Short validity Israeli passport denied entry to Kazakhstan

[gorgich]

I know this is a rather peculiar and probably rare situation but I figured it’s still worth adding to the massive knowledge database that this forum is.

My wife was denied entry to Kazakhstan at the airport in Atyrau on her Israeli passport because it had a short validity term. I’m not talking about it expiring soon, it was valid for over 10 months at the time, the thing is the total validity term of the passport was just one year.

Israel issues one-year passports at least in two cases. It’s gonna have this validity if you apply for an urgent one right before your flight. It’s also gonna have this validity if you’re a recent Jewish immigrant to Israel under the Law of Return and it’s your first Israeli passport. According to Israel, they’re perfectly normal passports valid for all intents, purposes and countries despite the short validity term.

The Kazakhstani border guard my wife talked to didn’t believe it was a true passport and kept calling it a “one-way travel document” or something like that based solely on its validity term. He absolutely refused to stamp it and let her in. Thankfully, wife had a 10-year passport from a different country with her and that one was accepted, so she did finally enter Kazakhstan. I don’t know what would’ve happened if she only had the Israeli one. Like I said, it’s probably a rare situation to find yourself in, but still worth watching out for.