Changes to Kazakh immigration law in 2026

In short:

In short: foreign nationals arriving for permanent residence must now sit the KAZTEST assessment (listening and reading) at level A1 or above and attend an interview.

What has changed

Kazakhstan’s immigration rules have changed substantially. Foreign nationals arriving in the Republic of Kazakhstan for permanent residence will now need to sit a Kazakh language test and attend an interview.

On 13 February 2026 a joint order came into force, issued by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development, the Minister of Labour and Social Protection, and the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan:

“On approving the Rules for testing, questionnaires and interviews of immigrants arriving for permanent residence in the Republic of Kazakhstan”.

The test itself (KAZTEST)

Under paragraph 4 of chapter 2 of those Rules, the KAZTEST assessment of Kazakh language proficiency for immigrants arriving for permanent residence — including those applying for kandas status — is conducted through the digital KAZTEST system online, in accordance with the Rules of the KAZTEST system for assessing Kazakh language proficiency.

1 h 10 min Duration

60 Questions in total

30-40% Pass mark (A1)

3 days Time to results

Sections of the test

The Kazakh language assessment is conducted online. It consists of the following sections, comprising 60 questions each with a single correct answer:

Listening

20 questions (20 minutes).

Reading

40 questions (50 minutes).

Registration and results

Applications for the KAZTEST assessment are accepted through app.testcenter.kz, the online resource of the National Testing Centre, a republican state enterprise under the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Paragraph 6 of chapter 2 of the Rules provides that results are issued within three business days of the test date and the completion of proctoring checks.

To obtain the online diagnostic certificate at a given level, a candidate must reach the percentage threshold in each section, within a range of 30% to 100% correct answers. For the certificate confirming Kazakh at level A1 (elementary), a candidate must score between 30% and 40% correct answers in each section.

What may change next

It is worth noting that the list of documents for the public service “Issuing permanent residence permits to foreign nationals and stateless persons in the Republic of Kazakhstan”, set out in Appendix 3 to the Rules on issuing temporary and permanent residence permits approved by Order No. 992 of the Minister of Internal Affairs of 4 December 2015, has not yet been updated to reflect the new requirements.

Order No. 992 of 4 December 2015 is likely to be amended in due course.

We will keep tracking changes to immigration law and publish them as they come.