How Kazakhstan has changed the rules for foreign investors?
NC KAZAKH INVEST JSC held a webinar on visa regime and migration legislation for foreign investors planning to invest in Kazakhstan. The online event, organized jointly with PWC Kazakhstan, was attended by about 50 representatives of large foreign companies.
The representative of KAZAKH INVEST Service Support Department Almas Khamza stressed that the investors' issues are mainly related to getting an investor visa, business visa, work visa, as well as business immigrant visa. Also, issues relate to getting a labor permit, residence permit, getting quotas as part of an investment contract for priority projects, etc.
“Since the middle of this year, the procedure has been streamlined and the conditions for getting an A5 category investor visa have been improved. They also have introduced the submission of an application for documents to get an application for an investor visa in electronic form via egov.kz portal. The term for consideration and issuing an application via the portal is 5 working days. Currently, a multiple investor visa is issued for up to 5 years, and its holders are free from the need to get a work permit.
The changes also affected the C5 business immigrant visa. Now the visa is issued on the basis of a letter of invitation from the host. The term for consideration and approval of the invitation letter in the migration service is 5 working days. The term for processing and issuing a visa in a foreign institution is on average 5 working days from the date of application,” said Almas Khamza.
At the same time, the head of the foreign representative office of KAZAKH INVEST in the People's Republic of China Kuanysh Amantai presented the investment opportunities of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
“A soft infrastructure has been created in Kazakhstan to implement investment projects. There is a system of state support for investments, and a set of preferences can be obtained when implementing a project on the territory of the FEZ. To solve the disputes, a judicial regime has been created, operating on the basis of the English law, problematic issues are also submitted to the Investment Ombudsman, who is the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan,” said Kuanysh Amantai.
An interactive Q&A session also took place as part of the event. At the session, investors asked relevant questions and received comprehensive answers to them.
It should be noted that since the beginning of the year, NC KAZAKH INVEST JSC provided investors with more than 130 consultations on visa and migration issues. Additionally, 112 requests from foreigners were processed, of which 98% were addressed in favor of investors. Also 7 problematic issues were addressed.