Work permit

In order to obtain an FLP permit, a company needs to follow some complicated steps:

• Calculation, completion and submission of a quota for the attraction of FLP if the company is a medium or large business entity and is not a branch or representative office; the quota is submitted once a year at a certain date for the next year. In case of an unforeseen need to obtain an FLP permit and there is no timely submitted quota, the information should be submitted 15 calendar days prior to the submission of the application for FLP attraction;
• Correct completion of all necessary documents, applications and certificates for the subsequent electronic submission of an application for a work permit;
• Calculation and payment of the governmental fee depending on the category of the worker involved.

In case of successful application, a permit to hire foreign labor is issued. In practice, the period of obtaining a permit to attract foreign labor force is up to 2 months. When the FLP is successfully obtained, you may proceed to obtain a work visa.

After obtaining a foreign labor permit, the future employer of a foreign worker must comply with a number of conditions that allow to carry out the attraction of foreign force, for example, improving the qualifications of citizens of Kazakhstan, creating additional jobs, vocational training and retraining in technical specialties.

The legislation establishes a wide list of foreigners who are not required to obtain the above-mentioned permits. This list includes, among others, the following persons:

• Citizens of countries party to the EAEU Treaty;
• First heads of branches or representative offices of foreign legal entities, as well as first heads of Kazakhstani LLPs and their deputies with 100% foreign participation in their authorized capital;
• The first heads of organizations that have concluded agreements with the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the amount of investments exceeding 50 million US dollars, and the first heads of legal entities of the Republic of Kazakhstan that carry out investment activities in priority types of activity.