Truck spare parts for our scheduled service arrived in Tbilisi from the USA late (probably because of Xmas time). The customs delayed the delivery for more than 1,5 months, and the communication with them was terrible and, most days, impossible. Ultimately, they did not allow logic “temporary import,” but they charged us VAT and customs fees, so we lost our first 1000 USD. We could not process it without the help of locals because foreigners can’t import anything to Georgia (you will never get a local EORI number to process VAT and customs fees).
All these troubles caused our truck did overstay 90 days in Georgia. We were trying to find a solution, Czech Embassy told us that we have to pay a 180 GEL penalty for less than 90 days of overstay. But the Police Service Center in Tbilisi refused to do so. Finally, our service, Tegeta Motors, told us it’s okay to cross borders with service confirmation. But, of course, at the border, we spent 3 hours explaining the situation to rude and unfriendly customs officers. Finally, they gave us a choice to pay 1000 GEL on the spot to be able to cross the border, or otherwise, they would park the truck and take our keys until we pay.
We had all the proper documents from DHL, Georgian Customs, Tegeta Motors (by the way, it’s the best service in Georgia), and a supporting letter from the Czech Embassy, but all that did not help us. The funny thing is that they did not care about our scooter’s overstay of 90 days.