Epress.am News from Armenia
Starting on September 1, Georgia will apply a new visa regime for all foreign citizens. Only citizens of countries with which Georgia has a visa-free regime can visit Georgia without an entry visa. This includes Armenia: Armenian citizens can visit Georgia for 90 days within a 180-day period without an entry visa, Director of the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Giorgi Tabatadze informed Armenpress, adding that the regulation of Georgia's immigration policy is not aimed against any country or foreigner.
According to Tabatadze, the purpose of the Law on the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens and Stateless Persons recently adopted by the Georgian government is to regulate "integration relations" with other countries.
"It means equal treatment of all states and citizens. In this case to say that Georgia is introducing a visa regime with Armenia is wrong," he said, adding that there is a format, according to which a citizen of a country with which Georgia has a visa-free regime can visit Georgia during 180 days but stay in the country for only 90 days.
According to Tabatadze, this is a standard regime which is upheld for visitors to the EU's Schengen area.
Earlier, Republic of Armenia Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Tigran Balayan tweeted that Georgia does not intend to introduce a visa regime for citizens of Armenia.
On July 22, Tbilisi announced that Georgia and the EU will migrate to a visa-free regime in 2016.