How e-visas benefit foreigners in Kazakhstan

As of today, Kazakhstan has established a visa-free regime with 61 countries.

Kazakhstan unilaterally has a visa-free regime for up to 30 days with 45 countries without registration in the Migration Service Offices. 90-day visa-free agreements with 19 countries including Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia and Ukraine, 30-day visa-free agreements with Azerbaijan, Argentina, Brazil, South Korea, Cuba, the UAE, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkey and Ecuador, and 14-day visa-free agreements with Hong-Kong are on a bilateral basis.  

Under the act on the population migration, foreigners must apply for registration within 5 days after arrival in Kazakhstan.  

In early 2019, Kazakhstan has launched a mechanism of issuing one-time visas for foreigners in an electronic format, which can be received on the website www.vmp.gov.kz.

An e-visa is issued on the invitation from the Kazakh side which is written in the Migration Service Offices. Tourist e-visas can be obtained by citizens from 117 countries, and business e-visas and e-visas for medical treatment - citizens from 23 States.

A passport of the person applying for an e-visa must:

Not cause doubts to its authenticity and origin and nor include reservations, notes, erasures or changes, torn out or cut pages;

Contain at least 2 blank pages;

Not contain extensions of validity.

Its validity period shall be within three months from the date of the expiry of the requested visa.

When replacing the travel document (passport), an e-visa should be re-obtained. In case there are data inconsistencies in an e-visa and a travel document serving as identification the e-visa has no validity and can lead to a denial.

Foreigners can enter/leave Kazakhstan using e-visas at entry points in international airports of Nur-Sultan and Almaty. When crossing the state border and staying within the country, the foreigner should be in possession of a passport and e-visa in hard copy.

Foreigners holding e-visas are exempted from registration in the Migration Service Offices.

In order to apply for an e-visa, a foreigner shall:

Log on to the website www.vmp.gov.kz.

Head into the “e-visa” heading and submit the invitation;

Get familiarize with the requirements for obtaining an e-visa;

Enter the invitation number (given by the inviting party) and fill up passport data;

After submitting the invitation, the data of an e-visa and a travel document (serving as identification) must be matched;

Pay for online consular gathering;

Print out an e-visa (check a personal cabinet);

Present an e-visa in hard copy at passport control in international airports of Nur-Sultan and Almaty.