Foreigners visiting Kazakhstan can now register in hotels

Foreign visitors arriving to Kazakhstan can now register with the Migration Police in their hotels, Tengrinews reports citing the press office of the Ministry of Interior Affairs of Kazakhstan.

On May 24, Deputy Minister of Interior Affairs of Kazakhstan Yerlan Turgumbayev and representatives of the Migration Police Department of the Ministry met with representatives of the Kazakhstan Association of Hotels and Restaurants (KAHR) led by its President Rashida Shaikenova.

During the meeting, the new system of registration of foreign visitors was presented.  They also discussed simplification of this procedure for tourists staying in hotels.

The Kazakhstan legislation requires that all the foreign nationals entering the country are registered with the Migration Police within 5 days after their arrival. Those arriving in Kazakhstan through the country's 12 international airports, Dostyk (Druzhba) railway border crossing at the Chinese border, or land crossings at Khorgos, Dostyk, Bakhty, Maikapchagai, Kordai and Kolzhat, and via the seaports of Aktau and Bautino get registered automatically. They receive a migration card with two oval entry and registration stamps from the Border Service as proof of their registration.

But those entering through smaller border crossing points and those who for some reason did not receive a registration card immediately upon arriving in Kazakhstan, should register with the Migration Police in the city where they are staying within 5 days, because if their don't, they may have to pay fines upon departure and their your departure may be delayed. This causes some inconvenience both for tourists and for other visitors, especially since they can apply for the registration only during the working hours of the migration police.

After a series of meetings with KAHR, the Ministry has made a decision to enable registration of foreign nationals in the country's hotels via an integrated migration database. So now hotel personnel will be making the registration when checking in the foreign visitors.  

At the initial stage the electronic registration will be available in 320 largest hotels of Kazakhstan. Later on the system will cover the remaining hotels.

Such developments are particularly relevant since Kazakhstan is getting ready to introduce visa-free entry starting from July, 2014 for citizens entering Kazakhstan for a short stay of 15 days or less of some countries that are Kazakhstan's largest investors.

Eventually, this visa regime will be in effect for 34 countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, whose citizens don't need to get a visa when entering Kazakhstan during summer vacation period.

KAHR believes that all these improvements will help Kazakhstan's image, facilitate development of tourism and raise the level of hotel service.

Experts believe introduction of the electronic registration system is a timely step in a run-up to the EXPO-2017.

Writing by Assel Satubaldina, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina