ASTANA – Beginning Jan. 1, Kazakhstan has introduced a single-entry electronic visa for citizens of 117 countries. An electronic business or tourist visa or one for medical treatment will be issued using a valid invitation considered by the nation’s migration service. Foreigners wishing to benefit from the new arrangement can enter the country through checkpoints at the Astana and Almaty international airports.
The new procedure is available to tourists and individuals from 23 countries visiting for business or medical treatment. The electronic visa is valid only for the recipient and does not apply to accompanying persons. Paid consular fees are not refundable.
The passport provided by the visa recipient should meet the following criteria – not cause doubts in authenticity and belonging to its owner or have marks of extension, reservations, notes, erasures and corrections, torn or unsewn pages; have at least two blank pages and expire no earlier than three months from the expiry date of the requested visa.
The Kazakh person or organisation extending the invitation must inform migration authorities about the person’s arrival within three working days.
The step-by-step e-visa issuance algorithm involves registering on the visa website and migration website at www.vmp.gov.kz; learning about the requirements for getting an electronic visa; entering the invitation number, which is sent by the inviting person or organisation from Kazakhstan, and filling in the visa application form; paying the consular fee; printing the electronic visa and showing the hard copy when passing through passport control at the two airports.
Citizens of the following countries may obtain an electronic single-entry tourist visa – Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Colombia, Comoros, Congo (Republic), Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Faroe Islands, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Macao, (Former Yugoslav Republic of) Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Micronesia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar (Burma), Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Swaziland, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Vatican, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Citizens of the following countries may obtain an electronic single-entry business and medical treatment visa – the Bahamas, Bermuda, Burundi, Cambodia, Cuba, Greenland, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Kuwait, Laos, Macao, Macedonia, Morocco, Montenegro, Nicaragua, Oman, Qatar, Serbia, South Africa, Vatican, Vietnam and the Virgin Islands.
