ASTANA – Kazakhstan and China plan to introduce a visa-free regime for their citizens, according to the draft resolution of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry published on the open normative legal acts website on April 12. The document will be available for public discussion until April 19.
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According to the document, people can stay up to 30 calendar days from the date of crossing the state border and a total of 90 calendar days in 180 calendar days in both countries.
For a more extended stay, tourists should apply for a visa before entering the state’s territory.
According to Adil Kaukenov, chief expert of Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies (KazISS), Chinese citizens were eligible to stay in Kazakhstan without a visa for 14 days since June 2022, while Kazakhstan’s citizens had to get a Chinese visa.
“This is a delightful step in response from China. This will dramatically increase the flexibility of Kazakh business and its ability to provide not only local but also the Central Asian, Eurasian, and Chinese markets with the necessary goods. This will also provide more investment opportunities,” he wrote on his Facebook page on April 13.
Kaukenov said improving infrastructure at the border is crucial to facilitate Kazakh-Chinese cooperation.
He expressed hope that other countries with whom Kazakhstan has introduced a visa-free regime unilaterally, but which retained visa requirements for Kazakhstan, including European Union countries, Japan, India, and the United States, will follow China’s example.
