As if life isn’t getting annoying enough with the Coronavirus, countries have now started changing their visa rules. Kazakhstan has announced today that the visa-free regime that so many of us enjoyed in the last few years has now been cancelled. This means that everyone, with the exception of a few of their closest friends and neighbours, will need to get a visa in advance to travel to Kazakhstan.
The previous rule allowed passport holders of the following countries 30 days visa-free access to Kazakhstan (not that I don’t know my alphabet, this is as they appear on the press release from Kazakhstan, in alphabetical order in Russian):
Australia
USA
Austria
Bahrain
Belgium
U.A.E
Vatican City
Vietnam
Germany
Greece
Denmark
New Zealand
Japan
Spain
Ireland
Iceland
Israel
Indonesia
Italy
Canada
Qatar
Cyprus
Columbia
Republic of Korea
Kuwait
Latvia
Lithuania
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Hungary
Malaysia
Malta
Mexico
Monaco
Netherlands
Norway
Oman
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Thailand
Turkey
UK
Philippines
Finland
France
Croatia
Czech Republic (Czechia)
Chile
Switzerland
Sweden
Estonia
Passport holders of these countries will now need to get a visa to travel to Kazakhstan. There is some good news, though – the cancellation of the visa-free regime is currently in place until the 1st of November. At this point, it will be reviewed, and it will then be decided whether we will once again be able to access Kazakhstan without a visa or will once again still need a visa.
We’re in no doubt that the tourism industry will need all the help it can get after this, and they will hopefully do whatever it takes to increase numbers and promote an industry they had previously worked so hard to build.
If you want/need to travel to Kazakhstan between now and November, it does mean you’ll need an LOI and then to go to an embassy/consulate and pick up a visa there.
There are some lucky people though who still don’t require a visa due to bilateral agreements rather than the above visa-free programme, which was unilateral. They are the following:
90 days:
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Georgia
Kyrgyzstan
Moldova
Mongolia
Russia
Ukraine
30 Days:
Argentina
Brazil
Ecuador
Serbia
Tajikistan
Uzbekistan
14 Days:
Hong Kong
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