Picture a 35-year-old Canadian consultant who lands in Tbilisi with a laptop and a one-way ticket. Canadians can stay in Georgia visa-free for a year, so there is no application to file at the airport. The consultant rents a modern apartment in Saburtalo, signs up for fibre internet, learns the Metro and the Bolt app, and keeps working for Canadian and American clients exactly as before. Within a few weeks there is a favourite cafe, a gym, a bank card and a routine. By any ordinary measure, this person has moved to Georgia.

Legally, something quieter has happened. The visa-free stay is not a residence permit. Nothing about it starts the clock that eventually leads to permanent residence. The consultant’s Georgian life can look far more permanent than their Georgian status is, and, separately, nothing in that arrival has told the Canada Revenue Agency that this person stopped being a Canadian tax resident.