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.
