The Committee discussed amendments to the Law on Compatriots Living Abroad and Diaspora Organizations and deemed it inadvisable to continue the review process.

According to the committee chair, Irakli Zarkua, discussions on the draft law in the 10th convocation of Parliament revealed differing opinions. He noted that under the new government program, Parliament will soon be presented with a comprehensive package of amendments to the Law on Compatriots Living Abroad and Diaspora Organizations.

To avoid overlapping issues within the proposed amendments, Zarkua suggested halting the review process for the current draft law. He stated, “Georgia has a new government led by Irakli Kobakhidze, which has introduced a 2025-2028 government program. This program addresses several diaspora-related topics. To prevent overlap, we propose not to continue the review process for the current amendments to the Law on Compatriots Living Abroad and Diaspora Organizations”.

It is worth noting that under the existing version of the law, Georgian citizens living abroad for an extended period or foreign nationals of Georgian origin - whose native language belongs to the Kartvelian-Caucasian language family - are allowed to enter Georgia visa-free for a maximum of 30 days if they are citizens of countries requiring a visa to enter Georgia.

The proposed amendment sought to extend the period for staying in Georgia to the validity period of the Compatriot Certificate instead of the current 30 days.