.
The visa waiver applies to the Schengen Area, which includes 22 EU member states (all except Ireland, the United Kingdom, Croatia, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria) in addition to Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
