US Agrees to Call Georgia ‘Georgia,’ Changes Country Code on Entry Visas

The US has met Georgia’s request and changed the country code for entry visas inthe United States for citizens of Georgia from GRZ (Gruziya) to GEO (Georgia). This was announced by Georgian Ambassador to the US Temuri Yakobashvili.

The Georgian diplomat said that this change is already in effect and “from now on, all citizens of Georgia will enter the US on visas with the new country code,” reports Georgia Online.

“Despite the fact that the process of changing the code on visas for the United States has been associated with increased costs and technical difficulties, this issue has been resolved favorably — a code for entry visas for Georgian citizens to the United States changed from GRZ to GEO,” said Yakobashvili.

As previously reported, Georgian authorities have been appealing to countries the world over to change the official name of the country to Georgia. Japan and Lithuania, for example, did not agree to meet this request, while South Korea did.

Interesting to note that it is the English-language version of the name (“Georgia”) and not the Georgian-language version (“Sakartvelo”) that is being offered as an alternative to the Russian-language version (“Gruziya”).