Kazakh Senate considers law regulating migration issues

Expired documents of foreigners are recognized as valid during emergencies in Kazakhstan. This measure is applied when a citizen of another country, present on the territory of Kazakhstan, is unable to renew or replace them. The Senate, an Upper House of the Kazakh Parliament, approved a draft law regulating migration issues on first reading. The document includes provisions for preventing dual citizenship.

“In order to prevent dual citizenship, a new provision for loss of citizenship of the Republic of Kazakhstan is introduced - if documents confirming citizenship of another state are used after acquiring Kazakh citizenship. Currently, under existing legislation, loss of Kazakh citizenship is only registered upon acquisition of citizenship of another country,” said Senate member Sovetbek Medebayev.

Procedure for granting Kandas status to be improved

Additionally, as part of the bill, the process for obtaining the Kandas status and citizenship of Kazakhstan will be streamlined. The document includes amendments aimed at enhancing the identification procedure for applicants, specifically in cases where there are no relevant entries in the documents confirming their identity and nationality.

“In particular, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population is entrusted with the competence to develop and approve the rules for determining Kazakh nationality affiliation. The decision on this issue will be made by the local authorities through the establishment of a commission to consider Kazakh nationality affiliation issues. Ethnic Kazakhs with academic degrees will have the opportunity for independent migration between regions for research purposes, without the obligation of return or reimbursement of received state support measures for relocation,” Medebayev added.

Last year, around 27,000 people obtained citizenship of Kazakhstan, of which 20,000 were Kandas people. In total, over one million ethnic Kazakhs have returned to their historical homeland during the years of independence.