Tengrinews.kz — Kazakhstan hopes to resolve the visa issue with the United Kingdom through a new strategic partnership agreement. Today, the document was ratified by deputies of the Senate.
The agreement in question is the Strategic Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The document was approved by Mazhilis deputies in March, and today it was endorsed by the Senate.
As Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Isetov stated, after the ratification of the document, the first step may be visa facilitation for students, teachers, official delegations, and businesses. According to the official, although the United Kingdom has recently been tightening its migration policy, the Kazakh side continues to raise this issue during bilateral negotiations.
He noted that ratification of the agreement provides an additional basis for discussing visa simplification and advancing dialogue. In 2025, the British government issued an official statement on reducing migration, and from April 8, 2026, visa fees in the country increased.
“We see this process as step-by-step. First of all, easing the visa regime for students, academic staff, official delegations, and business. Work in this direction is underway, and it is being carried out through negotiations and consultations with British colleagues, through the relevant agencies, as well as at the level of the foreign ministries and ambassadors,” Isetov said.
The agreement between Kazakhstan and the United Kingdom was signed on April 24, 2024, in Astana. Parliament had previously noted that the document should create a systematic foundation for further development of cooperation in the political, economic, legal, humanitarian, and environmental spheres, as well as open up additional opportunities for investment and joint projects.
In the Mazhilis, the need for a new agreement was explained in part by the fact that, after the United Kingdom left the European Union, relations between the two countries could no longer be regulated under the previous framework of Kazakhstan’s cooperation with the EU.
