A Refusal and Its Appealability — What Changed in 2025
A refusal to grant Georgian citizenship is the most painful answer an application can receive — but it is not the final word. Articles 16, 25 and 29 of the Organic Law of Georgia on Georgian Citizenship govern this field together: Article 16 defines the grounds for refusal, Article 25 determines who takes the decision and in what form, and Article 29 sets out how the adopted decision is appealed.
The decisive role in the question of appealability was played by Decision No. 3/3/1601 of the Constitutional Court of Georgia of 7 March 2025 (published on the website on 11 March 2025): the Court declared invalid the normative content of the first sentence of the first paragraph of Article 29 that excluded the possibility of appealing, in court, a negative decision of the President on refusal to grant citizenship by the ordinary, simplified, restoration or special procedure. Since then, a refusal decision can be appealed in court.
This page explains on which grounds a refusal is issued, in what form the decision is clothed, and how an appeal is built by those who consider the refusal unfounded.
The Grounds for Refusal — Article 16
Under the first paragraph of Article 16, a person cannot acquire Georgian citizenship by naturalisation if: a) they have committed an international crime against peace and humanity; b) they participated in a particularly serious crime against a person, the state, public security and order as provided by Georgian legislation; c) it is inexpedient, in the interests of protecting state and/or public security, to grant them Georgian citizenship; or d) they are wanted by Georgian or foreign law-enforcement agencies or by the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), and/or an extradition or expulsion procedure is being conducted against them.
The security interests behind ground “c” are given concrete shape by the second paragraph of the article: the person’s presence on the territory of Georgia threatens Georgia’s relations with other states and/or international organizations; or information exists which indicates, with a high degree of probability, the person’s connection with the armed forces of a country or organization hostile to Georgia’s defence and security, with the intelligence services of another state, with terrorist and/or extremist organizations, or with the illicit trafficking of drugs, arms, weapons of mass destruction or their components, human trafficking and/or other, including transnational, criminal organizations.
Procedural details matter as well: information about the circumstances of ground “c” must be communicated to the body examining the case in a form that does not harm state secrets or security interests; and where a refusal rests on this ground, the final decision on citizenship is taken by the President of Georgia, and a decision to grant must be reasoned. This is why a refusal built on the security ground deserves particularly careful legal analysis: its factual basis is, by design, not fully open.
Who Takes the Decision and How — Article 25
Under the first paragraph of Article 25, the final decision on granting, retaining, refusing or terminating Georgian citizenship is taken by the President of Georgia. The second paragraph also fixes the form: where an application for grant, retention or termination is satisfied — or a motion on loss of citizenship is granted — the President issues an order; where the decision is negative, a directive is issued.
A further norm of the same article provides that a conclusion or decision of the agency which independently produces legal consequences is an administrative-legal act — which means the way of challenging it exists for those acts too. The first question in any concrete case is therefore exactly this: by which act was the refusal expressed and under which norm was it justified.
How the Decision Is Appealed — Article 29
Under Article 29, a decision on a citizenship matter is appealed according to the procedure established by Georgian legislation — meaning that the form of the claim, the competent court and the deadlines are determined by the legislation on court and administrative procedure, not by this article. When a decision on termination of citizenship is appealed, the respondent is the President of Georgia.
What matters most is this: after the Constitutional Court’s decision of 7 March 2025, a negative decision refusing to grant citizenship can be appealed in court — precisely the norm that used to block this path has been declared invalid. Success in such a case is built from an exact analysis of the ground of refusal: the ground must be substantiated by legal facts, the conclusions must be verifiable, and the procedure must have been observed.
From 1 September 2026 — Appeal and the Expulsion Question
Organic Law No. 1820 of 25 June 2026 (published on the website on 29 June 2026) adds a third paragraph to Article 29, which enters into force on 1 September 2026: appeal of a decision provided for by this article in court does not hinder the examination, by the authorized body of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, of the issue of a foreigner’s expulsion from Georgia and/or the execution of a decision on expulsion. In other words, the appeal and parallel expulsion proceedings do not obstruct each other — creating conditions under which a foreigner’s case may be run on two fronts at once.
Planning a refusal case therefore requires accounting for three chronological layers: the position before 7 March 2025, the restored rule of appealability, and the expulsion-related rule in force from 1 September 2026. Each layer carries its own practical weight for applications that are still at the examination stage.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below we answer the questions asked most often about appealing a refusal to grant citizenship.
Can a refusal to grant citizenship be appealed today?
Yes. By Decision No. 3/3/1601 of the Constitutional Court of Georgia of 7 March 2025, the norm that shielded a negative presidential decision on refusal to grant citizenship — by the ordinary, simplified, restoration or special procedure — from court appeal was declared invalid.
On which grounds is a refusal issued?
Article 16 defines four groups: an international crime against peace and humanity; a particularly serious crime against a person, the state, public security and order; inexpedience in the interests of state and/or public security; and being wanted — including through Interpol — or an ongoing extradition or expulsion procedure.
Who is the respondent in an appeal?
When a decision on termination of citizenship is appealed, the respondent under Article 29 is the President of Georgia; in refusal cases the composition of the parties is determined by the procedural legislation.
Within what period can a claim be filed?
The time limits do not come from Article 29: the appeal follows the procedure established by Georgian legislation, so the deadlines derive from the rules of court and administrative procedure and must be verified separately in every case.
Does an appeal suspend expulsion?
Under the rule in force from 1 September 2026 — no: an appeal does not hinder the examination of a foreigner’s expulsion by the authorized body of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, nor the execution of an expulsion decision.
How We Help on Legal.ge
Our team focuses on representation in refusal cases and appeals: we analyse the ground and reasoning of the refusal decision; we determine which act is to be challenged — the President’s directive or the agency’s conclusion; we verify the deadlines and prepare the claim with a complete evidentiary package; we conduct the case in court; and where necessary we manage the expulsion question in parallel. Contact us — at the first consultation we will assess your situation, verify the deadlines and draw up a precise plan on Legal.ge.