Republic of Kazakhstan: Amendment of the Rules of quantitative control of recruitment of foreign employees

published on October 12, 2018 / reading time approx.: 2 minutes 

Kazakhstan is a developing constitutional state, which actively operates on the global basis. In the age of globalisation, when people are free to choose where to live, study and work, the migration law of the country they want to live and to work in is of great importance. Kazakhstan takes appropriate legislative measures in order to improve the economic and business welfare. In this regard, it should be noted, that the Government of Kazakhstan takes measures to facilitate the access to employment in Kazakhstan for foreigners.

The Decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan of December 15, 2016 (“Decree”) determines the scope of persons, who do not need any work permit. According to item 16 of the Annex to the Decree the first heads of branch offices or of representative offices of foreign legal entities do not need any work permit from the local executive authorities. 
  
On April 17, 2018 the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan adopted amendments to the mentioned Decree concerning persons, who do not need any work permit in Kazakhstan. In particular, according to these amendments, the foreigners do not need to obtain a work permit, if they are appointed as heads of the Kasakhstani legal entities or their deputies and if 100 per cent of the entity’s share capital belong to a foreign company.

Therefore, the foreign citizens employed as directors or deputies in Kazakhstani companies with 100 per cent share capital belonging to a foreign company must obtain only a category C3 working visa for foreign employees. On the grounds of the working visa the foreign employee is entitled to come and stay in Kazakhstan. Family members accompanying the foreign employee must also obtain a working visa, but they are not allowed to work in Kazakhstan.

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Despite the termination of the requirement to obtain a work permit for the mentioned category of foreign employees, the non-compliance with the visa requirements and migration legislation is subject to administrative sanctions to be imposed on the foreign employee as well as on the inviting company in Kazakhstan. In this regard we recommend entrusting the visa proceeding to consultants with appropriate experience.
 
Foreign citizens are generally appointed as heads of legal entities in Kazakhstan completely owned by a foreign company. This follows the intention of the foreign company to have an executive with the required know-how or with a working experience in the Group and certain corporative skills. In this way the company ensures a certain reliability of the executive officer candidate. In most cases, foreign citizens are employed as directors for the period of establishment of the company, i.e. entrance to the market in Kazakhstan, on the first stage of business development. As far as the operative activities develop and the special aspects of the local market and business environment are studied, foreign directors are replaced with Kasakhstani successors.

We suppose such amendments in the legislation have generally positive effect on the development of the labour market, where the competitive ability and the possibility of professional exchange are very important. Furthermore, the local employees get the experience of cooperation with foreign colleagues in managing positions, learn another approach to the management and thus develop the skills improving their competitive ability in the labour market.