In 2017-2018, the residents of Gali, who refused Abkhaz and Russian passports, were given residence certificates, which were also considered a temporary movement document. The residents of Gali were able to travel to the Tbilisi-controlled territory with those certificates. However, since the validity period of the residence certificate was 5 years, the majority of the residents of Gali were left without a document necessary for movement at the beginning of 2023.

The amendments made to the law on the rights situation of citizens of a foreign country („О правовом положении иностранных граждан“) in January 2023 complicated the procedure for obtaining a residence permit. The Democracy Research Institute has already reported that the residents of Gali were required to prove their permanent presence in the territory of Abkhazia for the past 5 years in order to get the movement document. This requirement proved to be particularly problematic for students and locals employed in the Tbilisi-controlled territory. To solve the problem, the Gali population was offered a corrupt solution. It costs one hundred thousand rubles (about GEL 3,110) to falsify a document proving continuous residence in Gali.

From December 2022 to the end of March 2023, a large part of the population of Gali had been actually unable to enjoy the freedom of movement due to the lack of documents. Currently, until the full resolution of the problem and for the neutralization of the locals’ protest, the validity period of form #9 has been extended from the end of March to December 31, 2023, although the population will probably still have to pay a bribe to receive a document certifying their continuous residence in Abkhazia.