Kazakhstan registration Q&A

[steven]

All your questions and reports about registration in Kazakhstan are welcome below.

We summarize all the info at Registration in Kazakhstan.

[h.vanderkolff]

According to the Caravanistan website, all people that enter Kazakhstan over land need to make sure to get 2 stamps on their Immigration card. I am Dutch and should be able to stay visa free for 15 days, but registration is supposed to be necessary.

Unfortunately, I got only 1 stamp at the border crossing from Bishkek, so I went to the OVIR Almaty to get the 2nd (which I understood is required) stamp.
There the policemen denied to give another stamp stating that no registration is required anymore for visa free travelers.

A little bit worried that the border guards might not be satisfied with hearing that OVIR didn't give me a stamp I insisted on getting the stamp nonetheless (just in case). However 3 different policemen all denied with a similar explanation.

At last someone showed me that apparently it is a new law in Kazakhstan since April 2016 that visa free travelers don't need a registration. The law is displayed at http://online.zakon.kz/m/Document/?doc_id=34899851
However I am not understand the Russian written there.

Is there anyone who can read the law and confirm that registration isn't required anymore? Or does someone else have had a similar experience?

Would be great to hear before moving on from Almaty. Thanks om advance!

[Crazydre]

No registration needed for visa-free travellers, that is correct. In fact they're not even supposed to have their passports stamped (even though they generally do in practice), only a migration Card with a single stamp

[steven]

Will correct that asap

[Sparky]

After reading this forum topic we went today to the OVIR office in Astana, and they also told us that we don't need to register our visa. (we are one Dutch and one Ukrainian, for us both registration is not needed, but they told us it depends on nationality).

[kmez]

Hi.I am traveling to Kazakhstan this month.
I am going by airplane to Almaty.
I am from Serbia and we are (visa free 30 days )
I just want to know is this correct?
If I got a migration card at the airport,I don't need to go to OVIR ?
I sent message to my embassy and they told me that I NEED to do OVIR.
I don't know what to do now. Just want to check here are those informations ,what you wrote before correct ?

[steven]

You will get 2 stamps at the airport on your immigration card. You do not need to go to OVIR.

[happyfrogtravels]

Hi guys,

I've been following your website for quite some time, travelling to the Silk Road countries was one of my dreams.
Last summer I travelled around Russia and decided to make a short stop in Kazakhstan (the first week of september). I spent 8 days there and checked this forum in order to find out if the registration is still needed for countries that don't need visa. Well, it turned out IT WAS. We are a Serbian-Argentinean couple and we both don't need visa for Kazakhstan as tourists. At the airport we only got one stamp. Our drama was so unpleasant that we promised ourselves we won't be coming back to Kazakhstan for a while.

The story is a bit long so I advise you to check it on our website. Basically somebody blocked our registration, and they wanted money. We don't know if it was our hotel, the police service, the translation office, the whole government........ But the regsitration was obligatory, they threatened we wouldn't be allowed to leave.

Please don't ever share unconfirmed information cause some people might actualy get into a serious trouble.
http://happyfrogtravels.com/corruption- ... ws-astana/

PS I have travelled to more than 50 countries and nothing like this ever happened to me...
PSS I am refering to Caravanistan when I talk about the 'major Central Asian website'.
Warm greetings from Barcelona,
Milos

[steven]

Hi Happyfrog,

our article clearly states:

Two stamps on the card indicate that the traveler is registered. If the card contains only one stamp, the traveler must register with the Migration Police (OVIR) within 5 days

http://caravanistan.com/visa/kazakhstan ... tion-ovir/

I spend a lot of time writing my website. It always saddens me when people don't bother to read it.

[bwv812]

Well, to be honest, that page gives the impression that those on the visa-free regime don't need to register, full stop:

If you are traveling on the visa-free regime, you do not need to register anymore since April 2016!

If I was from a visa-free country I might stop reading there, or interpret the following paragraph about stamps as applying to those from countries that do need to register (which is only clarified in the paragraph following that one). Maybe change the wording from "do not need to register" to "should not have to register"?