TOUR OPERATORS SHOWED STEP-BY-STEP E-VISA ISSUANCE ALGORITHM
The Republic of Kazakhstan introduced a procedure for obtaining a single entry visa for foreigners in electronic format from January 1, 2019. The tourist electronic visas are issued to citizens of 117 states.
It takes about five working days to issue an invitation for a visa, and as a result, a foreign citizen obtains an e-visa. The introduction of e-visa is an initiative within the framework of the Digital Kazakhstan program.
According to the Deputy Minister of Culture and Sports of Kazakhstan Erlan Kozhagapanov, thanks to the efforts of the Government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the National Security Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the NCE “Atameken”, the year for the tourism industry has started with good news.
“This step will allow us to significantly simplify the process of obtaining a visa. We have joined the list of countries that have implemented e-visa, including our neighbors Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan,” he said.
The citizens of 117 states can apply for an e-visa for tourism purposes and citizens of 23 states can apply for business and medical treatment visas.
It is worth noting that the visa is a single entry visa for foreigners and is issued based on a valid invitation from the Kazakh side.
“Foreigners can enter or exit the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan using a valid electronic visa only through the checkpoints of international airports of Astana and Almaty” the director of the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Tauboldy Umbetbaev said.
According to Umbetbaev, the electronic visa is valid only for the recipient of the visa and does not apply to accompanying persons.
The head of the association of legal entities "National Association of the Tourism Industry" Aya Nurdauletkyzy emphasized that, for example, in the UAE, tourists do not fill out a visa application form on their own.
“We tried to log in as individuals, LLP, but filling out a visa application form is not available for us,” said Aya Nurdauletkyzy.
It is important that only a foreigner with a valid invitation from Kazakhstan can apply for an e-visa. To obtain a visa, you must perform a few simple steps:
- in order to obtain an electronic visa, you should register on the website of the Visa and Migration Portal (www.vmp.kz);
- after registration, learn about the requirements for obtaining an electronic visa;
- enter the invitation number (sent by the inviting side in the Republic of Kazakhstan) and fill in the visa application form;
- pay the consular fee;
- print an electronic visa (the visa is formed in the personal cabinet as well as sent to the email address you provided when filling in the registration form);
- present a printed electronic visa when passing through passport control at international airports in Astana and Almaty.
The employees of the National Security Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan emphasized, that the pilot program started on January 1, it is planned to expand this project to all international airports of Kazakhstan and include the car posts’ checkpoints. It should be noted that e-visa is not available for group tours yet.
In addition, the tour operators discussed about the urgent issues for the tourism industry.
One of the issues is the reduction of the time period of the temporary corridor (from three months to one), in which a tourist who has received a visa can enter Kazakhstan. Representatives of the National Security Committee explained that this measure is aimed at preventing the illegal stay of tourists in Kazakhstan. During the discussion, the tourist companies proposed to approach this issue differentially: to remain unchanged this period for tourists from high-risk states but increase the time range to six months for tourists from non-risk countries.
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