- Most important: If flying in on a one way ticket, you should also buy a fully refundable ticket back to SA from the same airline. Buy it directly from their own website. If paying with an SA bank card, choose Rand as the currency thereby avoiding losses on the currency conversion. Also book accommodation with free cancellation. Cancel everything after you arrived and you should have the money back within a week.
- Respect the Georgian immigration and customs officers: They don’t serve you. They protect their country. Unlike most countries, Georgia doesn’t have a complicated and expensive visa process for us. In many cases these officers are the first and last line of defense.
- Avoid the taxi drivers at the airport. Instead use the Bolt or Yandex Go app and the airport WiFi to get a taxi. -OR- Ride the municipal bus using your SA bank card. Bonus points if you ride it all the way to Magti shop in Rustaveli where you buy a local sim card.
- If you’d like to visit the EU it’s much easier to get the required visa (Schengen) in South Africa.
- Don’t bring any cash. Instead withdraw money from your SA bank card. The orange ATMs have the lowest fees and highest limit. SA banks charge R80 or more per international withdrawal, so make the most of it.
- Don’t expect to earn any money from Georgia. Many South Africans coming here looking for work find that the salaries barely cover basic expenses like rent and food. Hours are long and workers are not respected.
- If you often need to call SA phone numbers you can set up the www.FreshPhone.co.za app or something similar.
- Don’t overstay. Doing a border run is very cheap (cost of transport). Overstaying has many negative consequences: Fines, possible questioning by Ministry of Internal Affairs, bans from reentering Georgia and being denied visas for the EU, UK or US.
- If your passport has less than 1 year left, apply for a new one. Ankara is closest. South Africa is fastest.