Residency, Visas, The Secret Garden and Justice

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Every foreign country has a different philosophical weight in the eyes of the foreigner, to that accorded to it
by the native. If it is a desirable destination, it is a kind of Secret Garden for which one wishes to possess
the key. That is to say, for people who wish to move to, and eventually live in, more beautiful locations than
their present country.
A visa is a document allowing one to pass into another country. The terms according to which a visa is
issued will be more or less restrictive according to the degree to which the host country wishes to welcome
the incomer; but the main thing to note is that the visa generates a one-off process: entry into a foreign
country. Multiple entry visas allow travelers to come and go in to and out of a particular foreign country.
Residency happens when one settles down in a country and pursues some sort of meaningful activity there.
One establishes a base, one lives there most of the time, and one does various things in interaction with the
host country.
Justice demands that there should be laws which control the actions of both natives in a country and
incomers, in the interests of the peace and stability of the country. But justice is a very pure concept. One
must serve it. Laws must serve it. A country does not, or should not, manipulate the concept of justice to
serve short-term and partial ideals of any kind whatsoever. Justice is not there to serve the country!
The new Georgian Residency Law currently, and fortunately, under revision has set up new hurdles for
new foreigners wishing to come and reside in Georgia (for whatever term) and has visited the cumbersome
mechanism it envisages for these new foreigners upon existing residents. Or at least, the new law makes no
attempt to differentiate between these two classes of people.
The new law, according to the 100 Questions of March 2014, unblushingly sets up documents with (quite
probably) non-concurrent terms: the Residence Permit and the Visa. But in doing so it has positioned the
country for a bureaucratic nightmare; because the efficacy and intended purpose of these two classes of legal
instrument are quite different.
I have already defined the scope of action of the Visa; but the Residency Permit is very linked: it concretizes
the facts on the ground regarding the living circumstances of a particular individual, sequent upon his or her
entry into a country based on the presentation of a Visa.
Thus there can be only one definition of the purpose for which an individual is in a country: he or she is
there on the basis of whatever activity his or her visa was issued for.
This, then, bureaucratically, may not change, even if in practice the individuals scope of activity changes.
At this point let us look at the Residence Permit more closely. It is issued after an appropriate lapse of time
during which the individual has essayed the possibilities in the country for his further actions, congruent
with his own wishes and the general aims of the country. Or, it may be issued as a formality after an
individual, entering the country for a purpose known in advance, has begun exercising that purpose or
activity.
The new law intends to issue visas retrospectively to Already Existing Residents [hereafter AXR]. Indeed it
has already issued some. But these AXR have already entered the country; and so why they are here is

already clear: they are here to carry out whatever activities they entered the country for on the occasion of
their last entry.
Again, this may be countered by changes in peoples activity on the ground. But bureaucratically, it makes
sense and cannot be contradicted. Indeed it is mentioned, and axiomatically, in the new Law.
The corollary of this, though, ought to be that AXR, especially those who are here under a previous
ordinance which either did not require the issuance of a visa, need not now be obliged to define why they
are here. State is one thing; define is quite another.
Although in fact they are so required (and there is apparently much anguish about possible bad
choices, like saying that you are a Freelancer and not some kind of worker) note the following: firstly, it
follows from my conclusion a little earlier that ones activity is not a matter for fresh definition but pre-exists
as one of established fact; and secondly, that the logic of the existential facts of visas and residence permits,
defined by common sense definitions, requires something else.
It requires, in justice, and in terms of the meaning of words and their commonly accepted definitions, that
for AXR a first residency permit be given without reference to a classification of the grounds for a
persons residency on the territory. This permit to stay, by definition, and as I have just twice said, can only
be accorded on the basis of the reason for which the last entry onto the territory was made.
Only at a later stage at the renewal of a residency permit does it make sense to closely examine the
circumstances of an AXRs activities and assess how far (and if) they cohere with the desired goals of the
state in its political stance towards foreign settlers and would-be residents.
Doing it earlier is an offence to logic as well as to justice; and that, in a nutshell, is why the proposed
changes have provoked such a justified outcry; to the immense disadvantage of Georgias public image,
already hugely dented by catastrophic tourism figures for 2014. Catastrophic, that is, for a developing
country whose chief asset is tourism. Mount Kazbegi is at least there free of charge! Dont let us gamble
away the Caucasus Mountains as well!
So given that, the pretentions of the new law and the salient perceptions its commonly-accepted side-effects
in fact amount to a philosophically and bureaucratically unacceptable jumping of the gun.
I do not expect that there is sufficient inspiration around to radically overhaul the law, as it really merits. For
in its present form, one could be forgiven for seeing it as seeming opportunistically xenophobic, although
such attitudes are far from the norm in this almost ever-welcoming country
But to define residency not only in terms of being allowed to reside, but also in terms of ones obligation to
reside on the territory for a certain reasonable term; to get round the difficulties of visas by introducing reentry permits; and to fully separate (including philosophically; and without redundancy in practical
operation) the functions of visa and residency permit as well as allowing money in the bank to trigger
residency in certain non-working scenarios: these all cohere; and are all vital if the law is to be really robust
and worthy both of the traditions of Georgia as a traditionally fair and hospitable country; and of those of
that indefinable, but as I have already said, beautiful abstract concept, Justice, herself, too!
When I was young, I loved the idea of Justice, the Goddess with her scales, blindfold and sword, and have
always looked up at buildings like The Old Bailey, or the Palais de Justice in Brussels, with a glow of pride.

I even went there once, I forget what my business was. Oh yes, some litigation about non-paid fees, I think.
And arcane indeed Belgian law was. But my moods on seeing the Sokos Shenoba vary. I am very unhappy
about the inscription outside. And although within, it is magnificent and efficient and welcoming, and even
has a caf, I do just think that one thing is missing. Its that sense of universal charity and the worthiness of
all citizens, which underlines the just direction of a great nation. Do not misunderstand me. As you have not
misunderstood me so far! Its there in the workers there, for sure: who are fantastic and helpful; but what I
am saying is that it is not there in the law. Not yet. It may just be in abeyance. And Im sure its a Georgian
virtue. But Id love to be able to say at the twilight of my days, that in uncertain times in a new millennium, I
resided in Georgia and nonetheless lived through a mist or fog of indecision, with much nervousness and
uncertainty around in an infrastructually-challenged, re-emerging former Soviet orbit country and (even
partly as a result of my efforts, who knows?) I saw it come back!
In festem S. Martini MMXXIV