Opening a bank account in Georgia as a foreigner is a remarkably simple exercise compared to most countries in the world.

To open an account, you will need to visit a branch in person – it’s not possible to open an account from outside the country. But the only document that you need to bring is your passport, which the bank will need to take a copy of.

They will ask for a home address, but this does not need to be inside Georgia.  As the postal service in Georgia is notoriously unreliable, the bank will not be sending anything to your home address in any case.

Unlike most international accounts for foreigners, the bank will not require a minimum deposit in order to open the account. Fees for operating the bank account are very low – just a few Georgian Lari per month – the exact amount depending upon which particular bank you decide to use and the level of service offered by the account.

The only payment that you need to make at the time that you open the account is a small payment in order to obtain a debit card, which can also be used to withdraw funds from ATMs both inside Georgia and around the world.

The bank offers a choice of either a Visa or Mastercard. Both banks offer mobile apps for mobile banking as well as internet banking – so you can track your funds from anywhere in the world.

All bank accounts in Georgia use the international IBAN format, which makes it simple to transfer to transfer funds into the account without all of the hassle of working out the SWIFT/BIC Codes.

2 major banks in Georgia: Bank of Georgia and TBC. There are also: Liberty Bank, Procredit, Basisbank, Cartubank.