Interior Ministry Gains Authority to Inspect Foreigners' Homes and Workplaces Under New Immigration Rules
By Liza Mchedlidze
Thursday, July 3, 2025
Georgia's Interior Ministry now has the authority to inspect the homes and workplaces of foreigners and enter private property, as the ruling Georgian Dream government enforces stricter immigration laws and intensifies its rhetoric against illegal migration.
On July 2, Georgian Dream-led Parliament adopted changes to the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons following two days of extraordinary sessions and fast-tracked discussions. The amendments allow a body authorized by the Interior Ministry to carry out inspections in order to identify foreigners living in Georgia without legal status or to check their place of residence or travel documents.
Under the new law, inspections may take place with the consent of a property owner or employer, or based on a city court order. In cases the authorities consider urgent, when a delay could allow a foreigner to flee or hide important documents, inspections may be conducted without a court order as long as one is obtained within 24 hours.
The authorized inspectors can question individuals, verify identities, conduct superficial checks, and take other preventive or coercive actions allowed by Georgian law. At workplaces, they may request documentation confirming a foreigner's legal right to work in Georgia.
Over the past week, the Interior Ministry reported detaining 20 foreigners during what it described as two special immigration control operations. All of them are set to be expelled. Georgian Dream Member of Parliament Tornike Cheishvili said before the vote that 525 foreigners were expelled from Georgia during the first half of 2025 for residing in the country illegally. He said the figure is about three times higher than during the same period last year.
According to the explanatory note attached to the bill, the goal of the changes is to improve procedures for identifying illegal migrants. It states that illegal migration presents challenges to national security, public order, and labor market regulation.
The new rules come shortly after Parliament approved another legislative package on June 26. That set of changes introduced expulsion and reentry bans for both criminal and administrative offenses and increased fines for violations related to immigration.
